J.A. McGuckin. The Prayer of the Heart in Patristic and Early Byzantine Tradition. pp. 69-108, in – Prayer & Spirituality in the Early Church. vol. 2. edd. P Allen, W Mayer, & L Cross. Queensland. 1999. Australian Catholic University. Centre for Early Christian Studies). 1 The Prayer of the Heart in Patristic & Early Byzantine Tradition J.A. McGuckin ‘Guard your heart with all care, for it is the spring of your life. ’ [LXX. Prov. 4.23.] 1. Biblical Archetypes. 1a. Introduction The concept of a doctrine of prayer tells much about the theology of the person articulating it. It is the purest Christian expression of theology and, historically speaking, one of the rare examples of a non-controversial theology. Almost all of the patristic dogmatic formulations from antiquity were, after all, beaten out in the heat of strong confrontations and show the signs of innumerable scorch marks. Liturgical theology, and the Early Church’s doctrine of prayer are almost unique in not having much of a generating context of controversy propelling them into print. But in so far as the doctrine of prayer tells much about theology it also speaks volumes about the active concept of the human being which it cannot fail to lay bare as it unfolds itself. Theologically speaking this is an irresistible aspect of the extrapolation of the concept of prayer : it lays out the topography of the soul. For such reasons we see Christian anthropology being advanced immeasurably in the deep attention given to the doctrine and praxis of prayer. Christology and the early church’s theology of prayer are , in fact, the twin loci where the concept of the individual person’s hypostatic reality - what we today take for granted as the fundamental concept of individual psychological consciousness - were worked out in Antiquity, laboriously, under the eye of God. It is instructive, if this strikes one as a highly remarkable thing , to consider that Greek Christian thought did not have a clear semantic of personhood until the late 4th and early 5th centuries 1 . Anthropological presuppositions are so central to the architecture of the church’s approach to prayer that as we begin to consider the notion of the ‘prayer of the heart’ which was so profoundly influential in early patristic, high Byzantine, and modern Orthodox spiritual praxis, we can make no clearer start than to consider the pre-eminent place the heart is given in the biblical literature. Early Christian schools of prayer, however much a platonic form of anthropology may have influenced them ( and Evagrios 2 may be taken as a supreme example of such an intellectualist influence that led him to posit the term Nous as the supreme significant of the spiritual intelligence ) never abandoned their profound allegiance to biblical forms, and it was those biblical forms that renewed and constantly invigorated Christian philosophy and theology as the sacred texts, especially the Psalms, were repeated countless times in the rituals and prayer services of the ancient Church, 1 cf. J.A. McGuckin. St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy. Brill. Leiden. 1994. pp. 138-216 passim; M. Richard. ‘ L’ introduction du mot ‘hypostase’ dans la théologie de l’incarnation.’ Mélanges de Science Religieuse. 2. 1945. pp. 5-32, 243-270 ; M. Nédoncelle. ‘Prosopon et persona dans l’Antiquité classique’. Revue de Sciences Religieuses. 22. 1948. pp. 277-299. 2 Evagrius of Pontus. 345-399. cf. M Villier. ‘Evagre’ in : Dictionnaire de Spiritualité. vol. 2. Paris. 1953. cols.1775-85. Texts in E.T. in : JE Bamberger. Evagrius Ponticus : Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer. Cistercian Studies Series. no. 4. Kalamazoo. 1972. 1989. ( The Ad Monachos, and the Treatise on Prayer.) ; also G. Palmer, P. Sherrard & K. Ware. (edd). The Philokalia. vol. 1. London . 1979. pp. 29-71.(On Asceticism; On Discrimination ; & Chapters on Prayer.)