Prologue
The feast of Saint Gregory Palamas, on the Second Sunday of the Fast, reminds us of the great value of Holy Hesychasm as the foundation of Orthodox theology, which differs clearly from Western scholastic theology — the latter having created many problems in the West through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, German idealism, Existentialism, and so on.
Holy Hesychasm is not a theology of the past, but rather the very Orthodox theology itself, which continues to inspire and produce saints even today. Specifically, all the saints who in recent years have been added by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Church’s calendar are Hesychasts, in the full sense of the term as analyzed by Saint Gregory Palamas.
And of course, it is impossible for us to participate in the worship of the Church, to honor Saint Gregory Palamas, to chant the sacred troparia inspired by Holy Hesychasm, and to honor the modern saints, while at the same time speaking of transcending the teaching of the Holy Fathers, and naturally, of transcending Holy Hesychasm itself.
Father John Romanides admitted, to his credit, that when he wrote his dissertation on “Original Sin,” he was unaware of certain aspects of the topic, including Holy Hesychasm. That is why in his later studies he supplemented this gap, as is evident in the preface of the second edition (Domos publications) of his study on “Original Sin.” In all the works of Father John Romanides, it is clear that his teaching was inspired by the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Fathers of the Church; it was in the same atmosphere as the teaching of the Orthodox Church.
In participating in the feast of Saint Gregory Palamas, I am publishing a text of mine titled “Orthodox Theology and Hesychasm, According to Father John Romanides,” in which I summarize three of his articles: “Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology,” “Jesus Christ — the Life of the World,” and “Religion as a Neurobiological Disease, and Orthodoxy as Its Cure.”
The important point is that Father John Romanides was not “closed in on himself,” but throughout his life engaged in dialogue with various heterodox and non-Orthodox groups. He was a contemporary theologian who based himself on the experience of the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Fathers, whom he considered more relevant than any other “modern,” “contemporary,” or “progressive” thinker.
Holy Hesychasm is not a theology of the past, but rather the very Orthodox theology itself, which continues to inspire and produce saints even today. Specifically, all the saints who in recent years have been added by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Church’s calendar are Hesychasts, in the full sense of the term as analyzed by Saint Gregory Palamas.
And of course, it is impossible for us to participate in the worship of the Church, to honor Saint Gregory Palamas, to chant the sacred troparia inspired by Holy Hesychasm, and to honor the modern saints, while at the same time speaking of transcending the teaching of the Holy Fathers, and naturally, of transcending Holy Hesychasm itself.
Father John Romanides admitted, to his credit, that when he wrote his dissertation on “Original Sin,” he was unaware of certain aspects of the topic, including Holy Hesychasm. That is why in his later studies he supplemented this gap, as is evident in the preface of the second edition (Domos publications) of his study on “Original Sin.” In all the works of Father John Romanides, it is clear that his teaching was inspired by the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Fathers of the Church; it was in the same atmosphere as the teaching of the Orthodox Church.
In participating in the feast of Saint Gregory Palamas, I am publishing a text of mine titled “Orthodox Theology and Hesychasm, According to Father John Romanides,” in which I summarize three of his articles: “Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology,” “Jesus Christ — the Life of the World,” and “Religion as a Neurobiological Disease, and Orthodoxy as Its Cure.”
The important point is that Father John Romanides was not “closed in on himself,” but throughout his life engaged in dialogue with various heterodox and non-Orthodox groups. He was a contemporary theologian who based himself on the experience of the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Fathers, whom he considered more relevant than any other “modern,” “contemporary,” or “progressive” thinker.
Orthodox Theology and Hesychasm, According to Father John Romanides
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Over time, I have written various books and texts about Father John Romanides, I have read almost everything he wrote, I have listened to many of his lectures recorded on audio tapes, I have had long discussions with him, and I realized that he was not an ordinary person, researcher, and professor. He knew much from his research on theological and historical topics that marked him as an original theologian and researcher, yet always within the framework of the Orthodox Roman (Greek) tradition.
His written texts are concise and densely written, revealing a person very experienced and original, who does not copy others but researches and formulates the fruits of his research in an authentic way.
This means that Father John Romanides is not easily read; he is not a readily digestible author. For this reason, some people — who have been trained in copying foreign ideas and transplanting them into Greece — may misunderstand him when they wish to discredit him. In fact, they often do something worse: they overlook all the positive elements of his theological contribution and select a phrase they do not understand, misinterpreting it. This is a work done in bad faith.
One observes that in his written texts, he does not always analyze topics in depth, often does not refer to his sources, and sometimes repeats important points. In his oral discourse, however, he was more comprehensible and understandable. For this reason, the two-volume work “Empirical Dogmatics of the Orthodox Catholic Church,” which I compiled based mainly on his oral teachings — especially his lectures in the amphitheaters of the Thessaloniki Theological School — is read with ease.
With this text, I would like to present concisely three of his writings, which are lesser known to the general readership, dealing with theological and hesychastic issues, given that in him theology is intertwined with Hesychasm and history, as he received it from his teacher, the late Father George Florovsky, after extending his teacher’s thought to historical questions related to Orthodox theology. He also absorbed the Hesychast tradition from Athonite Fathers, such as Saint Joseph the Hesychast and Father Theoklitos Dionysiatis, and these are attested in the writings of Saint Symeon the New Theologian and Saint Gregory Palamas. From this perspective, he studied the Holy Scriptures, particularly Saint John the Theologian and the Apostle Paul.
I have analyzed elsewhere his research texts up to 1972 (see: “Father John Romanides, a Leading Dogmatic Theologian of the Orthodox Catholic Church”). These three topics, which I will now present briefly, come from the period when he was a professor at the Theological School of Thessaloniki, after his long-term research, and reflect the mature scholar and theologian.
The texts are:
- "Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology"
- "Jesus Christ — the Life of the World"
- "Religion is a Neurobiological Sickness, and Orthodoxy is Its Cure"
A concise presentation of these writings follows.
1. Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology
This text was delivered at the Third Congress of Theological Schools in Athens in 1976 and published in the volume “Festschrift in Honor of Metropolitan Elder Meliton of Chalcedon”, issued by the Patristic Studies Foundation, Thessaloniki, 1977, pp. 473–509.
Father John Romanides notes in a footnote:
"The subject of this paper was not chosen by me but given to me."
He also writes that,
“As will become clear from the study of this paper, the critical examination of theology is both presupposed by and identical with 'the critical examination of the applications of theology.’”
It is likely that those who assigned him the topic intended him to focus on the critical examination of the applications of theology, but Father John considered that he could not achieve this goal without first conducting a critical analysis of theology itself as it is taught today, in comparison with the Theology of the Church.
He explains in a footnote:
"Testing the authenticity of theology and applying theology are two aspects of an identical process since only he who acquires and possesses the true application of theology acquires and possesses true and authentic theology. Purification, illumination and theoria are both the testing and the application of theology, i.e, 1) learning to distinguish between the energies of the Holy Spirit and of creatures, especially of demonic powers, and 2) participating in the former, too, and avoiding the third i.e, demonic or abnormal influences on one's personality and thought process."
This footnote clearly demonstrates Father John Romanides’ theological understanding of Orthodox theology, and naturally, it is significant because it distinguishes it sharply from Western scholastic and Protestant theology, which he knew very well. The differentiation is evident in the method of knowing God, which is not scholasticism through logic or imagination, but purification, illumination, and theosis — the essence of Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
He also notes that what he presents in this lecture had been developed in previous works, so this lecture is a significant summary of his work up to that point. He writes:
“For documentation of the theses presented in this study I refer generally to the following selection of my studies: Τὸ Προπατορικὸν Ἁμάρημα, Athens 1957; Ἡ Δογματικὴ καὶ Συμβολικὴ Θεολογία τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας, Vol I. Thessaloniki 1973; Ρωμῃοσύνη, Ρωμανία, Ρουμέλη, Thessaloniki 1975; 'The Filioque,' in Κληρονομία, Thessaloniki vol. 7, no 2. July 1975, pp, 285-314; 'The Christology of St. John of Damascus,' in Papers, Dialogue Eastern and Oriental Churches, edited by Metropolitan Methodios of Aksum. Athens 1976, pp, 46-52.”
In the introduction, he writes that in modern positive sciences, theoretical hypotheses are subjected to critical examination through repeated experiments. This same method must also apply to all forms of Orthodox theology, in which speculation has no place. However, in the philosophical and theological systems of the Latin and Protestant traditions, there is extensive speculation that remains untested.
Thus, Orthodox theology is unrelated to philosophy, whether ancient, which relies on speculation, or modern, which relies on existentialism, but it relates to the positive sciences that combine theory and practice — that is, “the evaluation of what is said.”
This study is divided into two parts: the first, titled “Critical Examination”, offers the criteria for examining the authenticity of theology; the second addresses the “Applications of Theology.”
In the first part (“Critical Examination”), he investigates the topic of the revelation of God, as interpreted on one hand by the Latin and Protestant tradition, and on the other hand by the Orthodox patristic tradition. He is very familiar with the subject and moves with ease.
He refers extensively to the views of the sacred Augustine, who influenced both the Latins and the Protestants, regarding the appearance of God to the Prophets through creation, with visible and audible symbols; direct revelation of God to the reasoning of the Prophets and Apostles; and the insight or experience of the divine essence, which occurs through the soul.
The result of these views is that in the West, Scripture and dogmas are understood as Revelation itself, interpreted apart from the Church. This is a serious problem because in the West, Scripture is equated with Revelation, placing Scripture above the experience of the Prophets and Apostles.
He then presents the Orthodox teaching on Revelation: Scripture is not Revelation itself, but the word about Revelation. Revelation is Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit guided the Apostles into “all truth.” This Revelation is transmitted from generation to generation. The glorification of the Prophets, Apostles, and Saints in the human nature of Christ constitutes Pentecost at different levels, and this is Revelation. The Fathers who received Revelation use words and images as expressions of Revelation, recorded in Scripture and the writings of Saints, for those at the level of purification and illumination, to reach theosis.
The Holy Spirit, through Pentecost and the life of the Church, reveals to Christ’s friends the uncreated glory and Kingdom of God in the human nature of Christ.
He refers to the decisions of the 14th-century Synods, during the time of Saint Gregory Palamas, Saint Gregory the Theologian, the analysis of “that they may be one,” the high priestly prayer of Christ, the identity of the experience and teaching of the Prophets, Apostles, and Fathers, and the ability to do theology about Revelation through illumination and theoria.
He then examines in detail the theological method among Orthodox, Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, Nestorians and Augustine, while Saint Gregory the Theologian theologizes based on his own theophanic experience. He also analyzes how the Incarnate Logos appeared to the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Incarnate Logos to the Apostles and Saints in the New Testament.
He concludes the first part that for the Fathers of the Church, authority in the Church is not Scripture alone, but “Scripture together with the God-bearing ones” — the Prophets, Apostles, and Saints, who are purified, illuminated, and perfected, transmitting this to their spiritual children for purification, illumination, and theosis.
In the second part (“Applications of Theology”), after critically evaluating Latin and Protestant theology using patristic criteria, he presents the application of the theology of the Church: on the one hand, in the internal life of the Church, and on the other hand, in the Church’s relationship with the world.
He then analyzes, as a Hesychast theologian, issues regarding the uncreated energy of God and participation in it through purification, illumination, and theosis, for selfless love, for the nous darkened by the Fall that must be purified and illumined, for demonic energies, for inspiration of the Holy Spirit and how it is expressed synodically in the Church through God-bearing saints, for the interpretation of Scripture, for the concept of heresy as ignorance of Orthodox Hesychast tradition, and for the relationship of Christians with the world and society.
He also addresses the myths and idols introduced into the Church through the Franks and the Russian tradition, which claim that the patristic tradition has supposedly ended, and the distinction between theoretical and practical matters foreign to the patristic tradition. When the nous attains continuous memory of God and engages in prayer, a person acquires selfless love.
