Selah:
We've replaced access to God via priests with access to God via theologians.
Who are "theologians", from an EO standpoint?
Hint: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Quote from the page...
So the Fathers living in theoria (vision of God) are the real theologians or even the real theology, since theology fills their whole existence.
Another extended quote from this page...
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St. Isaac the Syrian speaks of three kinds of knowledge. Let us examine how they differ, for I think that this will show us how the Orthodox tradition differs from the human cultural tradition, how divine knowledge differs from human knowledge.
There are three conceivable ways in which knowledge ascends and descends. These ways are body, soul and spirit (p.258). Indeed when the Fathers speak of body, soul and spirit they do not mean the three parts of man, but by the word `spirit' they mean the gift of grace, that divine grace with which man is blessed. Without the grace of God a man is said to be a man of soul or flesh, while with the presence of grace he is called spiritual. While the nature of knowledge is one, it is refined and changes its modes according to these intelligible and sensible realms (p.258). Thus just as there are three sentient and intelligible modes: body, soul and spirit, so there are three kinds of knowledge related to them. According to the kind of knowledge which a man possesses, he shows his spiritual progress and his spiritual condition. Moreover, the kind of knowledge which someone has is an indication of his purification and healing. One whose soul is unhealthy has bodily knowledge, while one who is being healed has soul knowledge, and one who has been healed has spiritual knowledge. The latter knows the mysteries of the Spirit, which are unknown and incomprehensible to the man of flesh.
The first knowledge is acquired by constant study and diligence in learning, the second knowledge comes from a pure and good manner of life and from the mind's faith, and the third knowledge "is allotted to faith alone. For by faith knowledge is abolished, works come to an end, and the employment of the senses becomes superfluous" (p.264).
Let us look more analytically, on the basis of St. Isaac's teaching, at these three kinds of knowledge which indicate the sickness or health of a man's soul.
First, bodily knowledge. Some characteristic elements of human knowledge which are connected with the desires of the flesh are wealth, vainglory, adornment, bodily rest, and assiduity in rational wisdom, such as is suitable for the governance of the world and which devises the novelties of inventions and arts and sciences (p.258). This knowledge is opposed to faith, as we have explained before, because it thinks that "all things are by its own providence" (p.258). Wisdom and knowledge of things of this world without the other two kinds of knowledge are useless and create many problems for man. This knowledge is shallow and rude, for it is "naked of all concern for God" (p.258). Its concern is only for this world, and because it is controlled by the body, "it introduces into the mind an irrational impotence" (p.258).
Most men of our time, unhealed in soul, possess this knowledge and cultivate it continually. The whole of contemporary civilisation, which creates many anomalies of soul and body, is in this state. Hence this one-sidedness of knowledge creates many problems. Here is how St. Isaac describes them. The man of this bodily knowledge is a prey to faint-heartedness, sorrow, despair, fear of the demons, trepidation before men, the rumour of thieves and the report of murders, anxiety over illnesses, concern over want and the lack of necessities, fear of death, fear of sufferings, of wild beasts and of other similar things that make up the sea of the present life (p.258). The man who possesses this human and bodily knowledge does not know how to abandon himself to God's mercy but tries in his own ways to solve the various problems. But when he cannot give solutions, for different reasons, then he "strives with men as though they hindered and opposed" this knowledge (p.258). He comes to blows with men because they hinder the possession of the goods of bodily knowledge.
This bodily knowledge, worldly care, completely eradicates love. It makes one examine other people's small sins and errors and their causes, and their weaknesses, it makes one dogmatise and oppose the words of others, become sly in all one's doings and devise ways to dishonour people. This knowledge contains presumption and pride (p.259).
We see clearly that bodily knowledge is characteristic of contemporary civilisation. With prophetic insight St. Isaac presents the causes and pursuits of this carnal man, describes his struggle and anguish, and also presents the frightful results of this bodily knowledge. Disturbance of personal relationships, lack of love, obstinacy and cunning in all actions are the things which define the contemporary man who is sick in soul, far from God.
The second knowledge, that of the soul. When a man renounces the first, bodily, fleshly knowledge and turns to the desires and conversations of the soul, then all the good deeds of the soul's knowledge follow. These are fasting, prayer, mercy, reading of the Scriptures, the modes of virtue, battle with the passions, and so forth (p.258). All these deeds are made perfect by the Holy Spirit. They do not happen by the power of man but by the working together of man and the Holy Spirit. There are stages in the acquisition of knowledge. The second degree of knowledge is made perfect "when it has laid the foundation of its action on seclusion from men, reading the Scriptures, and prayer" (p.260). That is to say, the possessor of this knowledge of the soul lives in stillness, with all that implies, as we described in the preceding chapter. He prays to God unceasingly and studies the Scriptures in this holy atmosphere of stillness in order to nourish his soul, not in order to learn the words of God out of curiosity. This category includes those people who are being cured of psychic ulcers and the wounds of their soul. This cure offers a knowledge which can be called the preliminary stage and anteroom of that other, spiritual knowledge, which the coming of the grace of God will provide in the heart of man.
The third, spiritual knowledge. When man's knowledge is raised above worldly concerns and begins to see inwardly "what is hidden from the eyes" and when it scorns the things "from which the perverseness of the passions arises" and stretches itself upward in its desire for the promises of the age to come and in its searching into hidden mysteries, "then faith itself swallows up knowledge, converts it, and begets it anew, so that it becomes wholly and completely spirit" (p.261).
Then it can fly to the places of the bodiless angels; it knows the spiritual mysteries, the governings of the spiritual and the corporeal. That is to say, it knows the inner principles of beings. Then the inner senses awaken and the soul receives the resurrection which gives assurance of the future resurrection of men. St. Isaac, who possessed this spiritual knowledge which is the life of faith, wrote: "Then it can soar in the realms of the bodiless and touch the depths of the unfathomable sea, musing upon the wondrous and divine workings of God's governance of intelligible and corporeal creatures. It searches out spiritual mysteries that are perceived by the simple and subtle nous. Then the inner senses awaken for spiritual doing, according to the order that will be in the immortal and incorruptible life. For even from now it has received, as it were in a mystery, the intelligible resurrection as a true witness of the universal renewal of all things" (p,261).
This knowledge was possessed by all the saints of God, such as Moses, David, Isaiah, the Apostle Peter, the Apostle Paul and all the saints who were accounted worthy of this perfect knowledge, "to the degree possible for human nature" (p.259). In reality this knowledge comes from vision of God and of the uncreated light, from divine revelations or, as St. Isaac puts it, "by diverse contemplations and divine revelations, by the lofty vision of spiritual things and by ineffable mysteries..." (p.259). Then knowledge is swallowed up by these visions of God and the person feels that he is dust and ashes (p.259). He acquires the blessed state of humility and simplicity. Thus spiritual knowledge, that is, knowledge of God, is the fruit of theoria. It is received by the person who has progressed from carnal knowledge to that of the soul and thence to spiritual knowledge.
Briefly one can say that the first knowledge "renders the soul cold to works that go in pursuit of God". The second knowledge warms the soul to the swift course "on the level of faith". The third knowledge is rest from labour, "which is the type of the age to come, for the soul takes delight solely in the mind's meditation upon the mysteries of the good things to come" (p.262).
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
"I love, therefore I am in I Am." Post Edited (One Love) : 10/31/2008 2:33:44 PM (GMT-5) |