By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
The determination of the commemoration of Saint Gregory Palamas on the Second Sunday of Great Lent as a continuation of the Sunday of Orthodoxy shows his great value, and this is what this text will refer to.
We are familiar with the feast of the Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, the three-sunned luminaries of the Deity. We are also familiar with the ecclesiastical tradition that three saints have the title of Theologian: John the Theologian, Gregory the Theologian and Symeon the New Theologian. In the consciousness of the Church, Saint Gregory Palamas is counted as a fourth, belonging with the Three Hierarchs as well as with the Three Theologians. In texts he is characterized as a Theologian. The fact that we can speak of Four Hierarchs and Four Theologians shows the great value of Saint Gregory Palamas.
1. Saint Gregory and the Revelatory Tradition of the Church
Saint Gregory Palamas has been seen in two different ways. One view is that he was a conservative theologian who preserved old interpretations of the spiritual life, supporting the illiterate hesychast fathers, and the other is that he was a theologian who introduced new doctrines and new concepts into the Church. But the truth is that Saint Gregory is a traditional theologian par excellence, a bearer of the Orthodox Tradition. Conservatism and Tradition are two different things. The former conserves some patterns of the past, while the latter presents Revelation within the forms of the past. This is why Tradition is dynamic. We see this clearly in all the work of Saint Gregory Palamas.
Gregory Akindynos characterizes Saint Gregory Palamas as a "new theologian" and his teaching as the "new theology". John Kyparissiotes, an opponent of Saint Gregory, regarded him as "unusual about religion" and "imprudent". Contrary to them, Saint Gregory considers that he is not making up a new teaching, but is faithfully following the patristic tradition and praising the God of the Fathers "through the voices of the Fathers."
Saint Philotheos Kokkinos says that the Zealots of Thessaloniki did not accept him as Metropolitan, maintaining that the Saint had made innovations concerning the divine doctrines. "Some people were made uncertain by the suspicion of him and the rumors spread by the impious about his supposed innovations concerning the divine doctrines." Actually this was just a pretext.
As we have shown in our analysis, Saint Gregory Palamas did not introduce a new theology, but he interpreted and analyzed in detail the patristic tradition and theology of the Church within his own experience. The Saint was not satisfied just to cite patristic passages, as his opponents did, but he interpreted them within the authentic Orthodox framework and with the essential Orthodox presuppositions. This is why he is a great Father and Teacher of the Church.
Life in the Church is a common life. This means that all who attain an illuminated nous and a vision of the glory of God in the human nature of the Word, have the same theology. It is impossible for those who attain deification to have different opinions about Christ. Because Arius arrived at the assertion that the Word is created, he showed that he was not within the framework of the Church and the Fathers.
Our terminology changes through the ages. The deified have had the same experience, they know that the Word is "Light of Light, true God of true God," but they may have differed in terminology before the Ecumenical Synods. Yet when the deified meet at an Ecumenical Synod, then, because they have the same experience, they also agree on the terminology, that is to say "they easily agree about conforming the dogmatic expression of their equivalent experiences."
When the saints took part in Pentecost and received God’s revelation, they experienced the uncreated words and meanings which they then had to convey through created words and meanings. Pentecost has not been surpassed either as revelation or as understanding. That is to say that with the passing of time we do not have a better understanding of the Revelation, nor has that been granted to the Church at different periods of time, since it was delivered "once for all to the saints." However, the Holy Fathers safeguard the living tradition, which transcends thoughts and words, using the terms of the language of their time. And they do this when a heresy leads the faithful far from the experience of the Revelation, for that is spiritual death. (Father John Romanides)
Thus Saint Gregory Palamas, a bearer of the same Revelation and related in spirit to the Fathers of the Church, the Three Hierarchs and the Three Theologians, analyzed and presented the very same theology of the Holy Fathers, fighting against the particular heresy of the anti-hesychasts, who based themselves on philosophy and conjecture. It can be maintained that Saint Gregory not only analyzed the patristic teaching further, but also presented the theological presuppositions of Orthodox theology and the theology of the Ecumenical Synods, which, of course, we find in the whole patristic tradition. The basic presupposition of Orthodox theology is hesychasm.
In all our previous writings we have emphasized to the full that the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas cannot be characterized as Palamite theology, precisely because it is the theology of the Church. Usually the teaching of some heretic receives this name, because it differs from the teaching of the Orthodox Catholic Church. For this reason we cannot speak about a theology of the Cappadocian Fathers or about Alexandrian theology as if we were speaking of a different theology of the Church.
Of course it is possible and permissible to some degree for us to speak of the Cappadocian Fathers, when we mean their common birthplace and when we also want to point to their contribution to the shaping of the terminology. In other words, Athanasios the Great and Basil the Great had the same theology with regard to Revelation, but in accordance with the terms of their time they somehow used different terms for the things about which they agreed entirely. Concretely, I would say that in the thought of Athanasios the Great nature was identical with hypostasis, while in the thought of Basil the Great, which ultimately prevailed, nature was distinguished from hypostasis. Likewise Athanasios the Great could say that the Word is like the Father in everything from the point of view that there is no identity between created and uncreated. Consequently, when we say that the Word is like the Father we are pointing out that He is uncreated. But the term ‘homoousios’ prevailed, which was used at first by Paul of Samosata in a different perspective and with a different meaning.
