**9. Degrees of** *Apatheia*

Progression along the pathway of the virtues leads to higher and higher degrees of *apatheia* or dispassion. Saint Symeon even suggests that there are different degrees here (Symeon the New Theologian 1996, Fourth Ethical Discourse, p. 15). He speaks of the *apatheia* required to forgive completely those who have wounded us and "to embrace them dispassionately as true friends without the least trace of dislike making its nest in the soul" (ibid.). An even higher level of dispassion is displayed by the person who maintains this level of spiritual composure in the midst of temptation when he or she is being insulted and hurt by other people. Symeon pushes the point further, however, in suggesting that there is a yet higher level of *apatheia*:

I am also of the opinion that there is a stage yet incomparably higher than the last: to have arrived at complete forgetfulness of whatever it is one may have suffered and never to recall it, whether those who have done the injury are present or not, and, in addition, to behave toward these people, whether in conversation or at table, as toward friends, without having any second thoughts. These are the works of men who walk in the light. (pp. 15–16)

What is striking about the highest degree of dispassion described by Symeon is that it is clearly beyond the normal capability of even the least self-centred person. This type of *apatheia* is not a learned skill and cannot be achieved through the simple imitation of Christ's behaviour as described in the Gospels. *Apatheia* is not merely the highest possible level of consciousness that can be achieved by an ascetic; it is nothing less than the fullness of Christ's life made real in a human person.

#### **10. Asceticism as a Means, Not an End**

Saint Symeon understands asceticism to be an indispensable part of the life of a Christian. At the same time, he is equally aware that it is a means, or better yet, a path to the true objective of the Christian life, which is both the immersion in the Holy Spirit and a direct encounter with Christ. Symeon's writings are equally Pneumatocentric and Christocentric. A high degree of *apatheia* characterizes the advanced stages of the ascetic life. *Apatheia* on its own, however, is not properly speaking the objective of asceticism; rather, it is a way for us to describe the existential state of a person who has reached full communion with Christ, or *theosis.* Symeon describes this in another way by using the expression "wholly with God" (p. 32). While *theosis* is a term that would not be embraced by all Evangelical theologians, "wholly with God" is a state that all Evangelicals could accept wholeheartedly.

In the Fourth Ethical Discourse, Saint Symeon insists that the profound transparency to Christ that typifies the highest level of *apatheia* is possible in this life. He is able to make this claim because he experienced it in his own life (p. 41). It is his own experience, which is either articulated explicitly in his work or is implicit in many of his teachings, that makes what he has to say about the ascetic life so credible and so attractive. Symeon becomes the guide who can initiate the Christian into the spiritual life, the theologian who can give the spiritual life its deepest meaning, and the master who can lead his disciple to the spiritual heights.