Therefore, the Orthodox warrior seeks the sanctification of the material world, freeing it from the devil and his followers. First, he learns to win battles, and then he teaches others. He concludes:
“I believe this is the critical examination of the applications of theology in general terms.”
At this Theological Congress, Father John Romanides spoke as a Hesychast theologian, and as a monk from Mount Athos who was present told me, he seemed “like a bull in a china shop.”
2. Jesus Christ – the Life of the World
This lecture was delivered during the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the Orthodox Council in Damascus, February 5–9, 1982, and was published in English in Xenia Ecumenica (No. 39, pp. 321–375), Helsinki, 1983. The translation of the lecture was published in the periodical Gregory Palamas, in a tribute to His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon II of Thessaloniki, translated by Despina Kontogeorgiou, Ph.D.
We should recall that Christians who are members of the World Council of Churches, and those who are not, each believe in Christ in their own different way. For this reason, Father John Romanides, through this lecture, sought to present who the “true Christ” is, who indeed is “the Life of the World.”
In the introduction, a concise presentation of the topic is given, which is, in a way, the conclusion of the entire text. Therefore, it will be presented briefly, although it is densely written.
It is emphasized that the primary purpose of faith, theology, and dogma concerning Christ and His relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit is to lead humanity to purification and illumination of the heart, as well as to glorification (theosis), which perfects man in the vision of the uncreated glory and Kingdom of Christ, together with the Saints who are members of His Body, which Body is the Church. This is accomplished through faith, prayer, theology, and dogma, which are therapeutic methods that guide man to glorification through purification and illumination. When man reaches glorification, then faith, prayer, and dogma are abolished, because the theophany sees reality.
This clarification is necessary because it aims to show that the topic “Jesus Christ – the Life of the World” is therapeutic, perfective, and certainly ecclesiological. Those who are in illumination and theosis are truly and living members of the Church, the Body of Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, purification and illumination have some parallel with the healing sciences and psychiatry, but theosis is at the core of Christian tradition, and possibly also of Judaism. In Patristic theology, the relationship between diagnosis and treatment is roughly the same as in medical science regarding the success of the therapy, the therapeutic results, and the methods and means by which it is achieved.
With this introduction, the Orthodox Patristic tradition is immediately distinguished from other non-Orthodox traditions, thus distinguishing who participates in Christ and for whom Christ is the life of the world.
Next, what is stated in the introduction is interpreted in six units, and Western theology is evaluated based on Orthodox ecclesiastical theology.
In the first unit, the topic of Christ in the Old Testament is analyzed in relation to the Ecumenical Synods. Ancient heretics believed that the manifestation of God in the Old Testament occurred through the created angel, whereas the Fathers of the Church, as established by the Ecumenical Synods, held that the uncreated Logos manifested to the Prophets of the Old Testament.
In the second unit, it is analyzed that initiation into Life and “all truth,” that is, into Christ through the Holy Spirit, occurs at Pentecost. Pentecost is the foundation of Orthodox Revelation, because from it even the human nature of Christ is “divided indivisibly into parts.” Without this precondition, “pious and philosophical reflection on the Bible and biblical criticism within these frameworks of relationship are dead-end paths that do not lead to the reality shown by Christ in the Old and New Testaments.”
In the third unit, diagnosis and therapy are discussed. “Theosis is not illumination or merely participation in the Divine Eucharist, as some Orthodox seem to believe today.” What is required is “praxis,” which is the purification of the heart, and “theoria,” which is the vision of the glory of God in Christ. Contemplative theorizing about God, according to the Fathers, “is demonic and the source of all heresies.” An analysis of prayer of the heart is made, primarily according to the Apostle Paul.
In the fourth unit, the important topic of the Church as the Body of Christ is analyzed, according to the Evangelist John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the teaching of the Apostle Paul: regarding the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the gift “to speak in other tongues,” Baptism in the Holy Spirit, the discernment of spirits, the ladder of perfection, the correct, according to the Apostle Paul, “Eucharistic ecclesiology,” in which the illness of the heart is diagnosed and healed through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, from which the prayer of the Holy Spirit in the heart was “indispensable,” and the basis is glorification.
In the fifth unit, “prophecy and theology” are analyzed. Prophecy is connected with theology. Interpreting the relevant passages from the First Epistle to the Corinthians of the Apostle Paul, in which the gifts of prophecy, noetic prayer, and theology are mentioned, he writes that this “is the Apostolic Theological School of the Church. This is the school attended by the Fathers of the Church.” Prophecy is connected with unceasing prayer in the heart, which is “the natural path toward glorification,” and theology is “to ascend into glorification on the chariot of noetic prayer,” which is why “theology is purely therapeutic and an expression of health.”
Christ, whom the theophanes recognized in glorification, is the same Christ whom the Prophets saw in the Old Testament, differing only in that now He is in the flesh, whereas then He was without flesh. “All truth” is revealed by Christ through the Holy Spirit to those who are glorified, who participate in the glorification in His Body. The other members of the Church who have the gift of prayer of the Holy Spirit continuously in the heart know, prophesy, or theologize in part.
In the sixth unit, the consequences of this analysis and the conclusions are recorded.
The topic “Jesus Christ – the Life of the World” is understood through the empirical theology of noetic prayer of the heart and glorification. The tradition of the Prophets, Apostles, and Fathers cannot be separated from diagnosis and therapy, from purification and illumination of the nous, nor can faith, prayer, theology, and dogma be separated from the empirical verification of unceasing prayer and glorification. However, in contemporary reality, faith, prayer, theology, dogma, and even the mysteries have been separated from diagnosis, therapy, and the illnesses of the nous.
Pentecost is active in illumination and glorification. Those who have charisms and an identity of empirical theology, when they meet among themselves, agree also on the uniformity of the dogmatic expression of their identical spiritual experience.
Biblical tradition cannot be equated with or downgraded to a system of ethical dogmas or Christian ethics; rather, it is a therapeutic asceticism.
Dialogue with the Jews should be conducted based on the identity of the Old and New Testaments in therapeutic asceticism and in their Christocentrism, namely that the Lord of glory became man.
