Theological Presuppositions of the Life in the Holy Spirit by Dr. Dimitrios Tselengidis

Reliquary of  St Gregory Palamas in Thessaloniki, Greece



The Contribution of St Gregory Palamas to Hesychasm
Theological Presuppositions of the Life in the Holy Spirit 

by Dr. Dimitrios Tselengidis

Proffessor of the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki
This paper can be read in its totality here
Introduction

Saint Gregory Palamas with his written works has boosted
theologically the deeper content of the hesychastic life, and with his
toilsome and persistent ecclesiastical struggles, contributed decisively
to the unanimous and conciliar acceptance of the teaching of
Hesychasm.

In his attempt to safeguard the lofty theological character of hesychia,
he developed a most profound dogmatic theology around the identity
and soteriological function of Divine Grace. In the process he
simultaneously revealed the theological presuppositions necessary
for the hesychasts to share and abide in the life of the Holy Spirit.
These presuppositions are found in the steadfast and delusion-free
parameters of theophany and theoptia (vision of God). The invincible
ultra-defender of Hesychasm expressed the mind of the Church
infallibly, asserting that the existential living experience of the
deifying energy of the Holy Spirit, especially endows with
theological meaning the hesychastic way of life. This life culminates
in the complete union of man with God and in the charismatic theosis
of man, which consists of the higher form of the spiritual life of the
faithful.

1. THE CHARACTER OF THE HESYCHASTIC LIFE
Saint Gregory Palamas studied the Ascetic Literature near holy
hesychasts, who were taught Hesychasm not only through Divine
Grace, but through their personal experience as well. From these
distinguished teachers (1)-see notes, he was taught the sacred
nipsis (guarding of the nous) and the noetic prayer. His teacher
par excellence, however, was his personal toil and the empirical
knowledge (2) procured through this toil. Thus, he received
empirical knowledge of the hesychastic way of life, and when he
received the calling to defend Hesychasm, he had already assimilated
fruitfully and productively the entire Patristic Tradition. Consequently,
he displayed an unrivaled combative spirit, theological eruditeness,
along with holy-spiritual experience especially reflected in his written
works In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts and in the Hagiorite Tome,
synoptically. But what is the specific meaning of hesychia and
Hesychasm? The ascetical term hesychia is primarily existential
and experiential in character. Hesychia means the peace 
established in the inner man, when he sees, becomes disgusted
with, and proceeds to expel his eidechthes prosopeion (his ugly
mask) which had developed from the wandering of the nous (3).
Hesychia is indispensably connected with the nipsis (guarding) of the
nous, the spiritual vigilance, and the experiential knowledge of all
those states which actualize in the practice of nipsis in a spiritual
and inexpressible manner(4). Consequently, the main task of the
hesychast is the “guarding of the heart” with the congenial 

keeping of the commandments, spiritual purity, and sacramental

life. With the keeping of the commandments, the hesychast 

expels the law of sin and introduces to himself the guarding of 

the nous. His senses are kept in check with the virtue of 

temperance (egkrateia), while the (pathetiko) impassive part of 

the soul is governed by love and the (logistiko) noetic by 

nipsis (5) (sobriety). The hesychastic way of life affords the 

functional ability to Divine Grace to “remodel” the inner man 

and to conform him according to his prototype, granting
him “blossomed”, his ancient and indescribable beauty (6). The
hesychast lives without cares, absolved, as much as possible, from
all matters of distraction. With the use of incessant prayer he unites
his nous (essence of the soul) with God, and thus totally concentrated
in his inner self, finds a new and mysterious ascent towards heaven.
There having fixed his nous, he tastes ineffable pleasure,
experiences perfect and sweetest peace—true hesychia and
quietude. And thus, after having surrendered himself to God, sees
the glory of God and visualizes the Divine Light (7).

The ultimate purpose of the hesychastic life is for man to become
one with the Trihypostatic Monad (according to the archieratical
prayer of Christ and with his synergy) just as He entered into
communion and unity with the human nature, without distancing
Himself from His own Triadic Monad (8). For the aforementioned
reasons, the hesychastic life is esteemed by the theologian of
hesychia and of the Light of Grace, as the ultimate form of the
ascetical life (9), and Hesychasm as the most precious segment of
the Church (10), being that in its parameters by and large the
paramount spiritual experience of the uncreated Light is lived as
the vision of God (Theoptia).

