On the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas

(Abridged text of a lecture given at the Leningrad Theological Academy on March 7, 1963) The name of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, has not ceased to be mentioned to this day in the literature related to the teaching of the “Light of Tabor,” which is directly related to the teaching of the grace of God, which is acquiring a special, new meaning now, with the unfolding ecumenical dialogue in the field of doctrine. And during the life of St. Gregory Palamas and in our time his theological system has found supporters and opponents. Supporters of the theology of St. Gregory are numerous, and this is, first of all, the Greek Orthodox Church, which recognized Gregory Palamas among its saints and through the mouth of the fathers of the Council of Constantinople in 1350, testified that “with this confession (i.e., St. Gregory), it would be desirable to die and appear before the Judge of all.” Opponents of the theology of St. Gregory Palamas, trying to downplay the significance of his moral conclusions, were usually based on extremes that, due to misunderstanding, were allowed by some adherents of “desert silence,” forgetting that these extremes were condemned by Palamas himself. In an anniversary article dedicated to the 600th anniversary of the death of St. Gregory Palamas, professor-archpriest K. Ruzhitsky cited several characteristics of his theological activity. Two of them are interesting. The first belongs to Doctor of Theology, Professor Fr. John Meyendorff. It states that “the main conclusions and teachings of St. Gregory Palamas is not the fruit of his abstract thinking, but the revelation of patriotic views based on personal spiritual experience” and that the victory of St. Gregory over the representatives of Latin views in theology - the Barlaamites - “finally led the Eastern Church onto the path of biblical, sacramental, traditional realism.” The second characteristic comes from Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein) - “The ascetic and theological teaching of St. Gregory Palamas” (“Seminarium Kondakovianum”, t. VIII, Prague, 1936). The latter writes that the great significance of St. Gregory Palamas lies “in the matter of theological substantiation of the data of church-mystical experience in its final depths and limits” (see J. M. P., 1959, No. 12, p. 39). The thoughts expressed illustrate one of the reasons for the church veneration of St. Gregory Palamas, which coincides with the second week of Great Lent. St. Gregory Palamas was born in 1296 in Constantinople, into an aristocratic family. From early childhood he was surrounded by an atmosphere of piety and prayer. Father St. Gregory was an example in this regard for the whole family. Even in the midst of his work, he indulged in unceasing inner prayer. St. Gregory received an excellent education, but all his interests lay in the area of ​​spiritual life, and therefore, at the age of twenty, he retired to Athos and here he labored, first as a hermit, then in a cenobitic monastery. In 1328, the church and social activities of St. began. Gregory, which did not stop until his death. This activity was carried out in two directions. Firstly, it was a polemical struggle against the scholastic opinions of the Calabrian monk of the Order of St. Basil the Great Varlaam and the monk Gregory Akindinus, who accused the Greek Church in general of “ignorance” and, in particular, the Athonite monks of falling into “ditheism” regarding their teaching about the “Light of Tabor.” Secondly, it was a struggle against the then Roman tendencies. In 1347 St. Gregory was installed in the Archdiocese of Thessaloniki; the episcopal rank and the responsibilities associated with it made his church service deeper and broader. Life of St. Gregory Palamas was full of sorrows and hardships, but this did not break his spirit, and, supported by the grace of God, he firmly fulfilled his mission as a champion of Orthodoxy. St. Gregory died on November 14, 1359. Eight years after his death, the Council of Constantinople, under Patriarch Flavian, canonized him. St. Gregory Palamas was not only a practical figure, but also a fruitful church writer with a broad theological and philosophical outlook. Most of his numerous works have not yet been published, and this poses a difficulty for researchers. But even on the basis of his published works, some idea of ​​the theology of St. Gregory Palamas. He himself did not leave the theological system in a harmonious and complete form. Theological views of St. Gregory are established by selecting individual expressions and quotations from his various works. However, in some respects, the “Confession of the Orthodox Faith”, compiled by St. Gregory Palamas for the Council of Constantinople in 1350. Theology of St. Gregory Palamas can be presented according to the following scheme: a) the doctrine of God in His being and actions, b) the doctrine of grace as one of the actions of God, and of the “Taborian light”, which is an expression of the gracious Divine action, c) the doctrine of man as a spiritual-bodily being, in his relationship with God and the world created