Therefore, from the point of view of the essence of the Orthodox Tradition there is no Alexandrian theology or Cappadocian theology or Palamite theology. All the Holy Fathers attained deification and have the same experiences. This means that there is no particular theology according to the place of its origin. Father Romanides wrote very characteristically:
"All men regardless of nationality, race, and color have the noetic faculty and therefore the possibility of reaching illumination by means of purification and then if God pleases they may experience glorification at its varying degrees. In any case the varying levels of theoria are the highest experiences of Orthodox spiritual life and theology. Such a spiritual life and theology is neither Greek, nor Russian, nor Bulgarian, nor Serbian, etc., but rather prophetic, apostolic, or simply Christian. In the light of this one may put the question, what is 'Russian Spirituality', and why is it presented as something higher than or simply different from other Orthodox spiritualities?" (Father John Romanides).
2. Saint Gregory Palamas and the Three Hierarchs
The theology of Saint Gregory Palamas is the theology of the Church and of the Three Hierarchs, as long as the Three Hierarchs, as bearers of the Tradition, have a common life and teaching with Saint Gregory, and he is a bearer of the Orthodox Tradition. We see this well when we study the texts of Saint Gregory Palamas. He continually quotes excerpts from the works of the Three Hierarchs and other Fathers, interpreting the authentic ones. By his interpretive skill, because of their common experience he can present them in the Orthodox framework, correcting the erroneous meaning given by the heretics. The heretics always use the words and texts of the Holy Fathers in order to support their own views, distorting them beforehand and adapting them to their own frames of reference.
Thus the study of the works of Saint Gregory Palamas also shows us, apart from other things, the way in which the heretics and the Fathers work on this crucial theme. The heretics "creep" into the texts and distort them, while the Fathers present them in their authentic dimension. The problem, then, is not whether one cites patristic passages or not, but of understanding their content.
If we go back to the work of Saint Gregory "On the Holy Hesychasts" we shall find many passages from the Three Hierarchs being used to overthrow Barlaam’s arguments and to present the Orthodox teaching. It would take a great deal of time if I were to enumerate all the passages used by Saint Gregory from the works of the Three Hierarchs. I want simply to mention their works from which he drew the passages.
Basil the Great: from the "Hexaemeron", from "Homilies on the Psalms", from his "Refutation of Eunomios", from his "Interpretation of the Prophet Isaiah", from various homilies, from his work addressed to the youth, from the terms overall, from his work on the Holy Spirit, and from his letters.
Gregory the Theologian: from almost all his homilies and letters.
John Chrysostom:from his work "To Theodore", from "On the Incomprehensibility of God", from "Homilies on the Prophet Isaiah", "Homilies on Matthew the Evangelist", "Homilies on John the Evangelist", from the homilies on the epistles of the Apostle Paul.
The whole work of Saint Gregory Palamas can be summed up under three headings. One is the Holy Spirit, another is the distinction between essence and energy in God and the third is hesychasm - that is to say, the way of man’s cure, the way in which man attains communion with God and deification. And these three topics had also been confronted by the Three Hierarchs, because there were reasons for doing so in their time.
As to the first topic, on the Holy Spirit, no one can doubt that it was taken up by the Three Hierarchs. Moreover, their works on this have been preserved. There is room for doubt on the other two. But the Three Hierarchs were very much occupied with these subjects as well, because they were topical in their time.
The distinction between essence and energy in God was also a serious concern of the Fathers of the fourth century. The dispute between the Fathers and the Arians about whether the Word was created or uncreated had to do with the distinction between essence and energy. The Orthodox and the Arians were agreed that only God knows His essence, and thus He who knows the divine nature is God. The difference was that while the Arians believed that the Word does not know the essence of the Father and therefore is created, the Orthodox Fathers said that the Word knows the essence of the Father, which is also His own, and therefore He is uncreated. The Eunomians said that both the Word and man know the essence of God and therefore the Word is not uncreated. Since the Orthodox and the Arians maintained that creatures cannot know the essence of God, but they know His energy, therefore the Eunomians proclaimed that the uncreated essence is the same as the uncreated energy, so anyone who knows one also knows the other.
From these things we see that the distinction between essence and energy in God was being discussed in the early Church. So the fact that God has both essence and energy is taught not only by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, but also by the heretics, Paul of Samosata, the Arians and the Nestorians. All these heretics maintained that God relates to created beings only by will or by energy, and not by nature. The Arians maintained that God relates to the hypostatic Word not by nature, but by will, and therefore the Word is created. Paul of Samosata and the Nestorians proclaimed that in Christ God united Himself with man not by nature, but by His good will. In opposition to these heresies the Holy Fathers taught that God the Father begets the Son and sends forth the Holy Spirit by nature and not by will. The Holy Trinity creates the creatures by will out of nothing and relates to them by will. In Christ the Word was united hypostatically with human nature.
