By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
The feast of Saint Gregory Palamas, on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, celebrates a man who lived at a crucial time in history (1296-1359), which allows us to realize that his teaching is actually rather topical, since there are a good number of similarities with our own age. Naturally, his teaching isn’t his own invention, since he was expressing the teaching of the Orthodox Church in those turbulent times.
Historical Context
Precisely at that time, three terrible enemies appeared, who were eyeing the lands of the Roman Empire, and sought to alter its cultural life.
The first danger came from the scholasticism of the West, which was inextricably linked with moralism, as expressed by the philosopher Barlaam. Some have tried to present Barlaam as a Hellenizing Father of the Church or even an advocate of Nominalism, as expressed by William of Ockham. As Father John Romanides proved, Barlaam was a Platonist philosopher and was in opposition to the entire Orthodox Tradition. Indeed, his theology was idealistic and dualistic, since it distinguished the soul from the body, depreciated the latter and moved within the framework of classical metaphysics.
The second danger came from the Ottomans. At the end of the 13th century a horde of Seljuk Turks, called the Ghuzz (or Oghuz), had as their leader a certain Osman (or Othman), who was the founder of the Ottoman dynasty, to whom he gave his name, and began to occupy the provinces of Asia Minor. During the time of Saint Gregory Palamas and specifically in 1354 AD, for the first time the Ottomans entered Thrace, occupying Gallipoli. Then Gregory was also arrested and remained a prisoner for about a year. During his captivity he held a dialogue both with Ismail, Orhan's grandson, in Prussia, and with the Chiones, a syncretist group who presented themselves as the theologians of the Turks. He also had a dialogue with a Tasimani responsible for the burial of the dead. These dialogues are quite interesting.
The third danger came from the Slavs, specifically from Stefan Dusan, who had captured all of Macedonia, except Thessaloniki, as well as Epirus, Thessaly and part of Central Greece. In fact, on Easter 1346 in his capital Skopje, he convened a great Synod, which elected a Patriarch of the Serbs and proclaimed Stefan the King of the Serbs and Romans. Of course, to be precise, we would say that Stefan Dusan was then seeking to seize the throne of Constantinople, in order to be the successor of the Roman Emperors. It was a standoff within the bosom of the Roman Empire.
The existence of these three factors was also accompanied by parallel cultural and religious movements. Mainly there prevailed a moralism which was foreign from the existential problems of man, a eudaimonism and Eastern mysticism. If one also adds the revival of the Messalian heresy, whom Saint Gregory Palamas encountered on Papikio Mountain, and who are connected with the Bogomils, then one realizes the problems of that time.
Creative and Robust Theology
Saint Gregory Palamas opposed these dangers with a robust theology. He spoke of the union of the created and the uncreated, denied metaphysics, emphasized serious anthropological issues, such as the relationship between soul and body and the distinction of nous from logos, the connection between the mysteries and asceticism, he avoided agnosticism and pantheism, and replaced eudaimonism with Orthodox asceticism. Also his social teaching was famous. Besides these, Saint Gregory Palamas, as a traditional Roman, refused to collude with the enemies of Romiosini and presented the whole essence of the Orthodox Tradition. Thus he himself contributed to the armoring of our race, but also to the flourishing observed in the 14th century. The famous Byzantine scholar Steven Runciman writes that in the days of the Palaiologoi, when Byzantium was slowly but inevitably dying, there was, in contrast to the general decline, the most brilliant period of Byzantine education.
If one adds that disciples of Saint Gregory Palamas and other hesychasts transferred the potential of the hesychast tradition to the Slavs, then one can appreciate even more his contribution, which we cannot derogatorily and mockingly call "navel-gazing" or "navel-breathing". At the very least it constitutes ignorance that such exhibit.
The teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas is topical and needs to be studied even more. And since this year marks the 700th anniversary of his birth, I suggest that there be celebrations, events, scientific conferences to present his ambitious work. Much more since the Westerners are taking parallel actions, setting up scientific groups, organizing conferences, creating schools to reduce and belittle his teaching and personality.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.