Orthodox tradition does not consist in the faithful being a society of the initiated who are not responsible for society, but through therapeutic asceticism they enter into every aspect of society.
All humans have noetic energy and uncreated glory, Grace, and Kingdom, in a low and inactive form due to the weakness of the nous; God acts in every person, loves all creatures with the same love, and all will see the glory of Christ, as light or as fire, according to the illumination or hardness of the heart.
The reunification of divided Christians will occur through the therapy of purification, illumination, and glorification; otherwise, the union of all cannot take place, just as the union of astronomers with astrologers in a single society cannot occur, nor can the union of physicians with quacks and practical healers of primitive tribes occur. Therefore, “the problem of unity is simplified only to the success of the Churches in producing the results, for which it is assumed that ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Matt. 5:8).”
This is an Orthodox lecture at the World Council of Churches, in which the “theology” of the Protestants and the Franco-Latins is theologically evaluated, the Orthodox faith of the Prophets, Apostles, and Fathers is confessed, and the path of return to this tradition is outlined for those who have strayed from it.
3. Religion is a Neurobiological Sickness, and Orthodoxy is Its Cure
This text was published by Father John Romanides in 1996 in the volume “Orthodoxy, Hellenism, and the Course Toward the Third Millennium,” which was issued by the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou on Mount Athos. However, it reflects thoughts he had expressed from time to time, namely that the Church is not a Religion, but the healing of man from Religion and its consequences. Religion is a spiritual sickness; it is connected with superstition, mysticism, and magic, which not only do not recognize the sickness of the mind and the heart, but keep people in this sickness. On the contrary, the Church, through its entire therapeutic discipline, heals the human being in the mind, the heart, the desires, etc.
For this reason he emphasizes that the Church resembles medical science. In his time, when the neurosciences had developed more extensively, he used the example of the neurosciences in order to characterize the spiritual sickness and the spiritual health of man. Indeed, he said that what the subconscious is for neuroscience and psychoanalysis is, in a certain sense, for Orthodox theology the nous which requires healing.
In the present text he begins by noting that the decision of the Roman State to regard the Orthodox Catholic Tradition from an illegal status to a legal Religion and afterwards as an official Church was made because they realized that the Orthodox Church was not a form of Religion or philosophy, but rather an “organized Society of Neurological Clinics” that treated the sickness of Religion and produced normal citizens with selfless love, who were dedicated to the radical healing of both their personal and their social sicknesses. Thus, the relationship that developed between Church and State corresponded to the relationship between the State and modern Medicine.
Of course, as becomes clear throughout his whole text and in other works of his, the “Neurological Clinic” is not identified with the Church, because the sickness of human personality which Orthodox theology confronts is “more penetrating than what is today known in modern medicine.” Nevertheless, he uses this example of the “Neurological Clinic” in order to show that the Church is not a Religion, but heals the nous and the heart and is a spiritual infirmary that possesses a specific method of healing.
Thus, in the introduction he records the method that exists in the Church, as it appears from the Old and the New Testament, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the Apostles. This truth is seen in Christ, who as the Lord of Glory and the Angel of Great Counsel, and as the incarnate God, heals and perfects their physicians both in the Old and in the New Testament so that they may heal the sick human beings. This refers to the experience of purification, the illumination of the heart, and glorification (theosis), which is the historical tradition and succession of healing and perfection before and after the Incarnation, and which is the heart and the core of the Biblical and Patristic tradition.
He develops this theme in five individual sections in a detailed manner; however, here a brief summary is given of what is written.
The first section presents the sickness of Religion.
In presenting the sickness he defines it as a “short circuit between the spirit in the heart of man (that is, according to the Fathers, the noetic energy) and the brain.” The noetic energy, which by nature ought to be located in the heart, is one thing, and the rational energy, which is in the brain, is another. The identification of the noetic and rational energies is described with the modern term as a “short circuit.”
Indeed, he also uses another modern example which we encounter among the Hesychast Fathers, namely that in the sick state of man “the noetic energy does not rotate circularly” within the heart. On this matter Saint Dionysios the Areopagite speaks of the circular movement of the nous from the external world of the senses into the heart and of its ascent to God. This is analyzed by Saint Gregory Palamas. Gerontissa Galaktia used to say that the noetic prayer is a flame that turns circularly in the heart.
He writes that in Religion the uncreated is identified with the created, and indeed the representations of the uncreated are identified with the meanings and words of human thought, and this is the foundation of the worship of idols. For this reason the Prophets and the Fathers struggled against the sickness of Religion. The healed saints know that they use created words and meanings during the period of purification and illumination of the heart, which, however, are abolished during glorification. After glorification the words and meanings of the noetic prayer in the heart return.
He points out that the foundation of the heresies both of the Vatican and of the Protestants is that they follow the views of Augustine that the revealed glory of God in the Old and the New Testament is understood as created, coming into being and passing away. On the contrary, according to the Patristic tradition there exists no similarity whatsoever between the uncreated God and His uncreated energy and created things.
The second section is titled “The Synods and the Societies of Neurological Clinics,” and it contains extensive analyses which will be presented here briefly.
First of all, it should be said that since the Church is understood as — and indeed is — a Therapeutic Center/Hospital, and specifically a “Neurological Clinic” that heals the “subconscious,” this means that the local churches carry out this therapeutic work. Therefore the Synods, and especially the Ecumenical Synods, are regarded as the Societies of these neurological Clinics. For this reason their decisions are not philosophical but theological–therapeutic; they preserve the method of healing and expel heresy as a theological sickness.
