The profane knowledge (kosmike gnosis) does not accomplish salvation. That which is true in secular wisdom is not necessary and does not lead to salvation. One may not know anything about the experimental sciences and yet have knowledge of God (theognosia) which leads to salvation. He rejected the Barlaamite and Scholastic claims that intellectual knowledge (gnosis) is essential for the knowledge of God. The Scholastics as represented by Barlaam had as a starting point that the knowledge of God is rational and that what is super-natural is unknown of God. Therefore, we have the dichotomy and juxtaposition of the two realities; natural and super-natural. For Saint Gregory Palamas "knowledge of God is based on the suprarational experience of the prophets and Saints; it transcends all rational knowledge and cannot, there-fore, be understood or defined in rational categories, or dealt with dialectically and syllogistically, taking non-existent universals as a starting point." Saint Gregory Palamas sees reality in spiritual experience of the vision of God (tes theoptias) not in imaginary symbols, but in symbols that are essentially real in our experience of reality.
The way to attain knowledge of God is by purity of heart, by purifying our souls from improper imagination. The only way man can attain the purity which is necessary for the knowledge of God is "by purifying his active (power) by works, his cognitive (power) by knowledge, and his contemplative (power) by prayer."
"It can never be achieved by anyone except through perfection in works, through perseverance (in the ascetic way), through contemplative prayer." Prayer in quietude (hesychia) is necessary to attain knowledge of God. True knowledge is attained through purification (katharsis). In the union with God one attains the vision of "all immaterial knowledge" (pares ahylou gnoseos). This is not by "sensible symbols" (aisiheton ton symbolon) but by the communion of the divine uncreated light.
The perfect saving knowledge was given to man by Christ, and in the sacred Scriptures one can find "eternal life." This being perfect knowledge (gnosis) and by the practice of the divine sayings: "therefore all that you wish man to do to you, even so do you also to them; for this is the law and the prophets," (Matt. 7:12) one moves toward perfection. Those who believe in Christ attain the supra-conceptual knowledge (hyper ennoian gnosis) which is the end of the commandments. We do not receive God's knowledge (theognosia) from created beings but from the uncreated light, which is the glory of God and revealed to us through Christ.
Knowledge, therefore, according to Saint Gregory Palamas is not intellectual nor dialectical but apodictic and experiential. One can say it is existential because it is directly experienced in contemplation (theoria) and not derived by syllogisms and abstractions.
[...]
The Greek Orthodox Fathers who are in the tradition in which Palamas stands teach the distinction between the divine uncreated essence and the divine uncreated energies. Those who are worthy partake of the uncreated energies since the essence is unapproachable, and this distinction does not disrupt the unity of God. This distinction is contrary to the Western confusion of the uncreated essence with the uncreated energies and this is by the claim that God is "Actus Purus." To avoid pantheism Western theologians teach that grace is created and that the creature does not participate in the divine essence. However. the scholastics advocate the communion or vision of the divine essence by the "elect" or saints in the "Beatific vision" which will take place in the future life. The late V. Lossky states it this way: "Palamas' opponents are defending a philosophical notion of the divine simplicity when they affirm the perfect identity of the essence and the energy of God." And elsewhere he says that "Christianity is not a philosophical school for speculating about abstract concepts, but is essentially a communion with the living God," and that "there is no philosophy more or less Christian. Plato is not more Christian than Aristotle." For that reason one must not look for a "philosophy of essence" in the Greek Fathers.
[...]
The Greek Orthodox Fathers who are in the tradition in which Palamas stands teach the distinction between the divine uncreated essence and the divine uncreated energies. Those who are worthy partake of the uncreated energies since the essence is unapproachable, and this distinction does not disrupt the unity of God. This distinction is contrary to the Western confusion of the uncreated essence with the uncreated energies and this is by the claim that God is "Actus Purus." To avoid pantheism Western theologians teach that grace is created and that the creature does not participate in the divine essence. However. the scholastics advocate the communion or vision of the divine essence by the "elect" or saints in the "Beatific vision" which will take place in the future life. The late V. Lossky states it this way: "Palamas' opponents are defending a philosophical notion of the divine simplicity when they affirm the perfect identity of the essence and the energy of God." And elsewhere he says that "Christianity is not a philosophical school for speculating about abstract concepts, but is essentially a communion with the living God," and that "there is no philosophy more or less Christian. Plato is not more Christian than Aristotle." For that reason one must not look for a "philosophy of essence" in the Greek Fathers.
From the book Introduction to St. Gregory Palamas by George C Papademetriou
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário