The Hesychast Controversy: Gregory Palamas and Barlaam

Hesychasm (from hesychia, "stillness" or "quiet") names a tradition of contemplative monastic prayer practiced above all in the monasteries of Mount Athos, involving repetitive recitation of the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") often coordinated with controlled breathing and bodily posture, and pursued with the professed aim of attaining direct experiential vision of the uncreated "Light of Tabor," identified with the light that shone from Christ at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–8). This practice, with roots traceable to earlier Byzantine monastic authors such as Evagrius Ponticus (4th century) and, more directly, to the Ladder of Divine Ascent of John Climacus (7th century) and the writings of Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), reached its most developed and philosophically contested articulation in the 14th century.