10th century
The 10th century: the "Golden Age" of Islam. Orthodoxy seeks silence
What happened — and why
Ibn Sina: an encyclopedia of knowledge
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) writes "The Canon of Medicine" and "The Book of Healing." Philosopher, physician, scientist, one man who knows everything.
The philosophical cause
Ibn Sina — The Islamic world translates Greek science and pushes further. Baghdad is the center of the world. The academy (the "House of Wisdom") funds translations of Aristotle.
"The Canon" was the standard medical textbook in Europe until the 17th century. Through Arabic translations Europe would recover Aristotle, and that would ignite scholasticism.
Symeon the New Theologian: the mysticism of fire
A monk of Constantinople describes a direct experience of God, as light, as fire. Not theology about God, but an encounter with Him.
The philosophical cause
Symeon the New Theologian — The official church had grown formalized. Symeon says true Christianity is not dogma but a living experience of grace.
His mysticism would become the foundation of hesychasm. Gregory Palamas would carry it into a full theological system in the 14th century, and that would divide Orthodoxy from the West.