I have made this analysis in order to make it clear that the fourth century Fathers were concerned with the distinction between essence and energy in God. And of course this was not for conjectural reasons, but for pastoral and soteriological reasons, because the heretics were using philosophy to alter the Orthodox teaching. The development of the teaching about essence and energy relates to the divinity of the Word and the salvation of man.
The passage in Basil the Great to which Saint Gregory Palamas refers, that while the essence of God is incommunicable to man, he can partake of His energy, is well known. Basil the Great writes: "The energies are varied, but the essence is simple. We say that we know our God by His energies, but we cannot hope to approach His essence. For His energies come down to us, but His essence remains unapproachable." This passage is astonishing and shows the teaching of Basil the Great on the subject of the indivisible distinction between essence and energy in God.
Saint Gregory the Theologian teaches that man cannot know the essence of God. He writes: "What the nature and essence of God may be, no man has found, nor will he ever." Referring to personal experience, Saint Gregory the Theologian says that he has not seen the first pure nature, but the last which reaches us and which is called majesty. It is a matter of the essence and energy of God. Gregory the Theologian writes: "When I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God... and looking a little more closely, I saw, not the first and unmingled Nature, known to Itself, to the Trinity, I mean; not That which abides within the first veil and is hidden by the Cherubim; but only that Nature which at last even reaches to us. And that is, as far as I can learn, the Majesty."
And Saint John Chrysostom mentions in his works that man partakes of the energy of God, while he does not know His essence. He develops these subjects chiefly in his excellent homilies "On the Incomprehensibility of God", confronting the anomalies. I shall cite only two passages.
Interpreting the words of the Apostle Paul "we know in part," and referring to the heretics who say "he was speaking not about the essence but about the dispensations," he accepts the distinction between essence and energies, saying: "For if the dispensations are incomprehensible, much more is He Himself." Here Saint John Chrysostom is trying to prove that the dispensations, the energies, of God, are divine and not independent of God.
Interpreting the passage of the Prophet Isaiah "I saw the Lord", he says: "Do not suppose that he saw that essence, but this condescension, and this more indistinctly than even the powers above; for he could not have seen as much as the Cherubim."
But also the hesychastic way of life, that is to say the way in which man purifies his heart of the passions and rises to the vision of God, has been presented also by the Three Hierarchs, who are bearers of the Orthodox Tradition. I shall cite some indicative passages, because I am not going to make an exhaustive analysis of these topics in the teaching of the Three Hierarchs.
According to Basil the Great, the nous which is connected with the soul is a natural power of the soul and not an intrusion into the intelligent part of the soul. And just as the body’s sight is the eye, so "the sight of the soul innate in it is the nous." When someone has blinded this eye of the soul it is darkened, at which time we can speak of darkening of the nous and deadening of the person. "Because they had previously and of their own volition become blinded by darkening the eye of their soul, fearing to suffer as David did (Ps. 13:3), said: "Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep unto death." The nous must return into the person from its diffusion and it can do this whatever work it may be doing. The precise and true philosopher, who has his body as his work place and the safe hiding place of his soul, "even if he happens to be in the marketplace, even if he is giving a panegyric, even if in the field, even if among crowds of people, he is sitting in his natural monastery, collected within his nous and philosophizing on the things proper to him."
The passage is well known in which Basil the Great speaks about bringing his mind back to itself and about its ascent to God. This has also been cited by Saint Gregory Palamas. Saint Basil says that the man whose nous is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, "withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God." Then it is illuminated from without and within by the beauty of God and "becomes forgetful even of its own nature." In his works there are many places which refer to the vision of God.
Saint Gregory the Theologian makes a distinction between nous and word, as well as between nous and senses. He says: "How is the nous both circumscribed and unlimited, abiding in us and yet traveling over the universe in swift motion and flow? How is it both received and imparted by word, and passes through air, and enters with all things? How does it share in sense, and enshrouds itself away from sense?" In one homily he refers to his desire to go to the desert and stillness of soul and body, in order to concentrate his nous within himself, withdrawing it from the senses, in order to speak to God without stain and "to be a real unspotted mirror of divine things," and to be illuminated purely by the rays of the Spirit.
It is also well known that Saint Gregory the Theologian speaks clearly in his works about purity of heart and the illumination of the nous, which is the cure of man’s soul, and the true presupposition of Orthodox theology. Theology is not for everyone to practice, but for "those who have been examined and are proven to have vision of God and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified." Likewise it is for those whose ruling power, the nous, is not confused with vexations and erring images. Among these things we must also examine unceasing prayer, about which he says: "Remembrance of God is more important than breathing," as well as his own views as mentioned in his works.
Saint John Chrysostom represents the same perspective. But when he speaks in a closely packed auditorium and is doing pastoral teaching, he is more social. As we study the homilies of Saint John Chrysostom we see that they present two sides. The first is that of the theologian and neptic father and the second that of one who proclaims holy things, who was speaking to the people in a simple way in order to be understood. In any case, within the simplicity of the words is hidden a great theology.