by Him and d) the doctrine of the world, which is the result of the creative activity of the Divine and a means of knowing Him. In a very brief summary of the theology of St. Gregory appears in this form. The One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is essentially unimaginable and unknowable. The existence of God in his being is inaccessible to created penetration - neither human nor angelic. But if God is unknowable in His essence, then He can be known in His actions. St. Gregory Palamas teaches that “the essence of God and His actions differ in our mental representations. This difference is not something subjective, but has its basis in God Himself. It is through Divine actions that we name God.” The activity of God (ἐνέργεια) and the powers of God (δυνάμεις) are eternally co-present with the essence (οὐσία) of God, inseparable from it. They are not created, but they do not constitute the second Deity or the fourth Hypostasis in God. They are manifestations of the One God in the Trinity. This position follows from what was said by the fathers of the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils that “nature without an action consistent with it can neither exist nor be understood. Each being expresses its nature by acting. An uncreated action is a sign of an uncreated essence” (St. John of Damascus. An exact exposition of the Orthodox faith, book III, chapters 14 and 15). The essence of the Divine, according to the Gospel, is inaccessible to sight (John 1:18), but God in His manifestations and actions, in His wisdom, love, mercy and other numerous properties manifested in the world, is accessible to human perception. This perception is greater the higher the moral state of a human being. The actions and powers of God are united under the broad concept of grace. It is Divine grace that touches a person and can be perceived by both his soul and body. About the grace of St. Gregory Palamas writes: “The message, that is, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, is a common work (to all three Persons). He appears not according to His essence - for no one has ever seen or explained the essence of God - but by grace, by power and action, which is common to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit" ("Confession"), The grace of God is the eternal, unfading light of God ("Against Akindinus", book VII). “God’s chosen people can supernaturally contemplate this light with their bodily eyes,” just as the apostles saw it on Tabor. God's chosen ones "are able to participate in the gracious actions of God and through them have communion with the being of God." Blessed light, in the words of St. Gregory Palamas, is “the light of the future age, with which the righteous will be enlightened, like the sun, as Christ predicted, shining on the mountain” (“Confession”). The grace of God is directed to man. This is where the anthropology of St. begins. Gregory Palamas, which occupies a central place in his theology. Gregory Palamas first of all draws the line between man and God. Man is a creation in body and soul. As a creature, he will always remain a creature. A person can be deified, made incorruptible, immortal, and can even, by the highest love of God, have communion with the Divine Being, but this communication can never be direct, it is accomplished only through grace (“Against Akindinus,” book VII). The obstacle to direct communication is the qualitative difference in the natures of God and man. However, the essence and actions of man are to some extent similar to those of the Godhead. Considering the human soul, St. Gregory says that it is an independent entity, existing in power and separate from the body. The soul is the creative principle of action for every body associated with it. By analogy with God, Whose man is the image and likeness, the soul is simple in its essence. Her image is recognized by her deeds. The calling of the soul is communication with God, which can be achieved by cleansing from passions with the help of God's grace. This communication, if achieved, can turn into blissful ecstasy (here is a similarity with the teachings of Plotinus), but this ecstasy is not an end in itself (here is a difference from Plotinus). In such a mystical ecstasy, the soul contemplates the great deeds of God, imprints them in itself and responds to them, first by cultivating virtue within itself, and then by manifesting it outwardly in deeds of love, mercy, meekness, peace, etc. In other words, the soul is called not only to contemplate God, but also to act, not only to enjoy the greatness of divine affairs, but also to participate in them with its free will (Bishop Arseny. St. Gregory Palamas, three works that have not yet been published. Novgorod, 1895, pp. 1–27). Man is a spiritual-physical being. St. Gregory Palamas highly values ​​not only the soul, which is capable of becoming like God, but also the body, as a faithful assistant to the soul. According to one of the researchers of the works of St. Gregory, Archimandrite Cyprian, “the head of the Athonite hesychasts, himself close to the angelic, disembodied life, dares to praise man in a way that, perhaps, few of the Fathers of