The Ladder of Divine Ascent

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.
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