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Accepted Paper:
Asceticism as a source of alternative epistemology in Eastern Christianity
Alina Bakunina
Paper short abstract:
The purpose of the paper is to discuss certain ascetic practices in the Orthodox Christian tradition that give rise to alternative ontological states and epistemic structures.
Paper long abstract:
The purpose of the paper is to discuss central to Orthodox Christianity ascetic practices, e.g. hesychasm, that are oriented towards ontological transformation of man. Parallel to the process of ontological transformation is the restructuring of the epistemic structures of the practitioner. With reference to Orthodox Christianity, I will argue that ascetic practice if not deconstructs then certainly undermines the practitioner's habitual cognitive schemas, causing epistemic dissonance. On the one hand, such epistemic dissonance may serve as a source of anxiety and disquiet about the 'hidden' or 'revealed' dimensions of reality, and on the other - as a basis of re-enchantment with the world, injecting modern existentialism with a life-affirming worldview.