The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Climacus

The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Climacus The Ladder of Divine Ascent, written by St John Climacus in 600AD, is a classic ascetical text and guide for how to progress in the spiritual life. Through the exceptional spiritual wisdom and discernment of its author, The Ladder aims to lead the reader up the thirty steps of the spiritual ladder with the aim of achieving salvation and unity with God. The Ladder’s author, St John, was a hermit living in Sinai who was renowned for his spiritual knowledge. He wrote The Ladder in response to a request by the Abbot of the Monastery of Raithu to record his wisdom in a book. Although it was written with monastics in mind, The Ladder quickly became one of the most important and influential books in the entire Church. Its significance is such that the Church commemorates its author, St John Climacus, as well as The Ladder, on the fourth Sunday of Great Lent each year. It is also tradition for the entirety of the book to be read in monasteries every year during Great Lent.

The Ladder is divided into thirty chapters, with each chapter representing one step in the spiritual journey. Each chapter, in turn, focuses on a specific virtue or vice, such as obedience, repentance, chastity, despondency, vainglory etc. Within each chapter, St John provides his wisdom on the significance of the respective virtue or vice in our spiritual lives (illustrated with examples), as well as his guidance on how to progress in the attainment of the respective virtue or destroy the respective vice. Through his clear discernment and depth of understanding, St John also explains the interrelationship between virtues and vices, such as which vices lead to other vices, and which virtues can be deployed to destroy other vices. Although the book is not strictly sequential – in that one does not fully master one step before proceeding to the next – it broadly reflects the journey necessary to achieve theosis, namely unity with God. In this way, Steps 1 to 3 are devoted to renouncing the world. Once that foundation has been set, Steps 4 to 26 concern the practice of the virtues and the struggle against the passions, with an internal development from fundamental virtues such as obedience and penitence, to the passions which afflict us, and finally to higher virtues such as humility and discernment. Finally, Steps 27 to 30 concern union with God and include St John’s commentary on matters such as stillness, prayer, dispassion and love. The Ladder is a spiritual classic and contains spiritual insights for all Christians. Given its depth, it can be repeatedly read. Due to the significance of the topics with which it deals, however, and its initial intended audience for monastics, The Ladder should be read with the guidance of a spiritual father. An alternative text which attempts to interpret The Ladder for the everyday Christian is Thirty Steps to Heaven: The Ladder of Divine Ascent for All Walks of Life by Archimandrite Vassilios. ORTHODOX MISSION BOOKSTORE www.orthodoxbookstore.org.au 217 Bexley Rd, Kingsgrove, Sydney NSW Phone: (02) 9787 9779

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