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Theoria (Greek θεωρία) is Greek for contemplation or perception of beauty as a moral faculty (OED). From within Eastern Orthodox theology it is "the vision of God" and theoria then also takes on a number of meanings that pertain to union with God (theosis), (theo-) and holiness, the quintessential goals of Christianity (see the Philokalia). The love of beauty, transcending the love of wisdom, manifesting in the love of God (theophilia). The vision of God being the culmination of Theophilos through hesychasm. The word has its origin in the Greek language as being akin to the word theory, or speculation as in "Beauty shall Save the World". This expression of the idea comes from a religious gnosiology perspective (rather than say, a scientific or cultural one), that apperception through faith in God (action through faith), leads to truth through our contemplative faculties.^[1] It is used to express the experience of life as "one who watches a play or activity", the state of "being" is defined as spectator. Hence it means to focus ones attention exclusively to one thing and separate that object (by focus) exclusively, Beauty or God being the object of focus. The act of experiencing and or observing is through the nous or "eye of the soul". Matthew 6:22-6:34

Contents 1 Ontological or Trinitarian Theology 2 False Spiritual Knowledge 2.1 Spiritual Somnolence 2.2 False Ascetism or Cults 3 True Spiritual Knowledge 4 Orthodox theology 4.1 Alexandrian tradition of theoria 4.2 Cappadocian tradition of theoria 4.3 Dionysius the Areopagite's Apophatism 4.4 St Macarius of Egypt 4.5 The Hesychast controversy 4.6 Theological Issues between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity 4.7 Eastern Orthodox tradition 4.8 Theoria in western traditions 4.9 See also 4.10 Quotes 4.11 Bibliography 4.12 References 4.13 External links

[edit] Ontological or Trinitarian Theology

The highest theoria is the experience by, the whole person, of the vision of God. In full nous called the 8th day, which is no internal or external world, no time, no space, the experience of God as infinite or limitless. God is beyond being (hyper-being) God is beyond nothingness (God is the origin of everything). This experience of God in hypostasis showing God's essence as incomprehensible or by definition God as uncreated. God being the origin but having no origin hence apophatic in essence, cataphatic in foundations or realities and energies. This ontic or ontological Theoria being the observation of God.^[2]

[edit] False Spiritual Knowledge

Theoria does not manifest a false spiritual knowledge (and or incomplete spiritual knowledge) like knowledge akin to conjecture or speculation, that may be arrived at through rational thought (dianoia) or speculation (Stochastic and or dialectics)^[3] . False spiritual knowledge can also be iniquitous or of an evil origin being generated from an evil rather than Holy source. The most common false spiritual knowledge being derived not from an actual experience of God but from reading another person's experience of God. Then deriving one's own conclusions, and believing those conclusions as being equal to the actual experience knowledge (then causing conflict in interpretations). Hence theoria as the experience or Vision of God, silences all flesh.

[edit] Spiritual Somnolence

False spiritual knowledge leads to spiritual delusion (Russian prelest, Greek plani) which is the opposite of sobriety. Sobriety meaning full consciousness and self-realization (enstasis) called true spiritual knowledge or true gnosis.^[4] Theoria is the highest consciousness (i.e. the whole person united to God as a relationship or process is called theosis). Prelest or plani is the closing off or estrangement of the person to existence or Objective reality (what is real or truth), alienation being called amartía. This includes damaging or vilifying the nous. Since evil is by definition to turn mankind against it's creator (see misotheism). Misotheism is the catalyst to separate mankind from nature or to vilify the various realities of ontology (ie the spiritual world and or the natural or material world). Reconciliation between God and man is arrived at by transcendence rather than transgression (magic). The Trinity is ontologically the basis of mankind's being or existence. The Trinity is the creator of mankind's being via each component of mankind's existence (see also hypostasis). Mankind's components or energies of existence as such being: origin as nous (ex nihilo), inner experience or spiritual experience and finally, physical experience which is exemplified by Christ (logos or word) and his saints. The following of false knowledge is marked by the symptom of somnolence or awake sleep and then later psychosis.^[5]

