Nah.

Symeon the New Theologian: On the Divine Light

http://www.monachos.net/library/Symeon_the_New_Theologian:_On_the_Divine_Light

Symeon the New Theologian, Trebnic Prayer

From Monachos.net

Thou, Oh Christ, art the Kingdom of Heaven; Thou, Oh Christ, art the kingdom of Heaven; Thou, the land promised to the meek; Thou, the meadowland of paradise; Thou, the hall of the celestial banquet; Thou, the ineffable bridal chamber; Thou, the table set for all, Thou, the bread of life; Thou, the unheard of drink; Thou, both the urn for the water and the life-giving water; Thou, moreover, the inextinguishable lamp for each one of the saints; Thou, the garment and the crown and the One Who bestoweth the crowns; Thou, the joy and rest; Thou, the delight and glory; Thou, the gladness and mirth; And Thy grace, the grace of the Spirit of all sanctity, will shine like the sun in all the saints; And Thou, the unapproachable Sun, wilt shine in their midst; and all will shine brightly, according to the measure of their faith, their asceticism, their hope and their love, their purification, and their illumination by Thy Spirit.

Amen.

Post Edited (PotOnWheel) : 7/14/2007 8:18:31 PM (GMT-5)

The quest for a harmonious relationship between humanity and the environment quickens as ecological problems escalate in our modern world. Irresponsible use of the environment has caused pollution, diminished natural resources, accumulation of radioactive waster, disease, famine, and abnormal climatic conditions. In response to the myriad solutions offered by the scientific community, Anestis G. Keselopoulos proposes another dimension, a theological solution put forth ten centuries ago by the Byzantine mystic St Symeon the New Theologian.

More a vision than a concrete solution, St Symeon's perception of the human being relative to the universe provides a gauge for the use of scientific data. St Symeon addresses the misuse of material goods, social inequality due to privatizing what belongs to the community and waste due to excessive wealth. He bemoans the rape of the earth.

Claiming that the duty of the human being is to elevate creation to a state of beauty consistent with the intentions of the Creator, Symeon charges humanity with the awesome task of perceiving the Word of God within creation and bringing that logos, that word, to fruition.

Anestis Keselopoulos is the Director of the Department of Ethics and Sociology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

ISBN 0-88141-221-X
6 x 9
192 pp
Price: US $15.00

 

If we quote an OCA webpage that says,

"Later on, in the eleventh century St Simeon the New Theologian (March 12) provided ... unapproachable in His Essence, reveals Himself through His energies, ..."  http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsLife.asp?FSID=103303

What we can notice is this - THAT THE EMPHASIS AND ATTENTION IN THAT SENTENCE IS UPON REVELATION. Stated is that through His energies God reveals Himself. And He does not reveal through His Essence.

That is NOT primarily, there, a comparison between essence and energies. Such language certainly predated Christian use of it. The terms and their teamwork are a tool.

But the main point is HOW God's revelation can reach us.

Soon Barlaam journeyed to Mt Athos, where he became acquainted with the spiritual life of the hesychasts'. Saying that it was impossible to know the essence of God, he declared mental prayer a heretical error. Journeying from Mount Athos to Thessalonica, and from there to Constantinople, and later again to Thessalonica, Barlaam entered into disputes with the monks and attempted to demonstrate the created, material nature of the light of Tabor (i.e. at the Transfiguration). He ridiculed the teachings of the monks about the methods of prayer and about the uncreated light seen by the hesychasts.

St Gregory, at the request of the Athonite monks, replied with verbal admonitions at first. But seeing the futility of such efforts, he put his theological arguments in writing. Thus appeared the "Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts" (1338). Towards the year 1340 the Athonite ascetics, with the assistance of the saint, compiled a general response to the attacks of Barlaam, the so-called "Hagiorite Tome." At the Constantinople Council of 1341 in the church of Hagia Sophia St Gregory Palamas debated with Barlaam, focusing upon the nature of the light of Mount Tabor. On May 27, 1341 the Council accepted the position of St Gregory Palamas, that God, unapproachable in His Essence, reveals Himself through His energies, which are directed towards the world and are able to be perceived, like the light of Tabor, but which are neither material nor created. The teachings of Barlaam were condemned as heresy, and he himself was anathemized and fled to Calabria.

Post Edited (jefscott) : 7/15/2007 7:54:35 AM (GMT-5)

Unison: God doesn't need Creation for absolute sentient satification, just like God doesn't need Creation to be God.

Jeff: I certainly agree with that.

Unison: Creation doesn't contribute anything to God's unsurpassably intense beautiful experience of Godself, which itself provides aesthetic satisfaction for God.

Jeff: Here's where I'm not clear. I have no problem with saying there is some kind of satisfaction that the godhead experiences from its relationality that can not be improved upon--the unity part. But I have no way of ruling out that God is sympathetic (=compassionate). These words have the idea of experiencing pathos or passion WITH another. So God suffers WITH us and WITH the incarnate Son as he suffers, to my mind. In this sense, His total sentient state can be surpassed from what it currently is precisely because creation diminishes it. Our creation occasions SOFA's which necessitate love that suffers long. Divine experience, sans creation, occasions no such SOFA's.

Unison: Yet, God actively chooses to be a CREATOR...creating and engaging Creation as an free, ecstatic act of self-giving and self-revelation. I think this is distinct from saying that God is indifferent to Creation.

Jeff: I agree. That's why I added two other possibilities. Both the other possibilities are problematic to me, though, also.

Unison: As I see it, self-giving (meaning doing something for someone else "at the expense of yourself" ) doesn't necessitate a decrease in sentient satisfaction in one's self-giving activity. Self-giving may involve the ability to be ill-affected sentiently, but it doesn't necessitate it. Am I wrong on that?

Jeff: I have always thought the phrase "at the expense of" had the idea of "at the cost to." But cost has the idea of a diminishing of total sentient satisfaction. What other meaning could it have? In what other way can a SOFA cost us?

Unison: It would seem that God would experiences our pain on a much deeper level than even we do.

AND...

This is the thought I had. Just because it "costs" Bill Gates something to buy an object doesn't mean that it truly "costs" him something. See what I mean?

Jeff: I see what you're saying. But it seems simpler to make the degree aspect of the insignificance of the suffering in terms of the TIME it is endured as opposed to the TIME that the benefits are experienced. Why? Because Jesus said if you've seen him, you've seen the Father. Jesus seemingly suffered significantly--not like Bill Gates. Yet the joy set before him made that cost insignificant in the long run. It's about the difference in duration of the pain vs. the pleasure, as far as I can tell--not a about a hardly noticeable degree of suffering at the time of the suffering.

It is precisely the degree and duration of Christ's suffering, that stands as an example of his love to us. It is also the example of the Father's love. The minute we say that Christ or the Father can't even hardly feel their suffering because of the overwhelmingness of their pleasure, it means that we shouldn't really suffer to any consciously noticeable degree either. So we need to say that if that's what we're claiming Christ's example really was. But what sense does it mean to say we're suffering if we don't even notice it any more than Bill Gates notices the cost, to him, of a chocolate bar? I think I would sound really silly trying to explain to people that I'm suffering in that way.