In one of his homilies Chrysostom refers to the nous, which we must purify and bind with the Grace of God. Instead, we are dragging the sovereign nous behind the irrational passions. "So you too, wrap your body in much meaner dress, but clothe your nous in royal purple and place a crown upon it and set it on a high and conspicuous chariot. For now you are doing the opposite, decking the city in various ways, but suffering the king, the nous, to be dragged bound after the brute passions. Do you not remember that you have been invited to a marriage, and indeed to God’s marriage?"
There are also other wonderful passage in Saint John Chrysostom in which he speaks of prayer, especially noetic prayer, but I do not cite them because I do not wish to prolong the subject.
It was not my intention to explain the teaching of the Three Hierarchs on the hesychastic life, but I wanted to present the truth that Saint Gregory Palamas, in speaking both about the essence and energy of God and about the return of the nous to the heart, the purification, illumination and deification of man, did not create his own theology and school, but was expressing the tradition of the Church, as all the Holy Fathers lived it, and at any rate also those three great luminaries of the three-sunned Divinity, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.
Saint Gregory, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, presented these truths more analytically, because there was need in his time, due to the fact that the anti-hesychasts had been seized with madness, and indeed demonic madness, against these dogmatic affirmations. I further believe that the whole living hesychastic tradition which Saint Gregory found on the Holy Mountain helped him in the further development of these Orthodox affirmations with theological competence and exemplariness. This is why I consider essential the authentication of the whole teaching of Saint Gregory within the Hagiorite life and practice.
3. The Four Hierarchs and Theologians in the Tradition of the Church
In the mind of the Church the Hagiorite Saint Gregory Palamas is included with the Three Hierarchs and the Three Theologians, making a foursome of theologians. We shall see this truth in both the iconography and the hymnography.
In the Sacred Monastery of the Great Lavra, in which Saint Gregory lived as a monk for a time, he is placed with the three other Hierarchs in the apse of the Altar. We find the same thing also in the Sacred Monastery of Vlatadon, founded in the middle of the fourteenth century by the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Dorotheos Vlatti and his brother Mark, who were disciples of Saint Gregory Palamas. On the sanctuary door of this Sacred Monastery, Saint Gregory is painted with the Three Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. In the dome of the south chapel of the main church of the Holy Monastery, in four spherical triangles, he is placed with the other three theologians of the Church: Saint John the Theologian, Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Symeon the Theologian. Therefore in the iconography it appears that Saint Gregory is characterised as the Fourth Hierarch and Fourth Theologian.
But also in the sacred hymnography he is hymned with the three great Hierarchs and Luminaries of the three-sunned Divinity. Saint Philotheos Kokkinos, who composed the divine service for the Saint, included and glorified Saint Gregory with the Three Hierarchs. Saint Gregory Palamas is characterised as of the same spirit and same path as the three theologians, who now are enriched also by a fourth theologian, who has the same nature and same practice as they. I shall cite a sample from the service of Vespers on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, in which Saint Gregory Palamas is celebrated.
Ode 1, Pl. 4 Tone
Irmos: Pharaoh’s Charioteer
Father, I beg the inspiration through Thee
of the Trinity to praise in odes
the accord and unison
of the three theologians,
and now too the words which you,
blessed hierarch Gregory,
have spoken in harmony with them.
As theologians and wise men,
orators and holy writers
and three best God-bearing heralds
of holy words and doctrines,
you now have also
your illustrious fellow-initiator
of the same name singing hymns
in unison with you.
Holding to the laws of friendship
and the ways from above, bearing Christ
in your midst, as He foretold,
you now are enriched by a fourth as well,
one of the same nature and ways.
Let us praise in holy hymns
those holy muses, voices of the Trinity,
trumpets of holy theology:
Basil, Gregory and John the great,
with Gregory, who breathed with them
the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The common mind of the Church recognizes Saint Gregory Palamas, the Hagiorite Saint, as a great Father of the Church, an Ecumenical teacher, and includes him with the Three Hierarchs and the Three great Theologians of the Church. The characterization of theologian which has been given to him, has made him an elect member of the company of the Holy Fathers. Saint Gregory is truly "an invincible champion of the theologians."
4. Unerring Teacher of the Church
But also synodically the Church has characterized him as an unerring father, teacher and theologian. The Synodal Tome of 1347 refers to this great Hagiorite Saint, saying:
"And if anyone else at all is ever caught either thinking or saying or writing against the said most worthy hieromonk Gregory Palamas and the monks with him, or rather against the holy theologians and this Church, we both vote against him for these things and put him under this condemnation, whether he be of the hierarchy or the laity. We have many times proclaimed most worthy this respected hieromonk Gregory Palamas and the monks agreeing with him. They neither write nor think anything that differs from the divine words, having examined them and understood them exactly. And they champion the divine words, or rather our common devotion and tradition in all ways, as is proper, defending them as in every respect higher than what not only they but also the Church of God and the former synodal tome regard as sophistries. And we also declare them to be very safe defenders of the Church and its faith, and its champions and helpers."
This synodal text highlights the three following truths which all Christians should recognize.
First, Saint Gregory Palamas is characterized as a simple and safe teacher of the Church.
Second, the teaching of Saint Gregory about the distinction of essence and energy, about man’s participation in the uncreated energy of God and about the hesychastic way of life is a teaching of the Church and a rule of godliness and life.