2. EFFULGENCE OF THE DEIFYING GRACE – THEOPHANY
AND VISION OF GOD.
Christ during his historical presence on earth revealed His uncreated
Divinity to the elect of His Apostles with His Transfiguration on
Mount Tabor. According to the theological evaluation of Saint
Gregory Palamas, the disciples saw upon the mount “the essential
majesty of God… the ultra-luminous brightness of the archetypal
beauty, the formless kind of Divine comeliness…they saw the
inconceivable and ineffable Light… they saw the Grace of the Holy
Spirit, which they subsequently received, and it abided in them.” (11)
The Grace of God is the betrothal of the inheritance of the saints,
the Spirit of sonship (12), the promise of the Spirit, which the Son
received from the Father and granted to his faithful. It is the Spirit
of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit (13). The faithful receives
the Divine Grace during Holy Baptism, and more specifically,
during the mystery of Holy Chrism, whereby he becomes Her
charismatic offspring since he was born from Her during the
Divine washing, and thus he procured the ancient beauty (14).
Afterwards, the uncreated Grace exists incessantly in the faithful
and assists him soteriologically (in matters of salvation) and
multifariously, while Her Divine Light illumines him accordingly
—at times, more, and at times, less (15). This Light becomes visible
spiritually with the noetic sense, and it consists of the inseparable
glory and brightness of Divine nature (16). Futhermore, it also
constitutes the garment of the soul of the faithful, since it will bring
back to her the ancient and most excellent beauty, but it
simultaneously consists of the true nourishment of the angels as
much as the righteous (17). It does not have its own substance (18),
and for this it is called enhypostatic and not auto-hypostatic (19). Thus,
it is reasonable to speak about the effulgence of hypostatic Light in
the souls of the faithful (20), which acts in them without being
separated from the Holy Spirit (21). Being an uncreated glory of God,
pre-eternal and infinite, the Divine Light is not sensual (22), but
noetic (23) and spiritual, which is approximated and envisioned
spiritually (24). It is incorporeal divine illumination and Grace, which
becomes “envisioned in an invisible manner, and it is conceived in an
inconceivable manner” (25). It is a “natural ray of Divinity” (26), and
“the very Divinity which manifested to the disciples on the mount,”
according to Saint Gregory the Theologian (27).

Divine illumination to be beheld presupposes the purification of the
heart, and it is found evaluatively higher than homiletics about God,
and certainly above reason. Of course, Divine illumination provides
knowledge of God, but this knowledge and understanding is granted
to the nous by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when occasionally this
Divine illumination is called “knowledge and understanding,” it must
be understood in a different light because what is meant here is
another kind of understanding—a spiritual one (28). Barlaam, the
anti-hesychast philosopher, thought that anyone who has knowledge
of beings (onton) brings God inside him, or, can see (achieve vision
of God) through this knowledge. In reality though, Palamas says, this
man has within him the knowledge of the created things and through
this knowledge he contemplates God, raises his mind to God
abstractly, and expresses Him conjecturably. This perception of God
does not consist of knowledge of God in and by itself. However he,
who has energized the Divine Light inside himself, sees in an
inexpressible way, and his expressions about God are not
conjectures, but are based on having true vision and practical
experience of Him. He truly ascertains that he has God inside him,
because God is never separated from His eternal glory. The most
trustworthy person who can inform us about the presuppositions
necessary to acquire and to see the Divine Light happens to be
that Divine person, who received our nature and imparted to it the
glory of His nature. These presuppositions are the keeping of the
Divine commandment, because Christ promised His appearance to
whoever keeps them. This appearance Christ called “the abidance
of Himself and of His Father in Him” saying, “if a man loves me he
will keep my words (29) and my Father will love him and we will
come unto him and make our abode with him.” (30) In this verse,
Palamas sees the Grace and energy of the Holy Spirit through
which God manifests and abides in those deemed worthy (31). The
abidance of the Son with the Father is interpreted as participation
(metheksi) of the deifying Grace and energy, (32) while in a similar
context Palamas identifies the coming of Christ, the abidance and His
manifestation together with the Father with our ascent toward Him
through revelation, as super-celestial ascent and rapture (33). The
knowledge of God procured by the vision of Light is above all other
knowledge, since there is nothing greater in existence than the
abidance and manifestation of God inside of us, neither anything
equal nor approximate. Thus, we know that the keeping of the
commandment provides true knowledge, because with only this the
health of the soul is secured. Health of the soul cannot exist when the
intelligent power (gnostiko) of the soul is ill.