This is developed through several interesting points which will be presented here very briefly.
a) Paradise is the uncreated glory which Christ has by nature from the Father for those whose egocentric and selfish love has been healed and transformed into selfless love. Hell is this same uncreated glory which is experienced as eternal fire by those who chose to remain unhealed in their selfishness. All will arrive, by the Holy Spirit, “into all truth,” that is, they will see Christ with His friends in glory, but not all will be glorified. The Franco-Latin tradition teaches the opposite.
b) The so-called attempt to demythologize the Holy Scripture is the work of the Protestants and the Papists. Those Orthodox who are influenced by them follow the Neo-Platonist Augustine and the Carolingian Franks, who divide the universe into three levels: Paradise in heaven, Hell beneath the earth, and the surface of the earth as the place of trial.
c) Chapters 12 to 15 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians of the Apostle Paul are “a unique window through which one may behold the reality of the Church as the Body of Christ.” Thus, as an excellent biblical theologian, he analyzes these chapters through the Patristic tradition to explain who the members of the Church are. They are the ordinary faithful, who progress — under the guidance of those who are temples of the Holy Spirit — from the purification of the heart, to its illumination, and finally to glorification.
d) He defines precisely what it means that the Church is a “Neurological Clinic,” a Therapeutic Center/Hospital, according to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, who was an excellent knower of the Church. The sickness of human personality is the weakening of the heart with respect to the glory of God and its enslavement to the world. The fall of man is bondage to creation, and the healing begins with the purification of the nous from thoughts and their restriction to the reasoning faculty.
Thus, the brain, which is the head of the nervous system, occupies itself with daily activities and sleep, while the spirit of man prays simultaneously and unceasingly in the heart. He cites extensively passages from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul in support of this truth regarding noetic prayer, speaking also about the gift of speaking in tongues, the illumination of the heart, and the vision of the glory of God, which constitutes the healing of man. In the state of glorification, there occurs a suspension of bodily functions, which serves as evidence of the restoration of the health of the previously sick human nature.
e) He presents as an example the holy relics of the Saints, in which death has been overcome. Some of them emit fragrance because those Saints were in the state of illumination, while others remain whole or almost whole, because those Saints reached glorification and stand between corruption and incorruption. These demonstrate that the experience of glorification is the foundation of faith and not merely the biblical texts.
At this point he writes:
“Their (the deified ones’) bodies are preserved in this manner by the energy of God, since their noetic energy continues to whirl circularly within their hearts in communion with the deifying energy of the Holy Trinity. Perhaps we could observe this whirling by means of a magnetic axial tomograph.”
A crank is “a part of a mechanism which is connected at a right angle with a shaft and converts linear reciprocating motion into rotation and vice versa” (G. Babiniotis).
Some have isolated this sentence from the entire context of the text and accuse Father John Romanides of teaching the provability of the divinity. First of all, the entire teaching of Father John Romanides is a great theological jewel. To isolate certain phrases and exaggerate them while ignoring all the rest of his work constitutes great malice and sickness.
Furthermore, this formulation is confirmed by many holy relics which remain incorrupt (the cellular system has not decomposed) because the Grace of God is active. This is analyzed by Saint Gregory Palamas. When the Saints were living biologically, Grace — as a flame — moved circularly in their hearts. Many relics of Saints are confirmed to be warm, such as those of Saint Mary Magdalene. We do not place them under an axial tomograph, because this is a spiritual reality, but even if someone were to do so, the incorruption of the cells would be observed — that the cells have not decomposed because they are preserved by the Grace of God.
f) The Saints do not come “from the world,” but they live “in the world.” The Franco-Latin distinction between the active life and the contemplative life does not apply, since the Saints and martyrs lived within the world and were living temples of the Holy Spirit. Psychiatrists work in society to bring about a mental balance among those who are sick by adapting them to generally accepted norms of normal thought and behavior. The healing power of the Saints does not come from this world, but they labor for the healing of the human heart and therefore for the transfiguration of the world.
g) The key to the decisions of the seven Roman Ecumenical Synods, as well as the Eighth (879) and the Ninth (1341), is that those who have reached glorification bear witness that there is no similarity whatsoever between the created and the uncreated. This means that words and concepts about God which do not contradict the experience of theosis, but lead to the purification, the illumination of the heart, and deification, are Orthodox. On the contrary, words and concepts that contradict glorification and remove one from purification and the illumination of the heart are heretical. He emphasizes that almost all historians of dogma ignore this interpretive key and understand the dogmas as speculative and dialectical reflections upon the mystery that lies behind words and concepts about God. To be a theologian means to be an expert in the methods of the devil, possessing the gift of the discernment of spirits.
h) The mysteries of the Church are understood within the perspective of the members of the Church in the framework of purification, illumination, and theosis. The disappearance of this truth from dogmatic manuals is the result of the “Franco-Latinization of Orthodox theological education in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.”
i) The Prophets acquire knowledge of the uncreated, whereas intellectual scientists acquire knowledge of created reality. Both may walk the path of healing, illumination, and the perfection of glorification. These are two different levels of knowledge.
j) There is a distinction between the Prophets and the Franco-Latin Popes. When the Franks, through military force, seized the throne of Old Rome (983–1046), they transformed the Roman Fathers into Greeks and Latins and added the Franks, thus forging the myth that the Franks and the Latin-speaking Roman Fathers constituted a single unified Latin Christendom.
k) There exists unity between the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Church, and in those Churches where there are no Prophets, heresies appear. The eyewitnesses who are deified and the illuminated disciples of the Apostles are the only authentic teachers of the Orthodox Church. They formulate the terms of the faith so as to avoid sickness and false healing, so that the inner man may be healed and that Christ may be seen as Paradise and not as Hell.
l) All the Ecumenical Synods spoke about the Lord of Glory who appeared to the Prophets of the Old Testament and who was God the Logos, and that this same One became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary. Christ and the Apostles used the Old Testament, to which the New Testament was added. The first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were written in order to lead people to the purification of the inner man, that is, to the first stages of illumination before baptism through the ordinary faithful. The Gospel of John was composed for those already baptized for the illumination of the heart, so that through selfless love they might reach glorification.
By contrast, the heretics, using different arguments — primarily philosophical — said that the Lord of Glory and the Angel who appeared to the Prophets was the first created being brought from non-existence by the will of God, and not co-eternal and consubstantial with God. The Arians and Eunomians either ignored or rejected the revelation that those who are deified are in vision of God and, becoming gods by Grace, behold the uncreated Kingdom and divinity of God. This can also be seen in the views of Augustine, and because of him the theophanies of the Logos in the Old Testament disappeared from the books on the history of dogma and dogmatic theology among the Latins and Protestants, and even among the Orthodox from the time of Peter the Great onward. Yet this tradition constitutes the very essence of the Orthodox tradition, which permeates the mysterical, liturgical, and iconographic life of the Church.