Third, anyone who denies and undervalues Saint Gregory Palamas, as well as the hesychastic life which he lived and taught is excommunicated from the Orthodox Church.
All these things show the great value of Saint Gregory, but also the value of the Holy Mountain, with its hesychastic tradition, which is preserved to this day by the Hagiorite Fathers. This tradition of hesychasm is the greatest treasure of the Holy Mountain, a hope for the World and a true life for the Christians.
Rejection of the Holy Mountain and the hesychastic tradition is in reality a denial of the Orthodox Tradition and a departure from the "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church."
In our age that we live in, unfortunately, influenced by scholastic, neo-scholastic, protestant and philosophical traditions - old and new - the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas is relevant in all matters. With this teaching, which is the teaching of the Church, we can live as Orthodox and breathe the pure oxygen of Orthodox theology. Indeed, he is the Fourth Hierarch and the Fourth Theologian, he is the mouth of the theologians, as is chanted in his service compiled by Saint Philotheos Kokkinos, Patriarch of Constantinople:
"Rejoice the boast of the Fathers, the mouth of Theologians, the shelter of quietude, the house of wisdom, the summit of the Teachers, the sea of discourse; rejoice the instrument of action, the summit of theoria, healer of human diseases; rejoice the temple of the Holy Spirit of the dead and living, Father."
Source
Our terminology changes through the ages. The deified have had the same experience, they know that the Word is "Light of Light, true God of true God," but they may have differed in terminology before the Ecumenical Synods. Yet when the deified meet at an Ecumenical Synod, then, because they have the same experience, they also agree on the terminology, that is to say "they easily agree about conforming the dogmatic expression of their equivalent experiences."
When the saints took part in Pentecost and received God’s revelation, they experienced the uncreated words and meanings which they then had to convey through created words and meanings. Pentecost has not been surpassed either as revelation or as understanding. That is to say that with the passing of time we do not have a better understanding of the Revelation, nor has that been granted to the Church at different periods of time, since it was delivered "once for all to the saints." However, the Holy Fathers safeguard the living tradition, which transcends thoughts and words, using the terms of the language of their time. And they do this when a heresy leads the faithful far from the experience of the Revelation, for that is spiritual death. (Father John Romanides)
Thus Saint Gregory Palamas, a bearer of the same Revelation and related in spirit to the Fathers of the Church, the Three Hierarchs and the Three Theologians, analyzed and presented the very same theology of the Holy Fathers, fighting against the particular heresy of the anti-hesychasts, who based themselves on philosophy and conjecture. It can be maintained that Saint Gregory not only analyzed the patristic teaching further, but also presented the theological presuppositions of Orthodox theology and the theology of the Ecumenical Synods, which, of course, we find in the whole patristic tradition. The basic presupposition of Orthodox theology is hesychasm.
In all our previous writings we have emphasized to the full that the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas cannot be characterized as Palamite theology, precisely because it is the theology of the Church. Usually the teaching of some heretic receives this name, because it differs from the teaching of the Orthodox Catholic Church. For this reason we cannot speak about a theology of the Cappadocian Fathers or about Alexandrian theology as if we were speaking of a different theology of the Church.
Of course it is possible and permissible to some degree for us to speak of the Cappadocian Fathers, when we mean their common birthplace and when we also want to point to their contribution to the shaping of the terminology. In other words, Athanasios the Great and Basil the Great had the same theology with regard to Revelation, but in accordance with the terms of their time they somehow used different terms for the things about which they agreed entirely. Concretely, I would say that in the thought of Athanasios the Great nature was identical with hypostasis, while in the thought of Basil the Great, which ultimately prevailed, nature was distinguished from hypostasis. Likewise Athanasios the Great could say that the Word is like the Father in everything from the point of view that there is no identity between created and uncreated. Consequently, when we say that the Word is like the Father we are pointing out that He is uncreated. But the term ‘homoousios’ prevailed, which was used at first by Paul of Samosata in a different perspective and with a different meaning.
Therefore, from the point of view of the essence of the Orthodox Tradition there is no Alexandrian theology or Cappadocian theology or Palamite theology. All the Holy Fathers attained deification and have the same experiences. This means that there is no particular theology according to the place of its origin. Father Romanides wrote very characteristically:
"All men regardless of nationality, race, and color have the noetic faculty and therefore the possibility of reaching illumination by means of purification and then if God pleases they may experience glorification at its varying degrees. In any case the varying levels of theoria are the highest experiences of Orthodox spiritual life and theology. Such a spiritual life and theology is neither Greek, nor Russian, nor Bulgarian, nor Serbian, etc., but rather prophetic, apostolic, or simply Christian. In the light of this one may put the question, what is 'Russian Spirituality', and why is it presented as something higher than or simply different from other Orthodox spiritualities?" (Father John Romanides).