The keeping of the commandments, however, offers not only
knowledge of God, but even charismatic theosis, to which we are
guided as long as we see inside of us God’s glory in the Spirit. This
materializes when it is God’s good pleasure to elevate us towards the
spiritual mysteries (34). If the knowledge of the Divine Scriptures,
according to the Apostle Peter is sure and secure, in the words of the
same Apostle, this knowledge is equated with the “Light of an oil lamp
that shineth in a dark place until the day dawns, as it dawned brilliantly
on Tabor, and Christ, the Day Star, arises in your hearts.” This so
indicative of the great difference between the knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures compared to the Light of knowledge emanating from the
mystical vision of God. It is the light of the sun shining in the middle of
the sky at noon time (35).

3. PRESUPPOSITIONS OF THEOPTIA (VISION OF GOD)
One thing is meant by “illumination of Divine Grace,” something else by
“constant vision of Light,” and another, entirely different thing by “vision
of things in the Light, when the distant things appear in front of the
eyes and the future events appear as present. Even here, however,
a graduating scale also exists, which is connected to spiritual
progress.
This progress will continue ad infinitum (36), being incoherent with the
capacity of the Divine illumination in the faithful.
The vision of Divine Glory is always analogous to the receptivity of
the seer (37). In novices for example, the illumination of this Light is
dimmer and not constant, whereas in the perfect, in addition to the
superabundance of Light, an endowment of humility takes place
—one of a different kind than that of the novices (38). Humility leads
to penthos (mourning), and mourning increases the purification of
the heart—a necessary pre-requisite toward receptivity for more
illumination (39). Secure advice about the method of gaining vision of
the Light of Grace can be given by those who see it
 para ton oronton (40) from all those who experienced its knowledge
empirically. In other words; those who received santification through
the harshness of askesis and humble prayer, without which
(sanctification) no one will see the Lord, according to Saint Paul (41).
Sanctification presupposes the cleansing of the heart by the keeping
of the commandments and the continuous preoccupation of the nous
with the genuine and immaterial prayer, and especially through the
commandment of love. Thus, God is seen by those who have been
purified through love (42) via purification (43), namely, all those who
have been cleansed from passions and ignorance. Their nous,
having been purified and illumined and clearly sharing in the Grace
of God, affords them to become partakers of mystical, supernatural
spectacles.

Simultaneously, they see the brightness by which the nous has been
enriched from the Grace of God, which furthers strengthens the
power of the nous to transcend itself and to complete its union with
the things beyond reason. With this illumination, the nous sees God
in the Spirit. With the power of the Holy Spirit (44), it acquires the
spiritual experience and hears things unheard and sees things
unseen (45). Not only the envisioned Divine Light, but even the seeing
power by which the nous sees, is a spiritual power found
incomparably higher than the created rational powers. And this
power is provided by Divine Grace (46). The vision of Divine Light
takes place in those who have spiritual eyes and the mind of Christ,
with which they behold the invisible and comprehend the
incomprehensible (47). The nous of the faithful sees the spiritual
realities with clarity when it becomes one Spirit with the Lord (48).
Then he knows the things of God, since only the Spirit knows the
things of God (49). Thus, the Divine Light becomes visible with the
transformation of the senses, which is precisely why it remains
invisible to other people during its charismatic manifestation (50).
Besides this, Divine Grace is acquired by the saints as supernatural
and Divine participation, according to the same parameters that
scientific knowledge is acquired by scientists, which while being
always present in them, its action manifests itself only when
necessary (51). As energy of the Holy Spirit in a pure soul, it appears
as the power of sight in the healthy eye (52) and becomes one with
the entire man, much like the unity of the members of the body and
the unity of the soul to the body (53).

The Divine Light is envisioned by its own Light (54), with a vision
energized by the Holy Spirit (55). How does this take place exactly?
In reality, the method by which the invisible God is seen is
inexpressible. Saint Paul, to whom Palamas refers, will tell us that
this happens “in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by
the Holy Spirit.” (56). The champion of Hesychasm proceeds towards
very profound clarifications. The immaterial nous, he says, gazing
toward the first, the supreme and true Light—God, without turning
back, with the immaterial, incessant and pure prayer, and having
already transformed to the angelic office, after being enveloped by
the same first Light, he also appears the same by participation with
the One Who is the archetype according to cause. Then he
radiates, having the comeliness of the mystical beauty, the
brilliance and the ineffable radiance (57). In this manner, this Light,
which is God, illumines its participants charismatically with their
union with it in an inexpressible way (58). The deified, beholding in
themselves the uncreated Light, see the garment of their deification
(theosis) which Christ promised to them in His archieratical prayer,
and according to that prayer He wanted them to be with him and to
behold His glory (59).