[edit] False Ascetism or Cults

Once the stage of true discernment (diakrisis) is reached by the individual (called phronema) to where they are able to tell false from valid gnosis this is referred to as wisdom or sophia. Sophia is cultivated by humility (kenosis) and mortification ("In remembrance of Death") against thymos (ego) and the passions. The passions and the ego in Orthodox asceticism are referred to as the World. Asceticism being dead to the passions and the ego and therefore dead to the world. The highest wisdom, holy wisdom or Hagia Sophia being cultivated by humility or meekness akin to that personified by the Theotokos and all of the saints that came after her and the Christ (collectively referred to as the ecclesia or church). This community of unbroken witnesses being the Orthodox Church. God is beyond the fallen human mind or unclean nous which is the intuitive mind and or rational mind (called dianoia) both of which are part of the nous, heart or eye of the soul. God is beyond knowledge and as such can only be experienced in his hypostasises through faith. False ascetism leading not to reconciliation with God and or existence, but toward a false existence based on rebellion to existence.^[6]

[edit] True Spiritual Knowledge

Theoria is beyond knowledge or gnosis.^[7] It is when the mind is placed in the heart (kardio) and the nous is focused on the immediacy or immanence of the Trinity of God rather than foresight (freewill and faith) and rather than hindsight (determinism and knowledge). It is much like the difference between reading about an experience and reading about an experience one has already experienced. Thus theoria is an expression of the latter, and is deeply focussed on the 'now', the 'immediate', the 'present'. Theoria is akin to acting by freewill and by conscious choice rather than deterministically. It holds that, one moves through time into the future without knowing, but that we proceed by faith (faith is meta-gnosis or beyond knowledge). Theoria means placing the actual experience above recollection of an experience (Anamnesis) or memory, knowledge of the experience (gnosis). As it is the contemplation of the present while in the present rather than the past or future, it is ultimately the experience of the hypostasises of God. Or in other words, Theoria means primacy of observation over rational analysis (Orthodox Empirical theology). This illumination as photismos, a light that permeates all things and is without source, a light that illuminates not only the physical world but also the darkness within mankind, this light is also called the Tabor light. The Trinity who, in essence is incomprehensible the trinities' being or essence or substance is not obtainable or knowable (or it would not truly be incomprehensible). As the Trinity is the three realities of the single God at once. Each reality or hypostasis critical to the ontology of being (ousia) and or existence (hypostasis).^[8]

[edit] Orthodox theology

[edit] Alexandrian tradition of theoria

It is the knowledge of God in creation and of sensible things and thus their contemplation intellectually to the Origen or Alexandrian school of thought (150-400AD) (see Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Evagrius Ponticus) which then leads to communion with God akin to Divine Providence.

[edit] Cappadocian tradition of theoria

To the Cappadocian school of thought (see Saint Basil, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus) (350-400AD) theoria is the experience of the highest or absolute truth when one is in complete union with God. It is entering the 'Cloud of Unknowing' which is beyond rational understanding, and can be embraced only in love (Agape or Awe). The Cappadocian fathers went beyond the intellectual contemplation of the Alexandrian fathers. This was to begin with the seminal work Philokalia, which through hesychasm leads to Phronema and finally theosis which is validated by theoria. One must move beyond gnosis to faith (meta-gnosis). Through ignorance one moves beyond knowledge and being, this contemplation being theoria. Theoria means understanding that the Uncreated can not be grasped by the logical or rational mind, but rather only by the whole person (unity between the heart and mind) this perception is by the nous.

[edit] Dionysius the Areopagite's Apophatism

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With the tradition of St Dionysus the Areopagite theoria is the lifting up of the individual out of time and space and created being (see ekstasis) while the Triune God reaches down (or condescends) to the hesychast. The individual is brought into the presence of the hypostasises of God in what is called the 8th day. One cultivates the highest form of contemplation and the experience of the 8th day by attending the Orthodox liturgical services. The services being the applications of the sacraments and the person's perspective being one of sincere mortification. Memento mori being salvation through, the grace or acceptance of God, in death. This liturgical experience is the only way for a human being to attain the true knowledge of the living God, by the living person. This experience is the vision of God or theoria to the apophatic theology of the St. Dionysian tradition within Eastern Orthodoxy. Again God can be known in his immanence (kataphatic) realities but not in God's apophatic or transcendent essence, since God is uncreated in his essence or being.^[9]