2. Saint Gregory Palamas and the Three Hierarchs
The theology of Saint Gregory Palamas is the theology of the Church and of the Three Hierarchs, as long as the Three Hierarchs, as bearers of the Tradition, have a common life and teaching with Saint Gregory, and he is a bearer of the Orthodox Tradition. We see this well when we study the texts of Saint Gregory Palamas. He continually quotes excerpts from the works of the Three Hierarchs and other Fathers, interpreting the authentic ones. By his interpretive skill, because of their common experience he can present them in the Orthodox framework, correcting the erroneous meaning given by the heretics. The heretics always use the words and texts of the Holy Fathers in order to support their own views, distorting them beforehand and adapting them to their own frames of reference.
Thus the study of the works of Saint Gregory Palamas also shows us, apart from other things, the way in which the heretics and the Fathers work on this crucial theme. The heretics "creep" into the texts and distort them, while the Fathers present them in their authentic dimension. The problem, then, is not whether one cites patristic passages or not, but of understanding their content.
If we go back to the work of Saint Gregory "On the Holy Hesychasts" we shall find many passages from the Three Hierarchs being used to overthrow Barlaam’s arguments and to present the Orthodox teaching. It would take a great deal of time if I were to enumerate all the passages used by Saint Gregory from the works of the Three Hierarchs. I want simply to mention their works from which he drew the passages.
Basil the Great: from the "Hexaemeron", from "Homilies on the Psalms", from his "Refutation of Eunomios", from his "Interpretation of the Prophet Isaiah", from various homilies, from his work addressed to the youth, from the terms overall, from his work on the Holy Spirit, and from his letters.
Gregory the Theologian: from almost all his homilies and letters.
John Chrysostom:from his work "To Theodore", from "On the Incomprehensibility of God", from "Homilies on the Prophet Isaiah", "Homilies on Matthew the Evangelist", "Homilies on John the Evangelist", from the homilies on the epistles of the Apostle Paul.
The whole work of Saint Gregory Palamas can be summed up under three headings. One is the Holy Spirit, another is the distinction between essence and energy in God and the third is hesychasm - that is to say, the way of man’s cure, the way in which man attains communion with God and deification. And these three topics had also been confronted by the Three Hierarchs, because there were reasons for doing so in their time.
As to the first topic, on the Holy Spirit, no one can doubt that it was taken up by the Three Hierarchs. Moreover, their works on this have been preserved. There is room for doubt on the other two. But the Three Hierarchs were very much occupied with these subjects as well, because they were topical in their time.
The distinction between essence and energy in God was also a serious concern of the Fathers of the fourth century. The dispute between the Fathers and the Arians about whether the Word was created or uncreated had to do with the distinction between essence and energy. The Orthodox and the Arians were agreed that only God knows His essence, and thus He who knows the divine nature is God. The difference was that while the Arians believed that the Word does not know the essence of the Father and therefore is created, the Orthodox Fathers said that the Word knows the essence of the Father, which is also His own, and therefore He is uncreated. The Eunomians said that both the Word and man know the essence of God and therefore the Word is not uncreated. Since the Orthodox and the Arians maintained that creatures cannot know the essence of God, but they know His energy, therefore the Eunomians proclaimed that the uncreated essence is the same as the uncreated energy, so anyone who knows one also knows the other.
From these things we see that the distinction between essence and energy in God was being discussed in the early Church. So the fact that God has both essence and energy is taught not only by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, but also by the heretics, Paul of Samosata, the Arians and the Nestorians. All these heretics maintained that God relates to created beings only by will or by energy, and not by nature. The Arians maintained that God relates to the hypostatic Word not by nature, but by will, and therefore the Word is created. Paul of Samosata and the Nestorians proclaimed that in Christ God united Himself with man not by nature, but by His good will. In opposition to these heresies the Holy Fathers taught that God the Father begets the Son and sends forth the Holy Spirit by nature and not by will. The Holy Trinity creates the creatures by will out of nothing and relates to them by will. In Christ the Word was united hypostatically with human nature.
I have made this analysis in order to make it clear that the fourth century Fathers were concerned with the distinction between essence and energy in God. And of course this was not for conjectural reasons, but for pastoral and soteriological reasons, because the heretics were using philosophy to alter the Orthodox teaching. The development of the teaching about essence and energy relates to the divinity of the Word and the salvation of man.
The passage in Basil the Great to which Saint Gregory Palamas refers, that while the essence of God is incommunicable to man, he can partake of His energy, is well known. Basil the Great writes: "The energies are varied, but the essence is simple. We say that we know our God by His energies, but we cannot hope to approach His essence. For His energies come down to us, but His essence remains unapproachable." This passage is astonishing and shows the teaching of Basil the Great on the subject of the indivisible distinction between essence and energy in God.
Saint Gregory the Theologian teaches that man cannot know the essence of God. He writes: "What the nature and essence of God may be, no man has found, nor will he ever." Referring to personal experience, Saint Gregory the Theologian says that he has not seen the first pure nature, but the last which reaches us and which is called majesty. It is a matter of the essence and energy of God. Gregory the Theologian writes: "When I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God... and looking a little more closely, I saw, not the first and unmingled Nature, known to Itself, to the Trinity, I mean; not That which abides within the first veil and is hidden by the Cherubim; but only that Nature which at last even reaches to us. And that is, as far as I can learn, the Majesty."