This Western tradition was condemned in the person of Barlaam in 1341, but at that time the Fathers did not suspect either the source of the heresy or that this was the sole tradition of the Franco-Latins.
m) The saying of the Apostle Paul, “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19), means that we remain temples of the Holy Spirit, keeping the attention of our spirit in the heart, so that we may become prophets through theosis.
The baptism of water is an indelible mystery, because forgiveness from God for our sickness is the given starting point for the beginning of healing. However, the baptism of the Spirit is not indelible, which is why there exists a special rite of repentance and restoration for those who repent after denying their faith. The mystery of confession has its root in the guidance of the ordinary faithful so that they may reach the purification of the heart and its illumination. Those who attain the illumination of the heart pray together in the Divine Liturgy as temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Body of Christ, for those who are not members, so that they may become — or become again — members, since this was not guaranteed to them merely by the baptism of water for the remission of sins.
n) At a certain point in the post-apostolic Church, the gift of transferring prayer and psalmody from the heart to the mind and vocal recitation for the benefit of the ordinary faithful was replaced by written texts that were read. Nevertheless, the gifts that existed in the Church of Corinth remained the same.
The Franks identified illumination and glorification with the Neo-Platonic mysticism of Augustine, which some Protestants rejected, whereas for the Fathers this phenomenon — mysticism of this sort — is demonic.
o) The Divine Eucharist is a great mystery, but according to the exhortation of the Apostle Paul (“Let a man examine himself”), one must test oneself whether he is in the state of illumination, and therefore a member of the Body of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit, at least possessing the gift of noetic prayer.
p) The formulation of the dogmas by the Ecumenical and Local Synods is not related to theological or philosophical speculation about the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of God, and theosis, but rather to the “preservation” of the path of healing in Christ through the purification and illumination of the heart and the deification of the faithful.
The third section is titled “The Origin of the Synods.”
In this section the origin of the Synods is examined. He writes that the synodal system originated from the group of Prophets that existed in every Church and from the Apostles, who were the overseers of the Churches they founded.
The Bishops and Presbyters came from the prophets and teachers. After the death of the Apostles, the synods were held by illuminated and deified Bishops, and in this capacity they are the successors of the Apostles.
With the increase of Christians and Churches, Presbyters began to preside over Churches instead of Bishops, because there were not enough deified persons for the rank of Bishop. However, the basic requirement of the Orthodox tradition was that Bishops be elected from among those who were deified. As time passed, the deified increasingly became hermits, and from them the Bishops were chosen.
The principal responsibility of the Episcopal Synods was the promotion of the healing of purification, the illumination of the heart, and theosis. In this way they sought the ordination of genuine physicians and the rejection of quacks, speculators, or those who had completely departed from healing.
This power of illumination and theosis helped the faithful to endure persecutions, but it also led to the conquest of the Roman Empire. The support given by the Roman Empire to the Orthodox Church was the same as that given by the modern State to true medicine and the protection of people from false physicians. This tradition that was preserved is not “Byzantine,” but Apostolic.
Unfortunately, this Apostolic tradition was abandoned by the Franks. They lost contact with illumination and glorification, made the apostolic succession of Bishops the property of their own race, distorted the decisions of the Synods and subjected them to their own tradition, did not see purification, illumination, and theosis in the Old and the New Testament or in the Fathers of the Church, did not perceive the necessity of healing the sickness which seeks happiness, nor did they strive for the transformation of selfish love into selfless love. They rejected the Patristic tradition that all will see the glory of God in Christ, but that not all will partake of it.
Some parts of the Reformation reacted against Franco-Latin Christianity, and some of them came to consider that justification by faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit in the heart. However, this must be demonstrated afterwards.
Conclusion
After the above, in this study Father John Romanides arrives at the conclusion that the entire Franco-Latin world, Western civilization, and Islam are dominated by the sickness of religion, that is, the pursuit of self-interest arising from the search for happiness. This sickness is the center of all personal and social diseases.
When this sickness remains uncontrolled, it leads to conflicts of interests, to selfish exploitation of human beings, and to the exploitation of the environment. Modern technology and science have been subordinated to the service of this sickness, which corrodes everything — social structures and natural resources — beyond all limits.
This leads to self-destruction, either through a nuclear event or through the pollution and distortion of ecological balance. Already the greatest threat to our planet comes “from apocalyptic dreamers who are religious.” The only solution for confronting this situation is “the collective self-imposition of an ascetical restraint,” since all religions promote the desire for happiness, which is the sickness of humanity.
Thus the therapy of the sickness is purification, illumination of the heart, and glorification. These truths are the keys to our union with one another in the uncreated glory of the Holy Trinity, for which Christ prays in His High-Priestly Prayer (John 17).
Epilogue
After analyzing the subject of the sickness of religion and its therapy as given in the Orthodox tradition, Father John Romanides adds an Epilogue, evidently a text written later and included here.
He writes that in Greek culture and Greek philosophy there was no concept of the circular movement of the spirit within the heart, as it is described in the Old and New Testaments. For this reason the Fathers of the Church adopted the terms nous, logos, and dianoia, identifying the nous with the spirit that prays in the heart.
Thus they defined that one thing is rational worship, in which lay people participate; another is noetic worship, which takes place in the heart of those who are illuminated; and another is glorification (theosis). While the nous prays in the heart, the brain communicates normally with the surrounding environment.
On the contrary, “the children of the Neoplatonic mysticism of Augustine and the Franco-Latins,” and some “so-called Orthodox,” seek the ecstasy of the nous and the soul outside the body, searching for the contemplation of nonexistent immaterial archetypes supposedly in the mind of God — archetypes which, according to Saint Gregory Palamas, are a “fabrication of demons.” This view was condemned by the Ninth Ecumenical Synod in 1341.
The Franks knew only the works of Augustine. They distorted Saint Dionysios the Areopagite by subjecting him to Augustine’s Neoplatonic mysticism. They did the same with the work of Saint John of Damascus' An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, and with the writings of other Fathers of the Church.