[edit] St Macarius of Egypt

In the theological tradition of St Macarius of Egypt (ca. 300-391AD), theoria is the point of interaction between God and the Human Person in the heart of the person (manifesting in spiritual gifts to the human heart); this interaction is beyond rationalistic contemplation. The highest form of contemplation (agape) originates in the heart, a form of contemplation that is higher than that of the intellectual mind.^[10] What is consistent is the concept that Theoria is alloted to each unique individual by their capacity to comprehend God. This also being the tradition of theoria as taught by St Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022AD) that one can not be a theologian unless one sees the hypostasises of God or the uncreated light which would be to have theoria. For saints such an experience cultivates humility and meekness in people and most of all the love of the human race that the Triune God has (hence like God or Godlike, theosis). This burning love (invisible fire) for humanity is manifest in absolute kindness and love for their neighbor akin to selfless agape or love, growing from mortification, kenosis and or Epiclesis. This love or agape (invisible, Holy fire) is the essence of Orthodoxy.^[11]

[edit] The Hesychast controversy

Under St Gregory Palamas (1296 - 1359AD) the different traditions of theoria where synthesized into an understanding of theoria as meaning that through baptism one receives the Holy Spirit. Through participating in the sacraments of the Church and performing works of faith one cultivates a relationship with God. If one then through willful submission to God is devotional (becomes humble) akin to the Theotokos (and saints) and proceeds in faith past the point of rational contemplation one can experience God. Palamas stated that this way was not a mechanized process as each person is unique, but that the apodictic way that one experiences the uncreated light or God was through contemplative prayer called hesychasm. Theoria is cultivated through each of the steps of the growing process of theosis. It is important to note that Palamas taught that the truth is a person (Jesus Christ) which means a form of objective reality. In order for a Christian to be authentic he/she must experience the Truth i.e. Christ, as real and in person (see hypostasis). The only true way to experience Christ, according to Palamas, was the Eastern Orthodox faith. Once a person discovers Christ (through the Orthodox church) they begin the process of theosis which is the gradual submission to the Truth i.e. God (see mortification and asceticism) in order to be deified (theosis). Theoria then is seen to be the experience of God hypostatically (in person). However, since the essence of God is unknowable the essence of God is not able to be experienced. Palamis expressed theoria as an experience of God as it happens to the whole person (soul or nous) not just the mind or body, in contrast to an experience of God that is drawn from memory, the mind and or in time (experience) i.e. gnosis.^[12][13] Gnosis here as experience and self awareness knowledge (spiritual knowledge), theoria as the actual experience (the vision of God or to see God) in itself.^[14] The experience of God in the 8th day or outside of time therefore beyond or transcending, self and or experience knowledge (gnosis).^[15] Gnosis here is most importantly understood as a knowledge of oneself, theoria is the experience of God past or over the knowledge of oneself.^[16]

[edit] Theological Issues between Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity

In the Eastern Christian traditions theoria is the most critical component needed for a person to be considered a theologian (it is not necessary for ones salvation per se).^[17] Theoria as being with God,^[18] God in Eastern Christianity being the one thing that mankind truly desires the most,^[19] that which is infinite (apophatic or transcendent) and also personal and real (cataphatic or immanence). An experience of God being necessary to the spiritual and mental health of each human being.^[20][21] Theosis is expressed as having "Being with God" and a relationship (God is Heaven, God is the Kingdom of Heaven) that is infinite and unending, glory to glory.^[22] Since God is transcendent (incomprehensible in ousia, essence or being) the West has over emphasized the point by qualifying logical arguments that God can not be experienced in this life.^[23] This criteria is at the very heart of many theological conflicts between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western Christianity which is seen to culminate in the conflict over Hesychasm.^[24] This is expressed in the idea that Western theology is too dependent of logic and reason (culminating in scholasticism used to validate truth, and the existence of God which it can not completely do) over establishing an actual relationship with God (theosis and theoria).^[25] Another such example that is often used in Eastern Christianity is the example of St Augustine. From the works of Saint Augustine it is apparent to Eastern theologians that though a Saint, Augustine did not have theoria and many of his theological conclusions appear to be arrived at not from experiencing God and writing about his experience(s) of God. Augustines conclusions appear to be arrived at by means of logical speculation and conjecture.^[26] Hence Augustine is still revered as a Saint, but does not qualify as a theologian in the Eastern Orthodox church. Some of Augustine's Trinitarian conclusions appear to immanentize characteristics of theology which would be improper treatment of those things divine. This toward Eastern theologians who inlight of their experiences would articulate their expressions of those things differently (ie the inner relationship of the realities of God in Trinity).^[27]. Finally the theological concept of hell or eternal damnation also via theoria is expressed completely different in the West. Hell in the West is damnation as a place, this being taught most explicitly in Dante's classic work Inferno. The East teaches that hell or eternal damnation and heaven are the same place, which is being with God. For one who hates God (see Misotheism) such a place as in the presence of God, will be eternal suffering.^[28]