the Church. He speaks very definitely about the height of man, about the “divine participation of the flesh.” According to St. Gregory, the body is what places man above the angels. St. Gregory writes: “Man is not only created in the image of God for one reason more than the angels, that he has within himself a life-giving power, but also because he is in charge. God, through the power that governs us, has transferred dominion over the whole earth. But angels do not have a body associated with them, subordinate to the mind... The Trinity structure of our consciousness shows that we, more than angels, are created in the image of God... What is naturally connected with the mind reveals a diverse variety of arts, sciences and knowledge, the construction of houses, the creation of things from nothing - of course, not from complete non-existence, for this is already the work of God - all this is given only to people... The unknown word of the mind is not only connected through the air with the organ of hearing, but is also written and seen with the body and through the body, and this God gave only to people... Nothing like this is ever characteristic of the angels" (Arch. Cyprian. Anthropology of St. Gregory Palamas, Paris, 1950, pp. 363, 364). It should be noted that the latter is the private theological opinion of St. Gregory. This view certainly goes beyond traditional theological views. But in the anthropology of St. Palamas, this emphasis on the importance of the human body has its own meaning, since it facilitates the polemical task of St. Gregory, who opposed views relating the human body to supposedly evil matter, opposed to the spiritual, good principle. Thus, in soul and body, a person is capable of carrying out the mission that is entrusted to him by the Creator. The human body is part of the world's matter. The latter is also blessed. St. Gregory Palamas in his “Confession” writes: “We know nothing evil in our essence, and we do not recognize any other principle of evil except the evasion of the law of rational beings who abuse the freedom given to them by God.” Matter was created by God in time. She is not evil and in this sense opposite to God and contrary to grace. On the contrary, through it the great works of God become clear. Grace permeates all creation. The world is not essentially evil, although it is immersed in evil by our abuse. God did not curse the world as His creation. The Lord came into the world not to destroy what was damaged by our abuse, but to recreate the creation of His hands. Hence the conclusion: “We must not only save ourselves from the world, but also save the world itself. How? A feat of personal life and self-improvement” (“Anthropology”, p. 414). These are, in general terms, the theological views of St. Gregory Palamas. Characterizing the theology of St. Gregory, Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein) in the article “St. Gregory Palamas. Personality and teaching based on recently published materials” writes that “the teaching about God, His essence, His energies, His simplicity was not for St. Gregory Palamas is a subject of abstract and theoretical interest. What interests him first of all,” says Archbishop Vasily, “is man’s participation in the Divine uncreated life.” Assessing the historical significance of St. Gregory, Archbishop Vasily notes that St. Gregory Palamas was able to find “in the teaching of the Greek fathers about the Divine and His relationship to the created world, a theological basis for the reality of the mystical experience of the saints...” that, being a gifted theologian and powerful dialectician, he “managed to systematize and give a theological synthesis of individual statements of the ancient fathers about God...”, that the mystical theology of St. Gregory represents in the life and thinking of the Orthodox Catholic Church “a new movement, creative and traditional at the same time.” Archbishop Vasily calls this “new movement” a “great synthesis of theology and mysticism,” a theology based on the experience of the spiritual life of the Church, a creative return to patristic sources and to the biblical Revelation, in which St. Gregory Palamas “found his idea of ​​man, created in the image of God in his mental and physical integrity” (“Bulletin of the Russian Western European Patriarchal Exarchate”, 1960, no. 33–34, pp. 113–114). Developing creative thought is always conditioned by the circumstances of time and place, coordinated by causal and conditional connections and cannot abstract from the historical and general cultural context without significant damage to itself. System of St. Gregory Palamas is an example of this vital connection with the situation and conditions of his time. Activities of St. Gregory Palamas was a response to the aspirations of simple Christian hearts to receive grace-filled peace. But she herself was far from calm, since she took place in an acute struggle with Latin expansion, which pursued political goals under the cover of a religious banner, of which Palamas’s opponents Varlaam and Akindinus were obedient instruments (A. Katansky. History of attempts to unite the Greek and Latin churches in the first four centuries