What is knowledge, and how do we acquire it? No Western philosopher even comes close to the way the Orthodox Church answers these questions. According to Orthodox Tradition, "the source of Orthodox spiritual knowledge is divine revelation given to the Prophets, the Apostles, the Church Fathers and the Saints of every age, even to the present time, during the experience of 'theosis".(vision of the divine reality- emphases mine). Fr John Romanides
According to St Maximos the Confessor, "The soul would never be able to reach out toward the knowledge of God if God did not allow Himself to be touched by it through condescension and by raising it up to him. Indeed the human mind as such would not have the
strength to raise itself to apprehend any divine illumination did not God Himself draw it up, as far as it is possible for the human mind to be drawn, and illumine it with divine brightness". From 'Maximos Confessor Selected Writings', Chapters on Knowledge #31 p.134, Trans. by George C. Berthold, The Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press New York 1985
This indeed was the experience of the Apostles,"When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' So they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 'Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Matthew 16:13-17 NKJV
During the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the pattern of the way to the knowledge of God was revealed in the experience of the Apostles Peter, John and James, "Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud over-shadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “ This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone." Matthew 17:1-8 NASB
This experience was not to be exclusive to the three closest disciples but it became also the way in which the other disciples (who saw the Lord after the resurrection) and generations of saints have seen the Lord and have acquired the knowledge of God, for centuries, even
unto our present day.
Fr John Romanides tells us that, "When you behold God Who is Love, then faith in God and all the concepts related to faith, together with hope in God and all the concepts related to hope are set aside. The concepts are taken away, because they are replaced by the vision of the Beloved Himself. During an experience of 'theosis' or glorification, this Love is the vision of God. Then a person is glorified. He sees Christ in glory and partakes of the glory of Christ. He experiences participation in God.
Theosis is not an ecstasy. It is not something that only the human rational faculty experiences. During the experience of theosis, the entire man participates in this experience. Even the body participates with all its senses in normal working order. When someone sees Christ in glory, that person is completely alert. So this person does not see something in his mind. He sees with his
body as well.
When the uncreated Light becomes visible, it is much more luminous and intense than the light of the sun, and yet it is by nature different from sunlight. It is the very Light of the Transfiguration. In fact, this Light is not even light as we understand it and are familiar with it. Why not? Because the uncreated Light transcends light.
Although the saint is in a supra-natural state during an experience of theosis, he continues to mix with those around him as before. The only difference is that he does not eat, sleep, or relieve himself for the duration of this state, since his condition is above nature and his life is sustained solely by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
If this state lasts for forty days and forty nights, as it did with Moses on Mount Sinai, the person in this state does not sleep, does not grow tired, does not eat, does not drink, and so forth for so many days and so many nights."
Patristic Theology pp. 73, 74,75 by Fr John Romanides, Uncut Mountain Press 2008.
What is the place of dogma and the scriptures after the experience of revelation has taken place? What happens after the vision of Christ in glory?" Fr Sophrony of Essex who himself experienced the vision of God in Uncreated Light tells us that, "A genuine theological process has revelation 'from above' as its starting point: the intellect can only theologize on the basis of the given revelation.