It should be noted that the works of Dionysius the Areopagite were well known in the West following their translation into Latin by John Scotus Eriugena in the 9th century and strongly influenced Western Chritistian mystics, including such figures as St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross.

[edit] Eastern Orthodox tradition

Theoria appears in a variety of contexts.

• "The Lord considered the chief good to reside in theoria alone." [1]
  • Jesus, referred to here as "the Lord", states that "None is good but God alone" (Luke 18:19). Theoria is not God per se but is rather the union we hope to attain with God — the term is used relationally here, otherwise the sentence would say "reside in God alone". Theoria marks a relational and noetic understanding.

• "[T]he other virtues, although we consider them necessary and useful and good, are to [be] accounted secondary because they are all practiced for the purpose of obtaining this one thing: theoria" (ibid).
  • Here the term is used to mark that which we hope to obtain or attain, for which all practice of faith is carried out. Theoria is a marker for the goal of union with God.

• "We accept faith by hearing it not so that we can understand it rationally, but that our hearts may be cleansed, that, by theoria, we may attain faith and ultimately experience the Revelation of God." [2]
  • This may be a less clear use of the term, but it refers to the idea that faith is a gift, not purely a rational act. The gift of faith is from God, and here the word theoria indicates that special provenance.

• "In the Holy Scripture it appears that faith comes by hearing the Word and by experiencing theoria (the vision of God)" (ibid).
  • In this example, theoria is indicated to be an experience and a vision of God. Vision of God often implies advanced mystical experience, not given to all and not necessary for salvation, but in the foregoing examples theoria is used to mark the onset of faith and the source of faith. Theoria is, then, a broad term.

• "[T]he disciples of Christ acquired the knowledge of the Triune God in theoria (vision of God) and by revelation" (ibid).
  • Here the term clearly refers to advanced mystical experiences some disciples had in the company of Jesus.

• "[T]heoria, vision and theosis are closely connected. Theoria has various degrees. There is illumination, vision of God, and constant vision (for hours, days, weeks, even months)" (ibid).
  • Here we see clearly that the term has broad application. The onset of faith as well as more advanced experiences are referred to as theoria. The term, then, implies a source of religious experience from onset to advanced stages, and suffuses the understanding of religious knowledge with a contemplative essence.

• "They [Latin and Protestant] are influenced by the philosophical dialectic, which has been surpassed by the Revelation of God" (ibid).
  • Orthodox sources maintain that the meanings implied in theoria are fundamentally absent from western traditions, which they consider to have been misguided by scholasticism to the point that they abandon the faith of the Church Fathers and all hope of being therapeutically relevant to followers.

• "St. Gregory the Theologian says that theoria and praxis are beneficial because theoria ... guides him to the holy of holies and restores him to his original nature; whereas praxis receives and serves Christ and tests love with actions. Clearly, theoria is the vision of God.... [P]raxis is whatever deeds it takes to lead to this love." [3]
  • Theoria is the source or means of growth toward union with God, praxis is the faith practiced along the way, theosis is the overall path or journey, and phronema is the understanding of Christian faith that guides the follower of Christ.