And Saint John Chrysostom mentions in his works that man partakes of the energy of God, while he does not know His essence. He develops these subjects chiefly in his excellent homilies "On the Incomprehensibility of God", confronting the anomalies. I shall cite only two passages.
Interpreting the words of the Apostle Paul "we know in part," and referring to the heretics who say "he was speaking not about the essence but about the dispensations," he accepts the distinction between essence and energies, saying: "For if the dispensations are incomprehensible, much more is He Himself." Here Saint John Chrysostom is trying to prove that the dispensations, the energies, of God, are divine and not independent of God.
Interpreting the passage of the Prophet Isaiah "I saw the Lord", he says: "Do not suppose that he saw that essence, but this condescension, and this more indistinctly than even the powers above; for he could not have seen as much as the Cherubim."
But also the hesychastic way of life, that is to say the way in which man purifies his heart of the passions and rises to the vision of God, has been presented also by the Three Hierarchs, who are bearers of the Orthodox Tradition. I shall cite some indicative passages, because I am not going to make an exhaustive analysis of these topics in the teaching of the Three Hierarchs.
According to Basil the Great, the nous which is connected with the soul is a natural power of the soul and not an intrusion into the intelligent part of the soul. And just as the body’s sight is the eye, so "the sight of the soul innate in it is the nous." When someone has blinded this eye of the soul it is darkened, at which time we can speak of darkening of the nous and deadening of the person. "Because they had previously and of their own volition become blinded by darkening the eye of their soul, fearing to suffer as David did (Ps. 13:3), said: "Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep unto death." The nous must return into the person from its diffusion and it can do this whatever work it may be doing. The precise and true philosopher, who has his body as his work place and the safe hiding place of his soul, "even if he happens to be in the marketplace, even if he is giving a panegyric, even if in the field, even if among crowds of people, he is sitting in his natural monastery, collected within his nous and philosophizing on the things proper to him."
The passage is well known in which Basil the Great speaks about bringing his mind back to itself and about its ascent to God. This has also been cited by Saint Gregory Palamas. Saint Basil says that the man whose nous is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, "withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God." Then it is illuminated from without and within by the beauty of God and "becomes forgetful even of its own nature." In his works there are many places which refer to the vision of God.
Saint Gregory the Theologian makes a distinction between nous and word, as well as between nous and senses. He says: "How is the nous both circumscribed and unlimited, abiding in us and yet traveling over the universe in swift motion and flow? How is it both received and imparted by word, and passes through air, and enters with all things? How does it share in sense, and enshrouds itself away from sense?" In one homily he refers to his desire to go to the desert and stillness of soul and body, in order to concentrate his nous within himself, withdrawing it from the senses, in order to speak to God without stain and "to be a real unspotted mirror of divine things," and to be illuminated purely by the rays of the Spirit.
It is also well known that Saint Gregory the Theologian speaks clearly in his works about purity of heart and the illumination of the nous, which is the cure of man’s soul, and the true presupposition of Orthodox theology. Theology is not for everyone to practice, but for "those who have been examined and are proven to have vision of God and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified." Likewise it is for those whose ruling power, the nous, is not confused with vexations and erring images. Among these things we must also examine unceasing prayer, about which he says: "Remembrance of God is more important than breathing," as well as his own views as mentioned in his works.
Saint John Chrysostom represents the same perspective. But when he speaks in a closely packed auditorium and is doing pastoral teaching, he is more social. As we study the homilies of Saint John Chrysostom we see that they present two sides. The first is that of the theologian and neptic father and the second that of one who proclaims holy things, who was speaking to the people in a simple way in order to be understood. In any case, within the simplicity of the words is hidden a great theology.
In one of his homilies Chrysostom refers to the nous, which we must purify and bind with the Grace of God. Instead, we are dragging the sovereign nous behind the irrational passions. "So you too, wrap your body in much meaner dress, but clothe your nous in royal purple and place a crown upon it and set it on a high and conspicuous chariot. For now you are doing the opposite, decking the city in various ways, but suffering the king, the nous, to be dragged bound after the brute passions. Do you not remember that you have been invited to a marriage, and indeed to God’s marriage?"
There are also other wonderful passage in Saint John Chrysostom in which he speaks of prayer, especially noetic prayer, but I do not cite them because I do not wish to prolong the subject.
It was not my intention to explain the teaching of the Three Hierarchs on the hesychastic life, but I wanted to present the truth that Saint Gregory Palamas, in speaking both about the essence and energy of God and about the return of the nous to the heart, the purification, illumination and deification of man, did not create his own theology and school, but was expressing the tradition of the Church, as all the Holy Fathers lived it, and at any rate also those three great luminaries of the three-sunned Divinity, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.
Saint Gregory, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, presented these truths more analytically, because there was need in his time, due to the fact that the anti-hesychasts had been seized with madness, and indeed demonic madness, against these dogmatic affirmations. I further believe that the whole living hesychastic tradition which Saint Gregory found on the Holy Mountain helped him in the further development of these Orthodox affirmations with theological competence and exemplariness. This is why I consider essential the authentication of the whole teaching of Saint Gregory within the Hagiorite life and practice.
