Pastoral Encyclical
Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
New Year's Day 2026
Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
New Year's Day 2026
Beloved children in the Lord,
I am communicating with you on this great day of the feast of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of the new civil year along with the feast of Saint Basil the Great, and I extend to you my warm wishes for a blessed new year, with health, both physical and spiritual, and every good gift from God, pleasing and perfect. On this day the Church has appointed that, during the Divine Liturgy, a reading be proclaimed from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, which refers to the difference between the philosophy of this world and theology — a difference of great and central importance in our lives (Col. 2:8–12).
Philosophy is characterized as “empty deceit,” as “the tradition of men,” and as “the elements of the world,” and “not according to Christ.” Humanity has always looked upon the existing world and, on the one hand, sought to interpret it — what it is, that is, what its ontology is, why it exists, and ultimately how it came to be or who created it. Thus, from ancient Greece various philosophical schools developed, before and after Socrates, and also after Plato and Aristotle, down to our own days. The center of philosophy is human reason, with its deductions and imagination, by which the gaps of reasoning are filled.
Because philosophy is anthropocentric, it is expressed through the thought and reasoning of each individual, and, according to the Apostle Paul, it is “empty deceit,” because it cannot correspond to the fullness of the truth. For this reason he exhorts the Christians of Colossae to be vigilant, lest anyone deceive them with this false wisdom and draw them away from Christ. Theology, on the other hand, refers to Christ, who is God and became man and was revealed to human beings. If philosophy is “empty deceit” and “persuasive speech,” meaning that it is formulated by human reasonings arising from the deliberating mind, theology is the revelation of God Himself to humanity.
The Apostle Paul is a witness to this truth, for as a Hebrew he knew the Mosaic Law, and as a Hellenist he also knew Greek philosophy and was versed in the Greek language and way of thinking. But when Christ was revealed to him in the Light on the road to Damascus, and he beheld Him as the God-man, he became an empirical theologian. That is, Christ, as the Son and Logos of God, is Light “beyond the brightness of the sun,” yet He is united with the body He assumed from the Most Holy Theotokos. For this reason the Apostle Paul, as a beholder of God and an empirical theologian, proclaimed that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” and that He is “the head of all principality and power,” that is, the head of both angels and human beings.
This shows that human philosophy is limited, just as the reason and imagination of each person are limited, whereas theology is the manifestation of God Himself, who created the entire world, visible and invisible. This truth, however, is not without proof, since there are proofs: namely, the human person himself is united with Christ and comes to know that He is God. Indeed, in this very reading the Apostle Paul defines the “how and in what manner” a human being is united with the God-man Christ, beyond all reason and imagination.
Christ was circumcised according to the Mosaic Law; we receive a circumcision made without hands through Holy Baptism, by which we put off the body of the sins of the flesh. Christ was buried and rose again; we too are buried and rise again through the sacred and holy Baptism, as well as through the subsequent ascetical and sacramental life of the Church. This reveals that the Christian life is life in Christ.
Beloved brethren and beloved children in the Lord,
The philosophy of the world, as empty deceit — that is, as hollow wisdom — and as the tradition of men according to the elements of this world, prevails in our days, even among Christians. In Europe, from a so-called Christian perspective, there predominates either the scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas, which identifies philosophy with theology, or the Protestantism of Hegel with its dialectical reasoning, which proposes interpreting Christianity in philosophical terms and responding to the concerns of world history. There are also atheists, who speculate according to the elements of this world.
Within this contradictory and ever-changing world there is also being formed a “global ethic,” without Christ but with secular moral principles, in order to reconcile all the various interpretations of the elements of the world. As a result, the modern human being lives and conducts himself without philosophy in the ancient Greek sense of the term, and above all without theology — and indeed without empirical theology. Moreover, contemporary digital technology is characterized by a particular philosophy imbued with transhumanism and superhumanism.
As Christians, and especially as Orthodox Christians, we must not be deceived by every mindset that is outside Christ, but must remain closely united with Christ within the Orthodox Church, because in Him “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” and through union with Him we are “made complete.” Thus we make use of the achievements of this world for our needs, but we do not ourselves become products of modern technical means. We do not deify creation, since we have “true God of true God,” “Light of Light.” In this way we preserve both our freedom and our love.
Once again, I wish you a blessed new year with the blessing of God, love, and freedom.
With warm wishes and paternal love,
THE METROPOLITAN
OF NAFPAKTOS AND AGIOS VLASIOS
† HIEROTHEOS
OF NAFPAKTOS AND AGIOS VLASIOS
† HIEROTHEOS
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