after their separation. St. Petersburg, 1868, pp. 190–236). At the same time, the general cultural background brought to the fore the ideas of humanism. These ideas found a lively response in the East and determined, in particular, the focus of St. Gregory Palamas in the field of anthropology. It must be said that anthropological interest was at the same time a natural step in the developing theological tradition of the Church, in which there is a sequence of triadology, Christology, anthropology and ecclesiology. The polemical situation and the spirit of the times caused in the era of St. Palamas need some rethinking of values. This rethinking ultimately determined not only the system of theology of St. Gregory Palamas, but also developed a method of moderate inclusion in theology of the three parts that define it. Such components, or defining parts, in the theology of St. Gregory Palamas were: 1) patristic tradition in the interpretation of Holy Scripture, 2) Christian philosophical tradition and 3) personal mystical experience and the mystical experience of the Church. 1. Patristic tradition The creation of the ascetic-metaphysical theology of St. Gregory Palamas was preconditioned by the former ascetic-dogmatic wealth of the Eastern Church and, most of all, by the works of St. John of Damascus. "An Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith" by St. John was in some way the prototype for the “Confession of the Orthodox Faith” of St. Gregory, and the methods of theology of the ascetic of the Lavra, Ven. Savva the Sanctified were, to some extent, models for the theology of the Athonite “preacher of the Divine Light.” The Byzantine church tradition was generally accustomed to “theology within the framework and in the spirit of the holy fathers” (Archimandrite Cyprian), and St. Gregory Palamas, crowning the history of Byzantine theology, was no exception to this general rule. Theology of St. Gregory was a traditional church theology, based on Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, on the decisions of the Councils and on the works of the Fathers of the Church - St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Rev. Maximus the Confessor, Macarius, Pseudo-Dionysius and Isaac the Syrian. "For St. Gregory, his mystical experience was identified with the experience of all the saints and the Church itself” (“Bulletin”, No. 33–34, pp. 104–105). True, a distinctive feature of Eastern theology was that the enormous wealth of the works of the holy fathers was scattered among the libraries of monasteries and private individuals (which is still observed), and therefore could not be properly studied and was not, at least approximately, systematized. Gregory Palamas could not help but encounter this feature, and generalizing the experience of the Eastern Church was difficult for him as well. Nevertheless, his theology was both in spirit and in form patristic theology, based on Holy Scripture and argued by the thought of the holy fathers. St. Gregory Palamas followed the patristic example in assessing the importance of philosophy for theology. His closest example was St. John of Damascus. Expounding the doctrine of the Orthodox Church using the categories of logic, St. John of Damascus put forward a demand for the critical use of what is valuable in philosophy that can be used to understand Revelation. In this sense, he considers it possible to apply Aristotle’s categories in theology, using them to clarify certain points of Revealed teaching and, if necessary, transforming and supplementing philosophy so that it contributes to the understanding of the theology of the Church. However, under all conditions of use, “external” is secondary. First of all, St. John of Damascus thinks on the basis of the triadological and Christological dialectics of the Ecumenical Councils. According to St. John of Damascus, Aristotle cannot be the "thirteenth apostle". At the dawn of theological science, these thoughts were expressed by Clement of Alexandria approximately as follows: “Greek philosophy is valuable, since it was necessary for the education of the Greeks before the coming of Christ; It is also useful for Christians, as it helps to prove the truth of the faith. But although Plato and other Greek philosophers possessed the seeds of truth, the poets also wrote something true and good, but the highest truths about God and the immortality of the soul and about salvation are clearly revealed only in the Holy Scriptures...” (Ya. Elpidinsky. General Church History. St. Petersburg, 1912). In one of his works against Varlaam (“Treatise”), St. Gregory Palamas claims that “some of theological subjects can be proved philosophically,” however, in his opinion, the method that Aristotle used (“purely Aristotelian”) is inappropriate in theology. In Book VI “Against Akindinus” St. Gregory Palamas speaks about philosophy in general as follows: “Philosophy, which philosophizes both according to the elements of the world and according to Christ, has one goal - truth. But as soon as someone oversteps the proper limits of either area of ​​philosophy and begins to trust conclusions to the point of excess, he will inevitably deviate