3. The Four Hierarchs and Theologians in the Tradition of the Church
In the mind of the Church the Hagiorite Saint Gregory Palamas is included with the Three Hierarchs and the Three Theologians, making a foursome of theologians. We shall see this truth in both the iconography and the hymnography.
In the Sacred Monastery of the Great Lavra, in which Saint Gregory lived as a monk for a time, he is placed with the three other Hierarchs in the apse of the Altar. We find the same thing also in the Sacred Monastery of Vlatadon, founded in the middle of the fourteenth century by the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Dorotheos Vlatti and his brother Mark, who were disciples of Saint Gregory Palamas. On the sanctuary door of this Sacred Monastery, Saint Gregory is painted with the Three Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. In the dome of the south chapel of the main church of the Holy Monastery, in four spherical triangles, he is placed with the other three theologians of the Church: Saint John the Theologian, Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Symeon the Theologian. Therefore in the iconography it appears that Saint Gregory is characterised as the Fourth Hierarch and Fourth Theologian.
But also in the sacred hymnography he is hymned with the three great Hierarchs and Luminaries of the three-sunned Divinity. Saint Philotheos Kokkinos, who composed the divine service for the Saint, included and glorified Saint Gregory with the Three Hierarchs. Saint Gregory Palamas is characterised as of the same spirit and same path as the three theologians, who now are enriched also by a fourth theologian, who has the same nature and same practice as they. I shall cite a sample from the service of Vespers on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, in which Saint Gregory Palamas is celebrated.
Ode 1, Pl. 4 Tone
Irmos: Pharaoh’s Charioteer
Father, I beg the inspiration through Thee
of the Trinity to praise in odes
the accord and unison
of the three theologians,
and now too the words which you,
blessed hierarch Gregory,
have spoken in harmony with them.
As theologians and wise men,
orators and holy writers
and three best God-bearing heralds
of holy words and doctrines,
you now have also
your illustrious fellow-initiator
of the same name singing hymns
in unison with you.
Holding to the laws of friendship
and the ways from above, bearing Christ
in your midst, as He foretold,
you now are enriched by a fourth as well,
one of the same nature and ways.
Let us praise in holy hymns
those holy muses, voices of the Trinity,
trumpets of holy theology:
Basil, Gregory and John the great,
with Gregory, who breathed with them
the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The common mind of the Church recognizes Saint Gregory Palamas, the Hagiorite Saint, as a great Father of the Church, an Ecumenical teacher, and includes him with the Three Hierarchs and the Three great Theologians of the Church. The characterization of theologian which has been given to him, has made him an elect member of the company of the Holy Fathers. Saint Gregory is truly "an invincible champion of the theologians."
4. Unerring Teacher of the Church
But also synodically the Church has characterized him as an unerring father, teacher and theologian. The Synodal Tome of 1347 refers to this great Hagiorite Saint, saying:
"And if anyone else at all is ever caught either thinking or saying or writing against the said most worthy hieromonk Gregory Palamas and the monks with him, or rather against the holy theologians and this Church, we both vote against him for these things and put him under this condemnation, whether he be of the hierarchy or the laity. We have many times proclaimed most worthy this respected hieromonk Gregory Palamas and the monks agreeing with him. They neither write nor think anything that differs from the divine words, having examined them and understood them exactly. And they champion the divine words, or rather our common devotion and tradition in all ways, as is proper, defending them as in every respect higher than what not only they but also the Church of God and the former synodal tome regard as sophistries. And we also declare them to be very safe defenders of the Church and its faith, and its champions and helpers."
This synodal text highlights the three following truths which all Christians should recognize.
First, Saint Gregory Palamas is characterized as a simple and safe teacher of the Church.
Second, the teaching of Saint Gregory about the distinction of essence and energy, about man’s participation in the uncreated energy of God and about the hesychastic way of life is a teaching of the Church and a rule of godliness and life.
Third, anyone who denies and undervalues Saint Gregory Palamas, as well as the hesychastic life which he lived and taught is excommunicated from the Orthodox Church.
All these things show the great value of Saint Gregory, but also the value of the Holy Mountain, with its hesychastic tradition, which is preserved to this day by the Hagiorite Fathers. This tradition of hesychasm is the greatest treasure of the Holy Mountain, a hope for the World and a true life for the Christians.
Rejection of the Holy Mountain and the hesychastic tradition is in reality a denial of the Orthodox Tradition and a departure from the "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church."
In our age that we live in, unfortunately, influenced by scholastic, neo-scholastic, protestant and philosophical traditions - old and new - the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas is relevant in all matters. With this teaching, which is the teaching of the Church, we can live as Orthodox and breathe the pure oxygen of Orthodox theology. Indeed, he is the Fourth Hierarch and the Fourth Theologian, he is the mouth of the theologians, as is chanted in his service compiled by Saint Philotheos Kokkinos, Patriarch of Constantinople:
"Rejoice the boast of the Fathers, the mouth of Theologians, the shelter of quietude, the house of wisdom, the summit of the Teachers, the sea of discourse; rejoice the instrument of action, the summit of theoria, healer of human diseases; rejoice the temple of the Holy Spirit of the dead and living, Father."
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