This book explores the remarkable spiritual and theological legacy of the fourth-century Macarian writings. The anonymous author of the writings (commonly referred to as Macarius-Symeon, Pseudo-Macarius, or simply Macarius) had a decisive influence on the shaping and development of the Christian ascetic and mystical tradition. The book offers the first attempt at a broad-based analysis of the character of that influence, standing not only as an exploration of the writings themselves but also of the nature of the Christian tradition itself. Part I (‘The Background’) offers an introduction to the Macarian writings, sketching their nature and character, examining their historical and theological context, and re-evaluating the complex question of the relationship between Macarius and the Messalian tendency. Part II (‘The Legacy’) discusses in detail the nature of his theological and spiritual legacy in the later Christian tradition, focussing on the work of Mark the Monk, Diadochus of Photice, Abba Isaiah, and Maximus the Confessor. Mark and Diadochus, both anti-Messalian writers, are shown to be substantially indebted – something that further underlines the untenability of the facile, but nonetheless once fashionable, identification of Macarius-Symeon as a Messalian. The Macarian influence on the Asceticonof Abba Isaiah is palpable, if not profound, while in the great Byzantine synthesis of Maximus that influence is both substantial and thoroughgoing. In this way the book traces the journey of the Macarian writings from the border zone between orthodoxy and heresy, between Greek and Syriac thought-worlds, into the mainstream Christian tradition.

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Plested focuses on the doctrine of divine simplicity according to Gregory Palamas (1296‐1357/9). He is well aware of the long tradition in the West of considering Palamas's distinction between the divine essence and the energies to do harm to the reality of divine simplicity—even if many recent books on divine simplicity ignore Palamas. Plested thinks that this is in part due to the selectivity of Western readings of Palamas's corpus. Although for Palamas the divine essence is truly (not merely conceptually) distinct from what Plested terms the divine “actualizations,” Palamas insists repeatedly that his point does not undermine absolute divine simplicity. In fact, as Plested shows, Palamas considers that the real distinction between essence and energies not only supports, but indeed flows from, the doctrine of divine simplicity properly understood. Plested admits that recent Orthodox interpreters of Palamas, such as John Meyendorff and Vladimir Lossky, tend to give little attention to divine simplicity except by way of contrast with Western accounts of the doctrine. But Plested argues that Palamas's doctrine of divine simplicity is better interpreted as in accord with the fundamental intuitions of his Latin contemporaries, even if expressed in a different metaphysical framework. Examining certain lesser‐known works of Palamas, Plested identifies a set of important interpretative keys for understanding Palamas's account of divine simplicity, including the normative role of the principles of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680‐1) and the necessity of appreciating the historical contexts in which he wrote specific works.