Restoring the Inner Heart

Mary Naumenko has been involved in parish ministry for thirty-five years together with her husband who is a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. She is the translator of two books of spiritual counsel from Russian into English: Letters to Spiritual Children (Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society) and Striving Toward God: Spiritual Advice for Daily Living (Holy Trinity Publications) as well as the author of five books in the Lives of Saints for Young People series published by Holy Trinity Monastery. She earned an M.A. in Humanities through The Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University (Montgomery, AL). Her Master’s thesis on the patristic concept of the nous in the writings of Dostoevsky provided the initial impetus for this book.

INTRODUCTION

PART 1: THE HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF NOUS FROM PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA

Chapter 1: The Nous in Hellenic Philosophy: Anaxagoras to Plato

Chapter 2: The Nous in Hellenic Philosophy; Aristotle to Plotinus

Chapter 3: A Transition from Hellenic Philosophy to Christianity

Chapter 4: The Incarnation and Deification in Early Patristic Thought

Chapter 5: The Heart and the Nous in Patristic Thought

Chapter 6: Purification of the Nous

Chapter 7: A Move Away from Noetic Perception



PART 2: THE NOUS AND DOSTOEVSKY

Chapter 8: Some Biographical Details

Chapter 9: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: A Synopsis and Analysis of the Story

Chapter 10: Examples of Other “Ridiculous Men” in Dostoevsky's Novels



PART 3: THE NOUS IN CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT

Chapter 11: References to the Unnamed Nous

Chapter 12: A Renewed Interest in Deification

Chapter 13: Contemporary Orthodox Writers on the Nous



CONCLUSION

Acknowledgments

APPENDIX: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by F.M. Dostoevsky, David Magershack, Translator

BIBLIOGRAPHY

END NOTES

Index