• He prays with his body alone, and not yet with spiritual knowledge. But when the man once blind received his sight and saw the Lord, he acknowledged Him no longer as the Son of David but as the Son of God, and worshipped Him' (cf. John 9 38).'

St Symeon the New Theologian Philokalia Vol.4

[edit] Theoria in western traditions

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See also: beatific vision

Theoria covers a broad range of inherent Western Christian concepts that are treated separately in Catholic tradition. These concepts include:

• God is the source wherein lies the Chief Good
• The hope for the union with God to which all Christians are called, is pursued through contemplation and action
• There is a connection between incipient faith and advanced prayer life.
• For the faith, our redemption by Jesus, is a restoration of supernatural goodness and innocence lost through sin
• Theology cannot be divorced from prayer.

There is no conclusive term in common use in the Western tradition, but like the Eastern tradition everything is rooted in the universal Christian understanding that the risen Christ lives in us and that we participate in His life.

[edit] See also

• Apodicticity
• Eastern Orthodox Christian theology
• Apotheosis
• Theophany
• sobornost
• Aseity
• Diodore of Tarsus
• Praxis
• Father John S. Romanides
• Father Michael Pomazansky
• Archimandrite Sophrony
• Father John Meyendorff
• Transfiguration of Christ
• Saint Ambrose of Optina
• Holy Fire
• tacit knowledge
• Deontological

[edit] Quotes

'We ought at all times to wait for the enlightenment that comes from above before we speak with a faith energized by love; for the illumination which will enable us to speak. For there is nothing so destitute as a mind philosophising about God, when it is without Him'." Of "Spiritual Knowledge" Discourse number 7 Philokalia volume 1 pg 254 — St Diadochos of Photiki

"Unless the heart be cleansed it is impossible to attain real contemplation. Only a heart purified of passion is capable of that peculiar awe and wonder before God which stills the nous into joyful silence." Archimandrite Sophrony

[edit] Bibliography

• The Vision of God by Vladimir Lossky, SVS Press, 1997. (ISBN 0-913836-19-2)
• The Spirituality of the Christian East: A systematic handbook by Tomas Spidlik, Cistercian Publications Inc Kalamazoo Michigan 1986 (ISBN 0-87907-879-0)
• The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition (Oxford Theological Monographs 2004) by Marcus Plested (ISBN-10: 0199267790)
• Being With God by Aristotle Papanikolaou University of Notre Dame Press February 24, 2006 ISBN-10: 0268038309
• The Experience of God : Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1 : Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God) by Dumitru Staniloae Holy Cross Orthodox Press May 17, 2005 ISBN-10: 0917651707
• The Experience of God : Orthodox Dogmatic Theology Volume 2: (The World, Creation and Deification) by Dumitru Staniloae Holy Cross Orthodox Press June 16, 2005 ISBN-10: 1885652410

