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VYSENS'KYJ'S IDEA OF REFORM 39exemplary Christian way and only true agent of restoration and salvationfor Christian society at large. As shall be shown below, a peculiar interpretationof St. John Chrysostom's idea of Christian reform in general, and ofmonasticism in particular, played a vital role in his quest for a fair measureof perfection in the world. 7There is little doubt that the conception of reform VySens'kyj expoundedin his writings aimed to rely exclusively on the authority of the churchfathers and the dogmatic teachings of Orthodoxy. Nor is there any questionthat his affirmation of the contemplative life as a vehicle for the Christianidea of reform depended on a tradition of monastic piety and method oftheologizing which VySens'kyj understood not in the specific context offourteenth-century debates regarding a practice of devotion and prayer thatbecame known as "hesychasm" 8 but as an indissoluble part of a continuoussacred heritage, that is, an essential component of Orthodox doctrine thatcould not be rejected or altered. 9 The basic parameters of VySens'kyj'sreformist ideology can thus be properly evaluated only if his allegedly"hesychast orientation" 10 is linked not to a specific mystical trend or religiouscontroversy of the late Byzantine age 11 but rather to a tradition ofza nevîrie і besplodie nase popuaćeni esmo ν zapustînie ζ naäeju prav"slavnoju vîroju"(7.12-16). On the importance of the initial lines of the introduction—in particular, the referenceto St. Paul (Eph. 6.12)—for the semantic structure of the entire work, see H. Goldblatt,"Godlike 'Simplicity' versus Diabolic 'Craftiness': On the Significance of Ivan Vyshens'kyi's'Apology for the Slavic Language,' " in Living Record: Essays in Memory ofConstantine Bida,ed. I. Makaryk(Ottawa, 1992), pp. 3-22.7The possible dependence of Vy&ns'kyj's thought on the writings or authority of JohnChrysostom, as well as any typological correspondences between them, has been treated to dateonly in the most perfunctory way. See, for example, D. S. Nalivajko, "Ukrajins'ke literaturnebarokko ν jevropejs'komu konteksti," in Ukrajins'ke literaturne barokko, ed. O. V. Mysanyd(Kiev, 1987), pp. 58-59.8See J. Meyendorff, "Is 'Hesychasm' the Right Word? Remarks on Religious Ideology in theFourteenth Century," Harvard Ukrainian Studies 7 (1983): 447-56.9On the mystical traditions of Byzantine Orthodoxy, their role in shaping hesychast theologyof the fourteenth century, and the significance of the hesychast movement among the OrthodoxSlavs, see in particular M. Iovine, "The History and the Historiography of the Second SouthSlavic Influence," (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1977), pp. 93-107; H. Goldblatt, Orthographyand Orthodoxy. Constantine Kostenećki' s Treatise on the Letters, Studia Histórica et Philologica,16 (Florence, 1987), pp. 3-39.10The precise connection between hesychast doctrine and literary practice among the OrthodoxSlavs continues to engender serious discussion, if not outright controversy; see, mostrecently, M. Hébert, "Hesychasm, Word Weaving, and Slavic Hagiography: The LiterarySchool of Patriarch Euthymius," 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 1992).11See Ju. V. Pelefenko, "DeäcO pro tradyciji u tvoicosti Ivana Vysens'koho," in Ukrajins'keliteraturne barokko, ed. O. V. MySanyC (Kiev, 1987), pp. 131-43; G. Grabowicz, "The Questionof Authority in Ivan VySens'kyj: A Dialectics of Absence," Harvard Ukrainian Studies12/13 (1988/1989):782-83. Although commentators long have adduced both external andinternal evidence to prove VySens'kyj's hesychast credentials, the detailed study of his relation-