Jean-Yves Leloup is a French theologian, writer, translator of Greek and Coptic language texts, born in 1950 in Angers. He is the author of over ninety books in French, some translated into other languages, including English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.The primary subject of his writings is Christian spirituality.
He has translated and commented on the apocryphal gospels from the Nag Hammadi library according to Thomas, Philip and Mary (Mary Magdalene), as well as the Gospel according to John and the Apocalypse. He also explores the meditative and monastic traditions of the Orthodox Church (Hesychasm) and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, especially the Desert Fathers, in particular Evagrius Ponticus. He investigates the role of the Feminine in the history of Christianity and considers the dialogue with other spiritual traditions.
Jean-Yves Leloup was born in 1950 in Angers. [1] Theologian, novelist and essayist, initiated into Buddhism, trained at Mount Athos, became a Dominican priest, then became Orthodox. A pioneer of transpersonal psychology and founder of the Institute for the Encounter and Study of Civilizations (ecumenism) and of the International College of Therapists (special help for the dyings), [2] he shares some "fragments of his itinerance" in his 1991 autobiography L'Absurde et la Grâce. [3]
Converted at the age of 20, he discovered Christianity at Mount Athos through Orthodoxy, before entering the Dominican Order. He was trained in theology and ordained a priest at the Dominican convent in Toulouse in June 1978. He further studied psychology in a New York university (Syracuse), spent some time in California and attended Karlfried Graf Dürckheim’s center for initiatory psychotherapy in Germany. [4]
From 1981 onward, he was responsible, with other religious and seculars, for the International Center, "university of the third millennium", dedicated to the spiritual and the inter-cultural, opened to the welcoming of oriental spiritual traditions at the former Dominican hostelry of the Sainte-Baume. This represented a challenge for the Catholic Church, while at the same time, Interfaith dialogue was encouraged by the Council and was soon to be given an expression, by Pope John Paul II in Assisi at the first World Day of Prayer for Peace. [4] Meanwhile, the Dominicans were driven by another project ; That of a return to the roots and a re-capture of the local population. [4] [5] "The Christian qualification of the Center was therefore challenged by the provincial of the Dominican order and the bishop of Toulon, Monseigneur Madec". [4]
Jean-Yves Leloup left the Dominican order in 1986. [1] Historian Olivier Chatelan indicates that the fact that he was married and had a child, was brought to the attention of the Dominican authorities, he therefore "should no longer be considered a Dominican". He had to give up the functions he held at the International Center of the Sainte-Baume, while "sympathizers came to his cause". [5]
Having been previously baptized Orthodox in the Monastic Republic of Mount Athos, he joined the French Orthodox Church of the Communion of Western Orthodox Churches ; Where he is known under his religious name of Father Jean Seraphim in the church of Saint-Michel (Var). [6]
Hesychasm is a mystical tradition of contemplative prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Based on Jesus's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew that "whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you", hesychasm in tradition has been the process of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an experiential knowledge of God.
Mary Magdalene, sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine, was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other than Jesus's family. Mary's epithet Magdalene may mean that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Roman Judea.
Mary of Bethany is a biblical figure mentioned only by name in the Gospel of John in the Christian New Testament. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Martha, she is described by John as living in the village of Bethany, a small village in Judaea to the south of the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem.
Thomas the Apostle, also called Didymus ("twin"), was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Thomas is commonly known as "Doubting Thomas" because he initially doubted the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he was told of it ; he later confessed his faith on seeing the wounds left over from the crucifixion.
Simon the Zealot or Simon the Canaanite or Simon the Canaanean was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus. A few pseudepigraphical writings were connected to him, but Saint Jerome does not include him in De viris illustribus written between 392 and 393 AD.
Joses is a name, usually regarded as a form of Joseph, occurring many times in the New Testament:
Yves Marie-Joseph Congar was a French Dominican friar, priest, and theologian. He is perhaps best known for his influence at the Second Vatican Council and for reviving theological interest in the Holy Spirit for the life of individuals and of the church. He was created a cardinal of the Catholic Church in 1994.
In the New Testament, Salome was a follower of Jesus who appears briefly in the canonical gospels and in apocryphal writings. She is named by Mark as present at the crucifixion and as one of the women who found Jesus's tomb empty. Interpretation has further identified her with other women who are mentioned but not named in the canonical gospels. In particular, she is often identified as the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and John, two of the Twelve apostles. In medieval tradition Salome was counted as one of the Three Marys who were daughters of Saint Anne, so making her the sister or half-sister of Mary, mother of Jesus.
Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Jude of James, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus. He is sometimes identified with Jude, the brother of Jesus, but is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus prior to his crucifixion. Catholic writer Michal Hunt suggests that Judas Thaddaeus became known as Jude after early translators of the New Testament from Greek into English sought to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot and subsequently abbreviated his forename. Most versions of the New Testament in languages other than English and French refer to Judas and Jude by the same name.
The Gospel of Philip is a non-canonical Gnostic Gospel dated to around the 3rd century but lost in medieval times until rediscovered by accident, buried with other texts near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, in 1945.
The Gospel of Mary is a non-canonical text discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex written in Sahidic Coptic. This Berlin Codex was purchased in Cairo by German diplomat Carl Reinhardt.
Clopas is a figure of early Christianity. The name appears in the New Testament, specifically in John 19:25:
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
According to the Gospel of John, Mary of Clopas was one of the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus and bringing supplies for his funeral. The expression Mary of Clopas in the Greek text is ambiguous as to whether Mary was the daughter or wife of Clopas, but exegesis has commonly favoured the reading "wife of Clopas". Hegesippus identified Clopas as a brother of Saint Joseph. In the Roman Martyrology she is remembered with Saint Salome on April 24.
Joseph and Aseneth is a narrative that dates from between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The first part of the story, an expansion of Genesis 41:45, describes the diffident relationship between Aseneth, the daughter of an Egyptian priest of Heliopolis and the Hebrew patriarch Joseph, the vision of Aseneth in which she is fed honeycomb by a heavenly being, her subsequent conversion to the God of Joseph, followed by romance, marriage, and the birth of Manasseh and Ephraim. The second part involves a plot by the Pharaoh's son, who recruits Dan and Gad to kill Joseph, only to be thwarted by Benjamin and Levi.
Esoteric Christianity is an approach to Christianity which features "secret traditions" that require an initiation to learn or understand. The term esoteric was coined in the 17th century and derives from the Greek ἐσωτερικός.
The Da Vinci Code, a popular suspense novel by Dan Brown, generated criticism and controversy after its publication in 2003. Many of the complaints centered on the book's speculations and misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity and the history of the Catholic Church. Additional criticisms were directed toward the book's inaccurate descriptions of European art, history, architecture, and geography.
The Three Marys are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, several of whom were, or have been considered by Christian tradition, to have been named Mary.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christianity:
The name Mary appears 54 times in the New Testament, in 49 verses. It was the single most popular female name among Palestinian Jews of the time, borne by about one in four women, and most of the New Testament references to Mary provide only the barest identifying information. Scholars and traditions therefore differ as to how many distinct women these references represent and which of them refer to the same person.