from the main goal of wisdom and fall into error.” Very good St. Gregory spoke regarding philosophy in his “Epistle to the wise John and Theodore.” “So,” St. writes to them. Gregory, a servant of the word, use the word wisely and make the great name of wisdom (philosophy) common to both itself and life” (Bishop Arseny, op. cit., p. 3). In the polemical struggle of St. Gregory Palamas contrasted the then Latin “Aristotelian theology” with a theology familiar with the Neoplatonic ideas of Plotinus, which were assimilated by the hermits of the Holy Mountain through the works of Pseudo-Dionysius. However, even with a superficial acquaintance with the system of St. Gregory Palamas shows that these ideas passed through the prism of his church consciousness. Archimandrite Cyprian writes: “Palama is not only a specifically church phenomenon. It goes deep into the soil of philosophical quests that defined the Byzantine Middle Ages. But, on the other hand, he is organically connected with the monastic environment, with mysticism, he came out of Athonite hesychasm” (Arch. Cyprian. Anthropology, p. 41). His philosophy is a means that facilitates the thought of God, but does not replace it. St. Gregory Palamas, from the age of twenty, first labored in the Lavra of St. Athanasius on Mount Athos, then in a secluded cave near the monastery of Verri. Here, in hermitage, his feat of fasting and prayer in silence and contemplation lasted ten years. Then St. Gregory spent some time in the cenobitic monastery of Esphigmene, where he lived among the brethren. Life of St. Gregory on Athos contributed to his accumulation of the necessary mystical experience, which later became the basis of his theology. In his conclusions, St. Gregory proceeds from the actual impossibility of knowing the inner life of God with the created mind, but the availability of knowledge of God’s actions by the human soul, which is similar in its action to God. However, he attaches a special meaning to this knowledge. According to St. Gregory Palamas, mystical contemplation is an illumination and direct vision of God, surpassing both feeling and mind. This so-called “intelligent and divine feeling,” which transcends ordinary discursive thinking and mere feelings, is “union” with God rather than “knowing” Him. “Mystical life for Palamas,” writes Archbishop Basil, “was the life of God Himself in us... Like Divine life, like the life of Christ in us, this manifestation of God is uncreated, eternal, without beginning and end, as God Himself is, revealing Himself in us with His grace, glory and light, His uncreated actions...” Participating already here on earth in this uncreated Divine life and without losing at the same time his created nature, not being identified with the Divine nature, the whole man, created in the image of God, becomes uncreated by grace and without beginning, like “Melchizedek, of whom it is said that his days had no beginning and his life had no end” (“Messenger”, No. 33–34, p. 107). It is very important to note when considering this point of the teaching of St. Gregory that he did not consider human life in God to be a kind of mortification of the personality, an inactive immersion in the Divine. The dispassion of the Athonite hesychasts was not just the killing of the passionate principle in a person, but the best energy of the body (“Tomos”). Consequently, the dispassion of the ascetics represented a transformed being, “a new stage in action” (“Anthropology”, p. 51). This view, necessary for a correct understanding of Christian moral teaching, does not correspond to the established erroneous concept of “hesychast rest” as complete inaction. Claiming that the path of mysticism is the path of real entry into the mountain life, St. Gregory Palamas, however, understood that this path may not be accessible to everyone and not understood by everyone. He observed deviations from this path, close to Messalianism and Bogomilism, and spoke out against them (K. Radchenko. Religious and literary movement in Bulgaria. Kyiv, 1898, p. 127; also Abbot Modest. St. Gregory Palamas. Kyiv, 1860, p. 15). Therefore St. Gregory Palamas warned against going to extremes for those who wanted to embark on the path of mystical knowledge of God. He did not consider it possible that this path lay outside the common church life. Although mysticism, according to the teachings of St. Gregory, is an integral side of the life of the Church, however, it should not replace it. That is why St. Gregory is called a “great religious thinker” and they find that he was able to capture the mystical experiences of hesychast ascetics in philosophical concepts and, by translating the issue into clear and precise concepts, was able to prove that hesychast mysticism is congenial to the spirit of the Orthodox Church. The subordination of mysticism to the spirit of churchliness is not a shortcoming of St. Gregory Palamas, and the great dignity of his theology. So, according to the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas, understanding the path of life in God is possible in a harmonious combination of the three elements of theology considered. When considering the theology of St. Gregory