NOTES

1 See Saint Gregory Palamas, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts,

Homily 1,2,12, and 2.2.2. Gregory Palamas, Apanta ta Erga, EPE,

Vol. 1, Introduction-Translation-Comments by P. Christou, 

Thes/niki 1981, pg. 10.

2 See In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1,2,8.

3 See. In the life of Saint Peter of Athos, 18, in Saint Gregory 

Palamas, Apanta erga, EPE Vol. 8, Thessaloniki 1994, pg. 298

4 In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1,3,12.

5 Ibid. Homily 1, 2, 2.

6 See, the life of Saint Peter of Athos, Ibid pg. 302.

7 In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1, 3, 46.

8 Homily 2, 1, 34 with reference to John 17, 21-24.

9 Homily 1, 2, 6.

10 Homily 2, 1, 14.

11 Homily 3, 3, 9.

12 Romans 8, 15: “you received a spirit of sonship.”

13 See. “Peri theias kai theopoious methekseos 4.

14 See. Toward John and Theodoros the philosophers 21, 

Gregory Palamas, Apanta ta erga, EPE, Vol.8, pg. 456.

15 See. In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 3, 2, 1.

16 Homily 2, 3, 37.

17 Homily 1, 3, 29.

18 Homily 2, 3, 6.

19 Homily 3, 1, 8.

20 See Homily 1, 3, 7, with reference to Saint Makarios, 

Homilies 5, 10, Pg. 34, 516A

21 Homily 3, 2, 17.

22 Homily 1, 3, 2, 7.

23 Homily 2, 3, 6.

24 Homily 1, 3, 10.

25 Homily 2, 3, 8.

26 See, Saint John Damaschene, Homily about Transfiguration 12,

Pg. 96, 564B, in Saint Gregory Palamas, about Divine energies 11.

27 See Saint Gregory Palamas, Homily 406, Pg. 36, 365A:

‘phos El paradeihtheisa theotis epi tou orous tois mathites, in Saint

Gregory Palamas, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, 

Homily 3, 1, 12.

28 See Saint Gregory Palamas, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts.

29 John 14, 23. It is quite obvious that with his “words” he means 

His commandments, because previously in the same context, 

instead of his “words” which he uses here in this verse he used the

commandments, because he says “he that hath my commandments,

and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me? (John 14, 21) See In 

Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 2,3, 16.

30 John 14, 21.

31 See, Saint Gregory Palamas, about Divine energies 49.

32 Ibid. 48.

33 See. In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 2, 1, 44.

34 Ibid Homily 2, 3, 17

35 Ibid Homily 2, 3, 18 with reference to 2nd Peter 1, 19.

36 Ibid Homily 2, 3, 35

37 Ibid Homily 1, 3, 17.

38 See Saint John Sinaitis, Klimax 26 Pg. 1033 AB, in Saint Gregory

Palamas, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1, 3, 49.

39 See In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1, 3, 52.

40 See Homily 1, 3, 44.

41 See. Saint Gregory Palamas “To the most reverend nun Xenia.”,

About passions and virtue, 43 with reference to Hebrews 12, 14.

42 In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1, 3, 10

43 Ibid. Homily 2, 3, 10.

44 See, Homily 2, 3, 11.

45 See, Saint Gregory Palamas towards John and Theodoros the

philosophers 18, in Saint Gregory Palamas, Apanta ta Erga, EPE

vol. 8 Thessaloniki 1994, pg. 452.

46 See, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 3, 2, 14.

47 See Homily 1, 3, 16, with reference to 1st Cor. 2, 16.

48 Ibid Homily 1, 3, 17, with reference to 1st Cor. 6, 17.

49 Ibid Homily 1, 3, 16, with reference to 1st Cor. 2, 11.

50 Ibid Homily 2,3, 22.

51 See Saint Gregory Palamas, Peri theias kai theopoious 

metheseos 15, with reference to Basil the Great, on the Holy Spirit

pg. 26, 32, 180 C.

52 Ibid 181 A.

53 See. Maximos the Confessor, About questions, pg. 91, 1088 BC.

54 See Psalm 35, 10: ‘In your light we shall see light.”

55 See In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 3, 3, 5.

56 1st Cor. 2, 13, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts.

57 See. In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Homily 1, 3, 24.

58 Ibid Homily 1, 3, 24.

59 Ibid Homily 1, 3, 5 with reference to John 17, 24.