In church tradition the datum of revelation is encapsulated in the form of dogma: 'The human spirit, confronted by dogma, will then look for its own ways to assimilate the gifts of divine revelation and to appropriate what they contain. This predominance of revelation in theology determines the task of theology: in fact, it is not a speculative building up of new theological systems with a more perfected logical framework, but an exposition of the datum 'from above' and an integration of the divine revelation into the categories of human experience and expression. "Theological development fundamentally has no other function than that of rendering unchangeable dogmatic truths accessible to souls by 'translating' them into a language suited to the men for whom they were intended." ( Fr Sophrony in 'La felicite de connaitre la voie' p. 25-26). From 'I Love therefore I am' p.41-42, Nicholas V. Sakharov, SVS Press 2002
And as Fr John Romanides explains above, the direct vision of Christ in glory communicates the knowledge of God to the heart of man in a way that human language, concepts and images cannot contain or express in its fullness. The human nous (sometimes translated mind but not to be confused with the brain or reason), is the organ of the soul by which man can know God and have communion with Him. The nous knows intuitively, that is, it knows by direct immediate knowledge without the need of discourse (deductive reasoning). 'The divine initiative through revelation presupposes a personal relationship between the recipient (man) and the source of the revelation (God). Spiritual Knowledge is 'living', ontological, and personal." 'I Love therefore I am'
p.42-43
St Gregory Palamas stresses the importance of the Christian's need of purification and sanctification to acquire knowledge of God in the 'Triads' where he wrote, "One who has cleared his soul of all connection with things of this world, who has detached himself from everything by keeping the commandments and by the dispassion that this brings, and who has passed beyond all cognitive activity through continuous, sincere and immaterial prayer, and who has been abundantly illuminated by the inaccessible light in an inconceivable union, he alone, becoming light, contemplating by the light and beholding the light, in the vision and enjoyment of this light recognizes truly that God is transcendentally radiant and beyond comprehension; he glorifies God not only beyond his nous's human power of understanding, for many created things are beyond that, but even beyond that marvelous union which is the only means by which the nous is united with what is beyond intelligible things, `imitating divinely the supracelestial nouses" St Gregory Palamas *
(See Note) Quoted by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos in his article, "Knowledge of God According to St Gregory Palamas Source
This is what the Apostle Paul means when he writes to the Church of Corinth, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6.
As Professor Harry Boosalis explains, notice how brilliantly the Apostle connects these three things, knowledge of God, the vision of the Uncreated Light of the Glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.
This knowledge is communicated directly and immediately to the heart of Christ's disciple who is striving to keep the commandments and purify his heart.
The Lord assures us that, "He who loves me will keep my word and my Father shall love him and we will come and dwell in him" John 14:23
"This communion in being is realized by the indwelling of God, of the Holy Spirit in man, by which man goes beyond the categories of empirical knowledge and is lifted up to the contemplation of the Divine reality. According to Father Sophrony, "Only the dwelling
in us of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will give us authentic knowledge of God" 'I Love therefore I am" p.44-45
St Maximos the Confessor also, explains the experience of the transfiguration in a very moving way. It brings consolation and hope to us who are striving in the hope to see the Lord, "For the Lord does not always appear in glory to those who are standing before Him; rather, He comes in the form of a servant to beginners,... Thus it is possible for the Lord
not to appear in the same form to all those who meet him, but to some in one way and to others in another way, that is, by varying the contemplation (of Him) according to the measure of faith in each one."
Maximos Confessor Selected Writings p.150
Thus we begin to understand the words of our Lord when He said, " You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." John 5:39-40 NASB
St Maximos, filled with the Spirit and with clear vision fully understands the meaning of the Transfiguration and the place of the Scriptures in relation to the revelation. With words that sound more like a hymn of praise than a dogmatic statement he bears witness toHim who is the Truth,
"When the Word of God becomes bright and shinning in us, and His face is dazzling as the sun, then also will His clothes be radiant, that is, the clear and distinct words of the Holy Scripture of the Gospels now no longer veiled. Then Moses and Elijah will stand beside Him, that is, the more spiritual meanings of the Law and the Prophets." Maximos Confessor Selected Writings p.150, Trans. by George C. Berthold, Paulist Press 1985
St John Chrysostoms encourages us to read and study the scriptures while remembering that our Lord
Jesus Christ is the Revelation Himself,
"It were indeed meet for us not at all to require the aid of the written word, but to exhibit a life so pure, that the grace of the Spirit should be instead of books to our souls, and that as these are inscribed with ink, even so should our hearts be with the Spirit. But, since we have utterly put away from us this grace, come, let us at any rate embrace the second best course.
For that the former was better, God hath made manifest, both by His words, and by His doings. Since unto Noah, and unto Abraham, and unto his offspring, and unto Job, and unto Moses too, He discoursed not by writings, but Himself by Himself, finding their mind pure. But after the whole people of the Hebrews had fallen into the very pit of wickedness, then and thereafter was a written word, and tables, and the admonition which is given by these.