[edit] References

1. ^ Saint Symeon the New Theologian On Faith Palmer, G.E.H; Sherrard, Philip; Ware, Kallistos (Timothy). The Philokalia, Vol. 4
2. ^ http://www.pelagia.org/htm/b02.en.orthodox_psychotherapy.06.htm#2k
3. ^ "Those who speak from their own thoughts, before having acquired purity, are seduced by the spirit of self-esteem." St. Gregory of Sinai
4. ^ *History of Russian Philosophy «История российской Философии »(1951) by N. O. Lossky section on V. Lossky pg400 Publisher: Allen & Unwin, London ASIN: B000H45QTY International Universities Press Inc NY, NY ISBN-13: 978-0823680740 sponsored by Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
5. ^ Orthodox Psychotherapy by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery,Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN-13: 978-9607070272
6. ^ History of Russian Philosophy «История российской Философии »(1951) by N. O. Lossky section on N. O. Lossky's philosophy pg262 "There is another kind of selfishness which violates the hierarchy of values much more: some agents who strive for perfection and the absolute fullness of being and even for the good of the whole world are determined to do it in their own way, so that they should occupy the first place and stand higher than all other beings and even the Lord God himself. Pride is the ruling passion of such beings. They enter into rivalry with God, thinking that they are capable of ordering the world better than its Creator. Pursing an impossible aim, they suffer defeat at every step and begin to hate God. This is what Satan does. Selfishness separates us from God in so far as we put before us purposes incompatible with God's will that the world should be perfect. In the same way selfishness separates an agent in a greater or lesser degree from other agents: his aims and actions cannot be harmonized with the actions of other beings and often lead to hostility and mutual opposition.
7. ^ V Lossky Vision of God pg 123 "Knowledge is limited to what exists: now, as the cause of all being(The Divine Names, I, 1, col.588) or rather He is superior to all oppositions between being and non-being.
8. ^ This means that it is only when a person is within the revelation, as all the saints lived, that he can grasp this understanding completely (see theoria). The second presupposition is that mankind has and is composed of nous, word and spirit like the trinitarian mode of being. Man's nous, word and spirit are not hypostases or individual existences or realities, but activities or energies of the soul. Were as in the case with God or the Persons of the Holy Trinity each are indeed hypostases. So these three components of each individual man are `inseparable from one another' but they do not have a personal character" when in speaking of the being that is mankind. The nous as the eye of the soul, which some Fathers also call the heart, is the center of man and is where true (spiritual) knowledge is validated. This is seen as true knowledge which is "implanted in the nous as always co-existing with it".Orthodox Psychotherapy by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery,Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN-13: 978-9607070272
9. ^ V Lossky Vision of God pg 123 "Knowledge is limited to what exists: now, as the cause of all being, God does not exist (The Divine Names, I, 1, col.588) or rather He is superior to all oppositions between being and non-being.
10. ^ The vision of God By V Lossky page 106 page 113
11. ^ *The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition (Oxford Theological Monographs 2004) by Marcus Plested (ISBN-10: 0199267790)
12. ^ V Lossky Vision of God pg 162-163
13. ^ The vision of the uncreated light, which offers knowledge of God to man, is sensory and supra-sensory. The bodily eyes are reshaped, so they see the uncreated light, "this mysterious light, inaccessible, immaterial, uncreated, deifying, eternal", this "radiance of the Divine Nature, this glory of the divinity, this beauty of the heavenly kingdom" (3,1,22;CWS p.80). Palamas asks: "Do you see that light is inaccessible to senses which are not transformed by the Spirit?" (2,3,22). St. Maximus, whose teaching is cited by St. Gregory, says that the Apostles saw the uncreated Light "by a transformation of the activity of their senses, produced in them by the Spirit" (2.3.22). Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The Knowledge of God according to St. Gregory Palamas by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery,Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN-13: 978-9607070272
14. ^ V Lossky Vision of God pg 162-163
15. ^ History of Russian Philosophy By N.O. Lossky section on V. Lossky
16. ^ Ecstasy comes when, in prayer, the nous abandons every connection with created things: first "with everything evil and bad, then with neutral things" (2,3,35;CWS p.65). Ecstasy is mainly withdrawal from the opinion of the world and the flesh. With sincere prayer the nous "abandons all created things" (2,3,35;CWS p.65). This ecstasy is higher than abstract theology, that is, than rational theology, and it belongs only to those who have attained dispassion. But it is not yet union. That is to say, the ecstasy which is unceasing prayer of the nous, in which one's nous has continuous remembrance of God and has no relation with the `world of sin' is not yet union with God. This union comes about when the Paraclete "illuminates from on high the man who attains in prayer the stage which is superior to the highest natural possibilities and who is awaiting the promise of the Father, and by His revelation ravishes him to the contemplation of the light" (2,3,35;CWS p.65). Illumination by God is what shows His union with man. Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The Knowledge of God according to St. Gregory Palamas by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery,Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN-13: 978-9607070272
