Palamite Theology part 1: Introduction to the hesychast controversies and the different epistemological systems of Barlaam and Saint Gregory Palamas | 2 forms of apophaticism
This stands in stark contrast to the apophatic theology of the Greek Fathers, for whom it was not simply a negation of cataphatic statements about God but rather an existential reality whereby the initiate ascends beyond discursive reason and communicable language to unmediated, mystical experience of God. In 2 Corinthians 12:4, Saint Paul recalls just such an experience when “he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
Given these two different visions of the knowledge of God – one based in negation and the other in positive, although incommunicable, experience of God expressed in negation...
That explanation of how apophatic theology is viewed differently one either side, and how it eventually led to down-stream disagreements, is hugely helpful in understanding some of the underpinnings to the hesychast controversy.
Fascinating. I now have better impression of Barlaam. It is a fundamental question entering God via uncreated vs understanding via created energy that we will not actually know until the time to come. I feel the problem with these schisms is that they turn people away from God. Intellectual fights and excommunication, I feel, destroy us small folks faith in the healing power of the church.
Key point I took away was this:
This stands in stark contrast to the apophatic theology of the Greek Fathers, for whom it was not simply a negation of cataphatic statements about God but rather an existential reality whereby the initiate ascends beyond discursive reason and communicable language to unmediated, mystical experience of God. In 2 Corinthians 12:4, Saint Paul recalls just such an experience when “he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
Given these two different visions of the knowledge of God – one based in negation and the other in positive, although incommunicable, experience of God expressed in negation...
That explanation of how apophatic theology is viewed differently one either side, and how it eventually led to down-stream disagreements, is hugely helpful in understanding some of the underpinnings to the hesychast controversy.
Fascinating. I now have better impression of Barlaam. It is a fundamental question entering God via uncreated vs understanding via created energy that we will not actually know until the time to come. I feel the problem with these schisms is that they turn people away from God. Intellectual fights and excommunication, I feel, destroy us small folks faith in the healing power of the church.