Palamas, from the point of view of the development of theological thought in the East and taking into account this combination of elements, there is no room left for A. Harnack’s statements that the Eastern Church is “a Greek creation with a Christian bias” and that the Eastern Church is supposedly “in a cult-magical stupor according to the state of the 3rd century.” The thought of Orthodox researchers of the theology of St. Gregory Palamas is rather confirmed by the antithesis of Dr. Hildegard Schaeder, who asserts that “the real victory of “Greek religious history” in Eastern Christianity occurs in the subordination of critically modified Hellenism to Christian-ecclesiastical existence and theology” (N. Schaeder. Die Christianisierung. Athens, 1962, p. 4). It is this harmonious combination, or synthesis, the dominant basis of which lies in the church consciousness, nourished by the sacred sources of doctrine and the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we speak of as the method of the theology of St. Gregory Palamas, since this method primarily determines the value of his theological judgments. It is also necessary to mention the external techniques that make up the shiny clothing in which St. Gregory Palamas embraced his thoughts of God. St. Gregory Palamas is called a brilliant and powerful dialectician, meaning by the word “dialectician” a person who has the art of finding reasons to prove thoughts and to refute an opponent, i.e. knowledgeable and able to apply the laws and rules of logic. Dialectic of St. Gregory Palamas is not dialectic in the modern sense of the word, although some elements of modern dialectical thinking, in embryo, are outlined in his theology. Theology of St. Gregory Palamas is both apophatic and cataphatic, i.e., both denying all intelligible qualities in the being of God and at the same time affirming the names and symbols of divine activity. St. Gregory in one respect denies the possibility of knowing God, and in another he admits this possibility. Man, on the one hand, is a being infinitely removed from God (as a creation), and on the other hand, so close to God that he has the opportunity to come into contact with the Divine in His manifestations and achieve deification. The expressions “light shadow”, “light-like darkness”, “inextricably united”, “inseparably divided” are characteristic in the works of St. Gregory. These dialectical oppositions, both in words and in thoughts, allow St. It is not only better for Gregory to clarify the essence of the issue, to present it in a more intelligible form for consciousness, but also to introduce this consciousness into the “super-intellectual vision of God,” as if into some new dimension. The favorite method of St. Gregory is the method of analogy. In the "Epistle to the wise John and Theodore" St. Gregory writes: “He who has received from the Highest Spirit a perfect and pure renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2) sees reliably both Him and what comes from Him in himself... Hence the word that explains the relationships of beings and reveals in its purity the secrets of nature, through which, on the basis of similarity (analogy), the thought of the faithful rises to the understanding of supernatural objects, which the “father of the word” (i.e., the mind) himself perceives as immaterial touch." Special attention to St. Gregory Palamas devoted himself to clarifying terms, mainly in those of his works where polemics unfolded. Such clarification was necessary when reasoning about the persons of the Holy Trinity, about the essence and energies in the Divinity, about the uncreatedness of divine actions, etc. Such external techniques are assessed, of course, precisely as external and from the point of view of the saint himself. Gregory Palamas. All the brilliant art of his dialectic of St. Gregory directs not to the area of ​​knowledge of God, but to the affirmation of theological conclusions. External methods of theology are entirely aimed at justifying the internal, essential method, which is the path of “patristic synthesis and divine wisdom associated with the mystical and sacramental life of the Church” (Article by Archbishop Basil in the “Bulletin” No. 33–34, p. 114). This method is the path of Orthodox theology, the basis of which is in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition and the development of which takes place with direct illumination by the Holy Spirit indwelling the Church. This is the way to preserve the precious heritage of the past while ascertaining all the objective circumstances of the present, that is, the real life of man and the Church in the conditions of the developing world, which development was provided for by the divine plan before the world began to be. This method acquires its special value for Orthodox theology in our time, when the manifestations of Divine Providence in ourselves and in the world are so palpably observed, when the world in a significant part is moving towards social progress, towards the comprehensive development of the human personality, when the words of Christ “Be perfect” become an urgent call to humanity. teacher at Leningrad Theological Academy