17. ^ The Vision of God, SVS Press, 1997. (ISBN 0-913836-19-2)
18. ^ The Vision of God, SVS Press, 1997. (ISBN 0-913836-19-2)
19. ^ Value and Existence «Ценность и существование»(1931) by Nikolai Lossky and John S. Marshall published by George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1935 pg 56-61
20. ^ FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE/Diagnosis and Therapy Father John S. Romanides Diagnosis and Therapy http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.03.en.franks_romans_feudalism_and_doctrine.02.htm#s8
21. ^ Knowledge of God, as will be explained further on, is not intellectual, but existential. That is, one's whole being is filled with this knowledge of God. But in order to attain it, one's heart must have been purified, that is, the soul, nous and heart must have been healed. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt.5,8). http://www.pelagia.org/htm/b02.en.orthodox_psychotherapy.06.htm#2k Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The Knowledge of God according to St. Gregory Palamas by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery,Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN-13: 978-9607070272
22. ^ From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of Nyssa's Mystical Writings Publisher: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press ISBN-10: 0913836540 ISBN-13: 978-0913836545
23. ^ At the heart of Barlaam’s teaching is the significant idea that God cannot truly be perceived by man; that God the Transcendent can never be wholly known by man the created and finite. http://www.monachos.net/library/Gregory_Palamas:_Knowledge,_Prayer,_and_Vision
24. ^ FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE Part 2
25. ^ FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE/EMPIRICAL THEOLOGY VERSUS SPECULATIVE THEOLOGY Father John S. Romanides http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.03.en.franks_romans_feudalism_and_doctrine.02.htm And, indeed, the Franks believed that the prophets and apostles did not see God himself, except possibly with the exception of Moses and Paul. What the prophets and apostles allegedly did see and hear were phantasmic symbols of God, whose purpose was to pass on concepts about God to human reason. Whereas these symbols passed into and out of existence, the human nature of Christ is a permanent reality and the best conveyor of concepts about God.
26. ^ FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE/EMPIRICAL THEOLOGY VERSUS SPECULATIVE THEOLOGY Father John S. Romanides http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.03.en.franks_romans_feudalism_and_doctrine.02.htm A basic characteristic of the Frankish scholastic method, mislead by Augustinian Platonism and Thomistic Aristotelianism, had been its naive confidence in the objective existence of things rationally speculated about. By following Augustine, the Franks substituted the patristic concern for spiritual observation, (which they had found firmly established in Gaul when they first conquered the area) with a fascination for metaphysics. They did not suspect that such speculations had foundations neither in created nor in spiritual reality. No one would today accept as true what is not empirically observable, or at least verifiable by inference, from an attested effect. So it is with patristic theology. Dialectical speculation about God and the Incarnation as such are rejected. Only those things which can be tested by the experience of the grace of God in the heart are to be accepted. "Be not carried about by divers and strange teachings. For it is good that the heart be confirmed by grace," a passage from Hebrews 13.9, quoted by the Fathers to this effect.
27. ^ Gregory’s (Palamas) view should not be seen to undermine a positive view of philosophical thought as a whole, which was a continual accusation made by Barlaam. Taken as a tool for the progression of the human person towards a state receptive to divine grace, Gregory saw philosophy and discursive knowledge as a perfectly reasonable set of aids for the Christian. It was only when philosophy, whose created end is the furtherance of knowledge of God, was misused by the philosophers and turned, in effect, into God, that Gregory raised his voice in ardent opposition.http://www.monachos.net/library/Gregory_Palamas:_Knowledge,_Prayer,_and_Vision
28. ^ Man has a malfunctioning or non-functioning noetic faculty in the heart, and it is the task especially of the clergy to apply the cure of unceasing memory of God, otherwise called unceasing prayer or illumination. Proper preparation for vision of God takes place in two stages: purification, and illumination of the noetic faculty. Without this, it is impossible for man's selfish love to be transformed into selfless love. This transformation takes place during the higher level of the stage of illumination called theoria, literally meaning vision-in this case vision by means of unceasing and uninterrupted memory of God. Those who remain selfish and self-centered with a hardened heart, closed to God's love, will not see the glory of God in this life. However, they will see God's glory eventually, but as an eternal and consuming fire and outer darkness. FRANKS, ROMANS, FEUDALISM, AND DOCTRINE/Diagnosis and Therapy Father John S. Romanides Diagnosis and Therapy http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.03.en.franks_romans_feudalism_and_doctrine.02.htm#s8

[edit] External links

• Eastern Orthodoxy - OCA
• Eastern Orthodoxy - GOA
• Differences between Orthodoxy and other religions
• Gregory Palamis' fight for the Vision of God
• Theoria, Tabor Light as Vision

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