And this one may perceive was the case, not of the saints in the Old Testament only, but also of those in the New. For neither to the apostles did God give anything in writing, but instead of written words He promised that He would give them the grace of the Spirit: for “He,” saith our Lord, “shall bring all things to your remembrance.”
And that thou mayest learn that this was far better, hear what He saith by the Prophet: “I will make a new covenant with you, putting my laws into their mind, and in their heart I will write them,” and, 'they shall be all taught of God.” And Paul too, pointing out the same superiority, said, that they had received a law “not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.'
But since in process of time they made shipwreck, some with regard to doctrines, others as to life and manners, there was again need that they should be put in remembrance by the written word. Reflect then how great an evil it is for us, who ought to live so purely as not even to need written words, but to yield up our hearts, as books, to the Spirit; now that we have lost that honor, and are come to have need of these, to fail again in duly employing even this second remedy.
For if it be a blame to stand in need of written words, and not to have brought down on ourselves the grace of the Spirit; consider how heavy the charge of not choosing to profit even after this assistance, but rather treating what is written with neglect, as if it were cast forth without purpose, and at random, and so bringing down upon ourselves our punishment with increase.
But that no such effect may ensue, let us give strict heed unto the things that are written; and let us learn how the Old Law was given on the one hand, how on the other the New Covenant." Homily 1 from the Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew Source
With compunction of heart we must entreat our Lord Jesus Christ and pray,
"Sanctify me by your mysteries, illumine my mind with knowledge of you, cause your hope to shine forth in my heart, deem me worthy to supplicate for it, God my Father and Lord of my life; illumine your lamp within me, place in me what belongs to you so that I may forget what belongs to myself.
Cast upon me the constraint of wonder at you, so that the constraint of nature may be overpowered by it. Stir upon within me the vision of your mysteries so that I may become aware of what was placed in me at holy baptism.
You have placed within me a guide: may he show me your glory at all times. You made me to be light and salt for the world: may I not prove a stumbling-block for my companions.
Seeing that I have left the world, may I never again look back to it and to the things which I renounced when I made my promise to you.
Cast reigns of delight upon my heart, so that my senses may not gaze beyond the paths of your law. Rig together my impulses for the ship of repentance, so that in it I may exult as I travel over the world's sea until I reach the haven of your hope.
When I am tempted, may my mind take courage from the recollection of you. Illumine the dark path before me by the brilliance that comes from awareness of you," St Isaac the Syrian The Prayers of St Isaac the Syrian p.16, Trans. by Sebastian Brock, Divine Ascent
Press 2011.
*Note
Dr Christopher Veniamin, in his Notes to the Homilies
of St Gregory Palamas, p. 533 n.26 writes,
"We should point out here that in the theology of St Gregory Palamas, as in the case with the Patristic tradition more widely, there is no room for an 'analogy of being' (analogia entis), and thus also for a 'natural theology', that is to say, he does not believe that we may come to a knowledge of God through knowledge of creation. According to St. Gregory, knowledge of God can only be attained by divine revelation, which means through direct and unmediated communion with God Himself. The natural theology of the post-Augustinian western theological tradition, therefore, which claims that knowledge of God is obtainable by reason alone, is not to be confused with 'natural contemplation, (φυσικη θεωρια), which is found in the Fathers, and which refers to the spiritual vision of creation made possible only by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And in Note 27 Dr Veniamin adds, "...On the deeper spiritual level, when man is illumined by the grace of the Holy Spirit - and so sees created things spiritually and not merely according to the senses- he is able to discern that the whole creation is ordered and bound together in the divine Logos (the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ).
Saint Gregory Palamas The Homilies, edited and translated from the original Greek by Dr. Christopher Veniamin, Mount Thabor Publishing 2009
See also, "Double Knowledge according to St Gregory Palamas by Dr. Π.
Κ. Χρήστου (P. Christou)
Από: Π. Κ. Χρήστου, Θεολογικά Μελετήματα, τ. 3 (Νηπτικά και Ησυχαστικά),
Θεσσαλονίκη 1977
