The Orthodox Theology as Expression

December 28, 2022

Perhaps the principle way in which the Orthodox Theology differs from modern, Western methods is in its strict insistence that the theology of the Church as expressed is not true knowledge of God, rather words about God so as to lead us to an experience of Him.

In this way, the Orthodox Church teaches a theological method that is completely divorced and at odds with the theological methods of the modern Western tradition—the modern Western tradition being predicated upon the mediation of God to creatures by way of created things.

As St. Gregory Palamas states, "According to them, knowledge is the only illumination that transcends the senses, and so they declare it to be superior to the divine light, and the goal of all contemplation." - The Triads, ed. Richard J. Payne and John Meyendorff

This knowledge spoken of by St. Gregory Palamas is the scholastic knowledge of the West applied to Divine revelation. For in knowing the Scriptures, there is knowledge in part, but in knowing the essential principles of divine things, the created order, and—so boldly claimed!—the Essence of God Himself, there is consummate knowledge. And to obtain this consummate knowledge—the knowledge of God as in the beatific vision—the Western method of theological inquiry demands the philosophical arts be used as a necessary tool to penetrate the inner principles of being.

Concerning this madness Thomas raves, "since understanding is an operation most proper to man, it follows that his happiness must be held to consist in that operation when perfected in him. Now since the perfection of an intelligent being as such is the intelligible object, if in the most perfect operation of his intellect man does not attain to the vision of the Divine essence, but to something else, we shall be forced to conclude that something other than God is the object of man's happiness", Q 92, Supplementum Tertiæ Partis, Summa Theologiae.

The Orthodox Church, rather, teaches that divine illumination is predicated on a principle of knowing that is beyond the known and the unknown—beyond the ability to know and the impasse of unknowing. That is, in the darkness of unknowing, the creature transcends his creaturely capacity for knowledge of things and enters the realm of divinity via contemplation. This method of theological attainment is proved through the purification of the human soul's cognitive faculty, and the visitation of divine grace by direct and immediate intercourse.

In this way, the human is illumined by Divine and Uncreated Light in both body and soul. The sensible things of the divinity being communicated to the creature in his sensible capacities, and greater still, the super-sensible visitation of divine grace being communicated in a way ineffable and beyond the contemplation of the sensible intellect.

This divine and mystical theology is merely explained, expressed in words which are a human construct. And so it is that the expression of this theology is a base and crude thing, being totally incomparable to the experience of noetic intercourse with the pre-eternal Word of God, Christ our Master and Lord.

Were the Western theological speculators to experience this Divine Light (not being revealed to the sensible intellect but only to the soul's cognitive faculty) surely it would scorch them—so God in his wisdom and kindness, hides Himself from them so as to preserve them for the hoped for repentance. Yet, many, being turned toward the thrill of silly speculations and finite reasoning, think themselves to be achieving something which they will build upon in the next life—foolishness.

Were these silly speculators only to crucify a vain and imaginary thing: the sensible intellect, they could then embark upon the spiritual path which leads to true illumination of both soul and body. This "theoretical" and experiential intercourse is known by every single Orthodox saint, and those countless, hidden saints of our own day and days past who with meekness sought for noetic treasure beyond the mental vanities of sensible things.

© 7532 — The Neophytic Millennial

A Sub(par)stack by John Jared Foy