stephen headley
Headley earned a B.A. degree in Oriental Studies (Chinese and Sanskrit) from Columbia College, Columbia University in 1956 where he studied under Anton Zigmund-Cerbu. He obtained an M.A. degree in Buddhist Studies from Columbia University in 1969 and continued his studies in Paris with a diploma in Sanskrit philology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (1972) and a doctorate in social anthropology under Georges Condominas at the Sorbonne in 1979. He also studied theology at Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York, 1966–1969) and at the St Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris (1969–1973).
He worked at the French National Center for Scientific Research between 1981-2008:[1] between 1998 and 2008 he was working with a research team founded by the anthropologist Louis Dumont.
Between 1973 and 2005 Headley did extensive fieldwork in central Java
Between 2006- 2010 he taught in Moscow and undertook field work on parish life.
He worked at the French National Center for Scientific Research between 1981-2008:[1] between 1998 and 2008 he was working with a research team founded by the anthropologist Louis Dumont.
Between 1973 and 2005 Headley did extensive fieldwork in central Java
Between 2006- 2010 he taught in Moscow and undertook field work on parish life.
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This introduction to their lives is the fruit of five years of teaching ascetical theology at the Séminaire Orthodoxe Russe near Paris (Epinay-sous-Sénart) opened in 2010 by the Moscow Patriarchate. If there is no original research, I hope I have scrupulously incorporated the standard studies of these figures which are found in the footnotes. My interpretations and understanding are my own and should not be attributed to my sources and their translators.
The purpose of these courses was to broaden and deepen the understanding of the Orthodox faith before these seminarians were given pastoral responsibilities. However experience has shown that any Christian or even non-Christian finds these ascetics awe-inspiring and worth reading closely. Hopefully this short book will encourage such perusal.
Other approaches to Christian asceticism exist, often studying the leverage of power afforded to the Byzantine empire as it encouraged this discourse. This is a much broader definition of asceticism than the one used here for by studying the literary expression of asceticism along with the discourse of the “ascetic state” one can study the decline and renaissance of humanism both Hellenic and Latin. The main category left out by Avril Cameron, Peter Brown, Robert Markus, etc. when they write in this vein is the quest to experience the light of Christ, His mercy in one’s heart. Thus Nicolas Berdyaev (1873-1948) defined asceticism as “a concentration of inner forces and command of oneself” on which our human dignity reposes, and Father Paul Florensky (1882-1943) said, “Asceticism produces not a good but a beautiful personality.” Asceticism can reveal the beauty of human being by removing fear from our souls wrote Father Raimundo Pannikar. Next, everything depends on one’s determination to remain on the ascetic path, even if it is clear that there are only a few great ascetics who were able to struggle all the way through the desert, that does not change the value of all the others who had seen that the path was an entry into freedom, a gradual transfiguration whereby in killing the flesh one acquired a body, one made of one’s body a “living sacrifice” (Rom 12.1), one purified of the passions such that one could see on the altar of one’s heart in the light of His truth the great God of our Fathers.