The theological gnoseology in Elder Sophrony Sakharov

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleΗ θεολογική γνωσιολογία στον Πατέρα Σωφρόνιο Σαχάρωφ
3. Language term English
4. lemma author Koutalis, Vangelis
5. lemma category Modes of interaction > Conflict - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning > Orthodox gnosiology - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Status of theology - Orthodox Anthropology
6. Publication date 15-5-2017
7. lemma work Dahdal, Arsenios (Adnan) [Author]. The theological gnoseology in Elder Sophrony Sakharov
8. lemma manifestations Η θεολογική γνωσιολογία στον Πατέρα Σωφρόνιο Σαχάρωφ
9. Keywords Elder Sophrony Sakharov - gnoseology - deification - Divine energies - Grace of God - repentance - scientific knowledge - spirituality
10. Url IKEE Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης
11. Citations
    1. <p>Dahdal, Arsenios (Adnan) [Αρσένιος] (2009). <em>Η θεολογική γνωσιολογία στον Πατέρα Σωφρόνιο Σαχάρωφ</em> (Doctoral dissertation). Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Theology, School of Theology.</p>
12. Lemma body

    1. In this doctoral dissertation the particular contribution of Elder Sophrony Sakharov (1896-1993) to Orthodox theology with regard to the question of the knowledge of God is thoroughly presented. This contribution was the outcome of his own personal and lived experience which has been communicated through his writings. For Elder Sophrony, the true knowledge of God is the lived empirical knowledge acquired through an existential communion of love. It does not proceed from intellectual operations, but from a spiritual struggle, due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer. It does not presuppose a course of intellectual learning, but the grace of the revelatory love of God.

       Thus, in the first chapter, the author describes how Elder Sophrony defines the spiritual knowledge of God and differentiates it from the theoretical knowledge of God. The latter, pertaining to theology as a scientific discipline, has as its starting point the question ‘What the truth is’, whereas the guiding question posed in the first is ‘Who the truth is’. The theoretical and scientific knowledge of God necessitates processes of rational reasoning, such as definitions, arguments and proofs, in which what is to be known becomes objectified, and the knowing subject is distinguished from the object of knowledge. The spiritual knowledge of God is an existential communion in which the distinction between knowing subject and object of knowledge is abrogated, insofar as God becomes known though the pure prayer, during which the created substance of the human being enters into the sphere of the Uncreated. Theology as a science, as yet another manifestation of philosophical and theoretical knowing, is not only unable to achieve true knowledge of God, contrary to the spiritual theology which is based on the personal and immediate knowledge of God, on the lived experience of the believer. It can also be a deceiving and slippery ground, giving rise to the delusion of self-superiority. Secular education and scientific erudition should not be trusted as such, since they irrevocably reflect the universal human condition after the Fall and are not intended to transcend the limitations inherent in this condition.  The true knowledge of God is not something that can be acquired or externally grasped. It rather penetrates, in an inexplicable way, our existence, when God is with us, when we come, as persons, into a communion of love with God as a person.  

       The Orthodox conception of the Holy Triad as a triad of persons, the distinction between the essence and the energies of God, the duality of natures and the unity of person in Christ, and the anthropological prerequisites for the theological gnoseology, these are the questions that are discussed in the second chapter. The human being is created in the image and in the likeness of God and the aim of its creation is the realization of its likeness and union with God, that is, its deification. The awareness of the truth of Christ amounts to the responsibility to fully accept and practise the first commandment of love. The aim of deification must be seen also in relation to the actual universal condition of the Fall. God can be known to us only by grace and in order to become receptive to the truth of God we must cleanse our minds from passions and any material concerns.  To know something is to incorporate it into our own life. To know God is to be united with God through love.

       In the third chapter of his study, the author specifies the three spiritual stages on the path to deification, according to Elder Sophrony, which correspond to three ways of relating to God’s grace. First, God establishes a covenant with the human being. Even today, in our societies where secularization is the dominant trend, a memory of loss persists: the human being apprehends the distance from the eternity of God and suffers from fundamental unanswered questions. Through this feeling of despair it becomes open to the grace of God and the ‘first visit’ of God’s grace in the heart of the believer lays the foundations for a new life. The second stage is that of human self-awareness and repentance. Here, the believer has the experience of God’s abandonment. God disestablishes the divine grace sensibly, without ontologically disrupting the communion with the human being. Faith is tested and strengthened. The third stage is that of the return, which is the reliving of Golgotha, where the believer passes from the Hades of repentance and from the Hades of love. After having proved its ability to understand the deep darkness which encounters in this descent, the human soul can receive anew the visit of the grace of God, this time accomplishing a real, spiritual communion with God.

       In the fourth chapter, the question of deification is examined, both in terms of the preconditions that render it possible in the first place and in terms of the means by which this possibility becomes a reality. What makes deification possible is the incarnation of the Word, the passion and the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, without following the example of Christ, during his life on earth, it will not be possible to live in the likeness of God. Deification, however, is achieved through the free will of the human being and its synergy, its working together, with the deifying grace. The human being that becomes deified in spite of its living in this earthly world, is able to stare at the uncreated light of divinity partially, anticipating the full view of God in the world to come.