By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani
The Second Sunday of the Fast of Great Lent is dedicated to the great Father of our Church, Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Sacred hymnography calls him: “a pillar of the faith,” “a champion of the Church,” “a brilliant herald of the Light,” and “a luminary of Orthodoxy.”
Indeed, Saint Gregory Palamas was an outstanding theological personality. He was born in Constantinople toward the end of the 13th century and was educated to an excellent degree. It is even preserved that at the end of one of his lectures on the logical method of Aristotle, the learned Theodore Metochites remarked that Aristotle himself, if he had been present, would have praised him. He lived as a monk for 23 years on Mount Athos, shepherded Thessaloniki as its Archbishop, and reposed in 1360.
However, in those years the fullness of the Church was disturbed by the heretic Barlaam of Calabria and other like-minded heretics, and the so-called “Hesychast controversies,” as they remained in history, arose.
The central issue of this disturbance concerned chiefly whether the divine essence is participable or not. Saint Gregory, possessing great learning, strong theological training, fidelity to the patristic tradition, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, distinguished between the divine essence (which is unparticipable) and the divine energy (which is participable).
According to Palamas, the essence of God cannot be approached or comprehended by man. It remains incomprehensible to the human mind. Yet God also has uncreated energy, and this is apprehensible. Thus the following holds true:
“Of God, one aspect is unknown and another known; one is ineexpressible and another expressible.”
Saint Gregory gave new vitality to theological thought. Above all, he spoke about the deification (theosis) of man, this experience which is possible already in the present life. He says that the light which the disciples saw at the divine Transfiguration of the Lord, the light which the “pure in heart” behold, and the substance of the good things of the age to come, constitute the same spiritual reality for man (Homily in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, 1, 3, 43).
The present experience is “a pledge” with regard to the future and complete reality. Thus the great truth of man’s participation in the divine light is emphasized.
Accordingly, deification is described as “a transformation for the better, an ecstasy and ascent beyond nature.”
It is the ineffable vision, the brilliance and height of theoria, where man is deemed worthy by the grace of God. The vision of the glory of God, or theoria, is understood as accomplished in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, as a gift of the Heavenly Father to the faithful who are worthy of it.
As another great Father of the Church before Palamas, Maximus the Confessor, says: “We do not accomplish deification, but we undergo it.” (Philokalia, vol. II)
In this way Saint Gregory Palamas establishes a theological Christian anthropology. Man, that is, is destined and oriented toward deification, toward communion with God.
And even though man — Adam — fell, Christ the New Adam constitutes the only possibility for the restoration of the old Adam, the sinful man, and for his dynamic return to the radiant condition of Paradise.
Thus it becomes evident that with “the image of God” is indicated the being of man, while with “the likeness of God” is indicated his potential being.
Therefore the divine content of theological anthropology — not worldly and anthropocentric anthropology — is man’s likeness to God. This is deification.
“You shall be holy” and “you shall be perfect.”
Deification is the summit of the spiritual life in Christ.
In our days, of course, there is much discussion about the value of man and the meaning of life. Yet we must pay attention to the content of such discussions. There is talk about man with motives that are purely earthly and worldly — speech that does not liberate but enslaves, speech that does not bring existential redemption but disturbance. It is discourse about man with man as the center and not God.
This is an anthropocentric humanism, which sometimes leads to a “superman” and at other times to a “sub-man.” But this is a tragic anthropology, incapable of perceiving the divine mystery of man, the crown of God’s creation.
The important and essential point here is that in the teaching of Gregory Palamas, man cannot in any way be understood independently of his Creator. Only such a theological Christian anthropology protects us from the deviations of materialistic anthropology, and only this ultimately opens the gate of eternity.
The ideal of Christians, therefore, is not a vague humanism, but a theological, Christ-centered humanism, which is based on rebirth in Christ, according to the biblical passage: “Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (Gospel of John 3:3).
The great Father of the 14th century is clear:
“Therefore, all who have been deemed worthy to receive the mystery through faith are able, by proclamation, to praise God; yet they are not able to be united with Him or to behold Him in the light.” (Homily in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, 2, 3, 53)
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
