The Hesychast and the Ten Commandments - First Commandment
14/06/2007 Filed in: Church
Fathers & Mystics
This is
the first part of a series of short posts discussing
Gregory Palamas' "New Testament Decalogue". Stay
tuned!
How did the incarnation of Christ transform the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law? How does Christianity incorporate the basic moral framework of the Torah? These questions are central to the notions of reconciliation and reintegration that I have presented before (follow the "reintegration" and "reconciliation" tags in the sidebar), because they lay out the most fundamental virtues that one must cultivate in order to live in accordance with the Christian faith. One of the most contemplative and introspective traditions of Christianity, the Orthodox hesychast movement, has given us a profoundly pastoral summary of Christian moral teaching, that weaves together “worldly” codes of conduct and finer theological positions.
St Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) — St Gregory of Thessaloniki as he is usually referred to — is particularly revered since his memory is celebrated both on the day of his death (14 November) and on the second Sunday in Lent, the first commemorating the restoration of the holy icons in 843. A small number of his extremely voluminous writings were selected for the Philokalia. He was born and brought up in Constantinople, and at the age of twenty he became a monk on the sacred Mount Athos in Greece, and later went on to be the Archbishop of Thessalonica. He had a prominent role in the hesychast controversy in arguing against Barlaam the Calabrian, who maintained that the light seen by hesychasts in prayer was simply a physical radiance, not divine.
The text we are interested in, "A New Testament Decalogue", is a summary of how each of the Ten Commandments should be understood, at least in Orthodoxy, and applied in every-day life. It was addressed by St Gregory Palamas to the laity, sometime at the end of his life.
Over the next few posts, I will post short summaries and discussions of the most striking points St Gregory Palamas made back in the fourteenth century in this text.
1. “The Lord your God is one Lord”, revealed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: in the unbegotten Father, in the Son who is begotten eternally, timelessly and impassibly as the Logos, and in the Holy Spirit who also comes forth from the Father, not begotten, but proceeding. Note here that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father, not from Father and Son as the Church of Rome declared. Interestingly, we have recently met this notion of “proceeding” in Plotinus’ work. This alone St Gregory Palamas continues, is God and alone is true God, the one Lord in a Trinity of hypostases, undivided in nature, will, glory, power, energy, and all the characteristics of divinity. So in a nutshell, this is how the Trinity, in which God reveals himself, is the one true God. It may be interesting to note the parallel with Martines de Pasqually's understanding of the Trinity. Him alone shall you love and Him alone shall you worship with all your mind, and with all your heart, and with all your strength. This spells out the program of every Christian. See how the divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Sprit corresponds to the human triad of mind, heart and strength? Remember that Jesus said that the way to the Father is through the Son… and see what John writes in 16:23. There you have a lead to the core of hesychasm.
How did the incarnation of Christ transform the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law? How does Christianity incorporate the basic moral framework of the Torah? These questions are central to the notions of reconciliation and reintegration that I have presented before (follow the "reintegration" and "reconciliation" tags in the sidebar), because they lay out the most fundamental virtues that one must cultivate in order to live in accordance with the Christian faith. One of the most contemplative and introspective traditions of Christianity, the Orthodox hesychast movement, has given us a profoundly pastoral summary of Christian moral teaching, that weaves together “worldly” codes of conduct and finer theological positions.
St Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) — St Gregory of Thessaloniki as he is usually referred to — is particularly revered since his memory is celebrated both on the day of his death (14 November) and on the second Sunday in Lent, the first commemorating the restoration of the holy icons in 843. A small number of his extremely voluminous writings were selected for the Philokalia. He was born and brought up in Constantinople, and at the age of twenty he became a monk on the sacred Mount Athos in Greece, and later went on to be the Archbishop of Thessalonica. He had a prominent role in the hesychast controversy in arguing against Barlaam the Calabrian, who maintained that the light seen by hesychasts in prayer was simply a physical radiance, not divine.
The text we are interested in, "A New Testament Decalogue", is a summary of how each of the Ten Commandments should be understood, at least in Orthodoxy, and applied in every-day life. It was addressed by St Gregory Palamas to the laity, sometime at the end of his life.
Over the next few posts, I will post short summaries and discussions of the most striking points St Gregory Palamas made back in the fourteenth century in this text.
1. “The Lord your God is one Lord”, revealed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: in the unbegotten Father, in the Son who is begotten eternally, timelessly and impassibly as the Logos, and in the Holy Spirit who also comes forth from the Father, not begotten, but proceeding. Note here that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father, not from Father and Son as the Church of Rome declared. Interestingly, we have recently met this notion of “proceeding” in Plotinus’ work. This alone St Gregory Palamas continues, is God and alone is true God, the one Lord in a Trinity of hypostases, undivided in nature, will, glory, power, energy, and all the characteristics of divinity. So in a nutshell, this is how the Trinity, in which God reveals himself, is the one true God. It may be interesting to note the parallel with Martines de Pasqually's understanding of the Trinity. Him alone shall you love and Him alone shall you worship with all your mind, and with all your heart, and with all your strength. This spells out the program of every Christian. See how the divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Sprit corresponds to the human triad of mind, heart and strength? Remember that Jesus said that the way to the Father is through the Son… and see what John writes in 16:23. There you have a lead to the core of hesychasm.