Saint Gregory Palamas expressed the Orthodox teaching precisely in his work “In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts.” Father John writes:
“The invincible weapon against the devil is the healing of the short-circuit between the noetic energy of the heart and the rational faculty of the brain. The therapy consists in the restriction of all thoughts, whether good or evil, to the brain. This is achieved only when the noetic energy of the heart returns to its natural circular movement through unceasing noetic prayer.”
This teaching is presented by Saint Dionysios the Areopagite and interpreted by Saint Gregory Palamas.
And he concludes:
“The reason there is no speculative theology in the Orthodox Church is that the sickness of religion is neurological and its therapy is given. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’”
Indeed, this text is a magnificent conception of a prophetic theologian, who presents both the sickness of religion and of modern life, and also its therapy in the Orthodox hesychast tradition of the Church.
4. General Conclusion
These three texts of Father John Romanides — “A Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology,” “Jesus Christ – The Life of the World,” and “Religion Is a Neurological Sickness, While Orthodoxy Is Its Cure” — are important because, among other things, they express the whole Orthodox tradition.
Two central points emerge.
The first is that the key to the Prophetic, Apostolic, and Patristic tradition is that the center of the human being is the heart, into which the nous must enter in its natural state and pray unceasingly. This occurs when a person becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit and a member of the Body of Christ. Through noetic prayer, the nous returns to glorification.
The second point is that the method of sanctification is the triad of purification, illumination, and theosis. This is the fundamental principle of spiritual life in Christ and is spoken of throughout the Orthodox tradition.
However, when we speak of purification, illumination, and theosis as stages of the ascent of man to God, we do not mean distinct classes of people, but rather the different ways in which human beings participate in the Grace of God.
The uncreated Grace of God, when it encounters the impassioned person, purifies him, if he desires it. In the one who practices noetic prayer, it illuminates him, and in the person who has given himself completely to God, it glorifies (deifies) him.
Thus the same Grace of God is participated in by people according to their condition and is called purifying, illuminating, and deifying. This same Grace, at the Second Coming of Christ, will be seen as Light by those who are illumined and God-seers (Paradise), and will be experienced as fire by the unrepentant (Hell).
This is the key to the teaching of the Church regarding the healing of man, who lives within the Church — which is the spiritual hospital — so that he may acquire selfless love.
Father John Romanides is a prophet of the Orthodox Church, expressing and teaching the dogma of Christ, which was proclaimed through the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Church.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
l) All the Ecumenical Synods spoke about the Lord of Glory who appeared to the Prophets of the Old Testament and who was God the Logos, and that this same One became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary. Christ and the Apostles used the Old Testament, to which the New Testament was added. The first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were written in order to lead people to the purification of the inner man, that is, to the first stages of illumination before baptism through the ordinary faithful. The Gospel of John was composed for those already baptized for the illumination of the heart, so that through selfless love they might reach glorification.
By contrast, the heretics, using different arguments — primarily philosophical — said that the Lord of Glory and the Angel who appeared to the Prophets was the first created being brought from non-existence by the will of God, and not co-eternal and consubstantial with God. The Arians and Eunomians either ignored or rejected the revelation that those who are deified are in vision of God and, becoming gods by Grace, behold the uncreated Kingdom and divinity of God. This can also be seen in the views of Augustine, and because of him the theophanies of the Logos in the Old Testament disappeared from the books on the history of dogma and dogmatic theology among the Latins and Protestants, and even among the Orthodox from the time of Peter the Great onward. Yet this tradition constitutes the very essence of the Orthodox tradition, which permeates the mysterical, liturgical, and iconographic life of the Church.
This Western tradition was condemned in the person of Barlaam in 1341, but at that time the Fathers did not suspect either the source of the heresy or that this was the sole tradition of the Franco-Latins.
m) The saying of the Apostle Paul, “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19), means that we remain temples of the Holy Spirit, keeping the attention of our spirit in the heart, so that we may become prophets through theosis.
The baptism of water is an indelible mystery, because forgiveness from God for our sickness is the given starting point for the beginning of healing. However, the baptism of the Spirit is not indelible, which is why there exists a special rite of repentance and restoration for those who repent after denying their faith. The mystery of confession has its root in the guidance of the ordinary faithful so that they may reach the purification of the heart and its illumination. Those who attain the illumination of the heart pray together in the Divine Liturgy as temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Body of Christ, for those who are not members, so that they may become — or become again — members, since this was not guaranteed to them merely by the baptism of water for the remission of sins.
n) At a certain point in the post-apostolic Church, the gift of transferring prayer and psalmody from the heart to the mind and vocal recitation for the benefit of the ordinary faithful was replaced by written texts that were read. Nevertheless, the gifts that existed in the Church of Corinth remained the same.
The Franks identified illumination and glorification with the Neo-Platonic mysticism of Augustine, which some Protestants rejected, whereas for the Fathers this phenomenon — mysticism of this sort — is demonic.
o) The Divine Eucharist is a great mystery, but according to the exhortation of the Apostle Paul (“Let a man examine himself”), one must test oneself whether he is in the state of illumination, and therefore a member of the Body of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit, at least possessing the gift of noetic prayer.
p) The formulation of the dogmas by the Ecumenical and Local Synods is not related to theological or philosophical speculation about the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of God, and theosis, but rather to the “preservation” of the path of healing in Christ through the purification and illumination of the heart and the deification of the faithful.
The third section is titled “The Origin of the Synods.”
In this section the origin of the Synods is examined. He writes that the synodal system originated from the group of Prophets that existed in every Church and from the Apostles, who were the overseers of the Churches they founded.
The Bishops and Presbyters came from the prophets and teachers. After the death of the Apostles, the synods were held by illuminated and deified Bishops, and in this capacity they are the successors of the Apostles.
With the increase of Christians and Churches, Presbyters began to preside over Churches instead of Bishops, because there were not enough deified persons for the rank of Bishop. However, the basic requirement of the Orthodox tradition was that Bishops be elected from among those who were deified. As time passed, the deified increasingly became hermits, and from them the Bishops were chosen.
The principal responsibility of the Episcopal Synods was the promotion of the healing of purification, the illumination of the heart, and theosis. In this way they sought the ordination of genuine physicians and the rejection of quacks, speculators, or those who had completely departed from healing.
This power of illumination and theosis helped the faithful to endure persecutions, but it also led to the conquest of the Roman Empire. The support given by the Roman Empire to the Orthodox Church was the same as that given by the modern State to true medicine and the protection of people from false physicians. This tradition that was preserved is not “Byzantine,” but Apostolic.
Unfortunately, this Apostolic tradition was abandoned by the Franks. They lost contact with illumination and glorification, made the apostolic succession of Bishops the property of their own race, distorted the decisions of the Synods and subjected them to their own tradition, did not see purification, illumination, and theosis in the Old and the New Testament or in the Fathers of the Church, did not perceive the necessity of healing the sickness which seeks happiness, nor did they strive for the transformation of selfish love into selfless love. They rejected the Patristic tradition that all will see the glory of God in Christ, but that not all will partake of it.
Some parts of the Reformation reacted against Franco-Latin Christianity, and some of them came to consider that justification by faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit in the heart. However, this must be demonstrated afterwards.
Conclusion
After the above, in this study Father John Romanides arrives at the conclusion that the entire Franco-Latin world, Western civilization, and Islam are dominated by the sickness of religion, that is, the pursuit of self-interest arising from the search for happiness. This sickness is the center of all personal and social diseases.
When this sickness remains uncontrolled, it leads to conflicts of interests, to selfish exploitation of human beings, and to the exploitation of the environment. Modern technology and science have been subordinated to the service of this sickness, which corrodes everything — social structures and natural resources — beyond all limits.
This leads to self-destruction, either through a nuclear event or through the pollution and distortion of ecological balance. Already the greatest threat to our planet comes “from apocalyptic dreamers who are religious.” The only solution for confronting this situation is “the collective self-imposition of an ascetical restraint,” since all religions promote the desire for happiness, which is the sickness of humanity.
Thus the therapy of the sickness is purification, illumination of the heart, and glorification. These truths are the keys to our union with one another in the uncreated glory of the Holy Trinity, for which Christ prays in His High-Priestly Prayer (John 17).
Epilogue
After analyzing the subject of the sickness of religion and its therapy as given in the Orthodox tradition, Father John Romanides adds an Epilogue, evidently a text written later and included here.
He writes that in Greek culture and Greek philosophy there was no concept of the circular movement of the spirit within the heart, as it is described in the Old and New Testaments. For this reason the Fathers of the Church adopted the terms nous, logos, and dianoia, identifying the nous with the spirit that prays in the heart.
Thus they defined that one thing is rational worship, in which lay people participate; another is noetic worship, which takes place in the heart of those who are illuminated; and another is glorification (theosis). While the nous prays in the heart, the brain communicates normally with the surrounding environment.
On the contrary, “the children of the Neoplatonic mysticism of Augustine and the Franco-Latins,” and some “so-called Orthodox,” seek the ecstasy of the nous and the soul outside the body, searching for the contemplation of nonexistent immaterial archetypes supposedly in the mind of God — archetypes which, according to Saint Gregory Palamas, are a “fabrication of demons.” This view was condemned by the Ninth Ecumenical Synod in 1341.
The Franks knew only the works of Augustine. They distorted Saint Dionysios the Areopagite by subjecting him to Augustine’s Neoplatonic mysticism. They did the same with the work of Saint John of Damascus' An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, and with the writings of other Fathers of the Church.
Saint Gregory Palamas expressed the Orthodox teaching precisely in his work “In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts.” Father John writes:
“The invincible weapon against the devil is the healing of the short-circuit between the noetic energy of the heart and the rational faculty of the brain. The therapy consists in the restriction of all thoughts, whether good or evil, to the brain. This is achieved only when the noetic energy of the heart returns to its natural circular movement through unceasing noetic prayer.”
This teaching is presented by Saint Dionysios the Areopagite and interpreted by Saint Gregory Palamas.
And he concludes:
“The reason there is no speculative theology in the Orthodox Church is that the sickness of religion is neurological and its therapy is given. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’”
Indeed, this text is a magnificent conception of a prophetic theologian, who presents both the sickness of religion and of modern life, and also its therapy in the Orthodox hesychast tradition of the Church.
4. General Conclusion
These three texts of Father John Romanides — “A Critical Examination of the Applications of Theology,” “Jesus Christ – The Life of the World,” and “Religion Is a Neurological Sickness, While Orthodoxy Is Its Cure” — are important because, among other things, they express the whole Orthodox tradition.
Two central points emerge.
The first is that the key to the Prophetic, Apostolic, and Patristic tradition is that the center of the human being is the heart, into which the nous must enter in its natural state and pray unceasingly. This occurs when a person becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit and a member of the Body of Christ. Through noetic prayer, the nous returns to glorification.
The second point is that the method of sanctification is the triad of purification, illumination, and theosis. This is the fundamental principle of spiritual life in Christ and is spoken of throughout the Orthodox tradition.
However, when we speak of purification, illumination, and theosis as stages of the ascent of man to God, we do not mean distinct classes of people, but rather the different ways in which human beings participate in the Grace of God.
The uncreated Grace of God, when it encounters the impassioned person, purifies him, if he desires it. In the one who practices noetic prayer, it illuminates him, and in the person who has given himself completely to God, it glorifies (deifies) him.
Thus the same Grace of God is participated in by people according to their condition and is called purifying, illuminating, and deifying. This same Grace, at the Second Coming of Christ, will be seen as Light by those who are illumined and God-seers (Paradise), and will be experienced as fire by the unrepentant (Hell).
This is the key to the teaching of the Church regarding the healing of man, who lives within the Church — which is the spiritual hospital — so that he may acquire selfless love.
Father John Romanides is a prophet of the Orthodox Church, expressing and teaching the dogma of Christ, which was proclaimed through the Prophets, the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Church.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.