1 00:00:09,230 --> 00:00:12,580 Good evening to you all. 2 00:00:13,370 --> 00:00:20,130 Welcome to the 30th Weter Lecture. 3 00:00:20,130 --> 00:00:22,530 I just counted them up and realize there 4 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:24,585 was a 30th and so it's a wonderful occasion. 5 00:00:24,585 --> 00:00:27,840 It probably means that the honorarium 6 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:29,625 that goes with it should be tripled 7 00:00:29,625 --> 00:00:31,305 for this evening's lecture. 8 00:00:31,305 --> 00:00:33,750 Only once in 30 years do we do that. 9 00:00:33,750 --> 00:00:36,029 I do want to welcome in particular off-campus 10 00:00:36,029 --> 00:00:38,175 guests who were here, 11 00:00:38,175 --> 00:00:40,140 our faculty, our staff, 12 00:00:40,140 --> 00:00:42,250 our students who are here. 13 00:00:42,250 --> 00:00:46,445 Several special guests I would like to give a welcome to. 14 00:00:46,445 --> 00:00:49,790 Reverend Maryland Hair is sitting in the back, 15 00:00:49,790 --> 00:00:51,560 otherwise known as the spousal unit 16 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:53,360 of Dr. Richard Steele. 17 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:55,280 Sarah Steele his daughter, 18 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,565 is back there with her as well. 19 00:00:57,565 --> 00:00:59,885 You will have an introduction 20 00:00:59,885 --> 00:01:02,630 of Abbott Puffhousing here in a moment, 21 00:01:02,630 --> 00:01:04,130 but I want to give my greetings to you and 22 00:01:04,130 --> 00:01:06,095 welcome you to our campus. 23 00:01:06,095 --> 00:01:07,700 I share greetings and 24 00:01:07,700 --> 00:01:10,835 regrets with you as well from President Eaton, 25 00:01:10,835 --> 00:01:13,490 who had an unavoidable trip away from campus, 26 00:01:13,490 --> 00:01:17,265 he deeply looks forward to the Weter Lecture. 27 00:01:17,265 --> 00:01:20,660 I think made 15 separate promises to Rick that he 28 00:01:20,660 --> 00:01:24,335 would read the lecture when he was able to do so. 29 00:01:24,335 --> 00:01:26,870 Greetings from President Eaton to you. 30 00:01:26,870 --> 00:01:29,800 Quick word about the Weter Lecture itself. 31 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:31,280 Many of those of you who have 32 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:32,870 been here for awhile know that this is 33 00:01:32,870 --> 00:01:35,930 a competitive lecture amongst our faculty. 34 00:01:35,930 --> 00:01:38,420 That's an honor of one of our long time colleagues 35 00:01:38,420 --> 00:01:40,845 and friends, Winifred Weter. 36 00:01:40,845 --> 00:01:42,830 Longtime professor of classics 37 00:01:42,830 --> 00:01:46,335 here professor in maritime now. 38 00:01:46,335 --> 00:01:48,260 All faculty on campus, 39 00:01:48,260 --> 00:01:50,810 all full-time faculty are eligible to apply. 40 00:01:50,810 --> 00:01:52,820 Applications are submitted to 41 00:01:52,820 --> 00:01:55,295 the university faculty status committee, 42 00:01:55,295 --> 00:01:57,650 which then selects the lecture 43 00:01:57,650 --> 00:02:00,425 for the evening from that competition. 44 00:02:00,425 --> 00:02:04,040 I would say too, that we are deeply grateful to Dr. 45 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:06,125 Ross Shaw and Barbara Shaw 46 00:02:06,125 --> 00:02:08,405 who are here with us too tonight. 47 00:02:08,405 --> 00:02:10,520 They generously donate the funds 48 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:12,040 that make this lectureship possible 49 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,895 and I'm grateful to them for that gift to the university. 50 00:02:15,895 --> 00:02:18,740 A word about Winifred. 51 00:02:18,740 --> 00:02:23,900 Winifred celebrated her 95th birthday on March 9th. 52 00:02:23,900 --> 00:02:25,820 There were a number of cards 53 00:02:25,820 --> 00:02:27,470 that we had collected from faculty on 54 00:02:27,470 --> 00:02:29,000 campus and just about every 55 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,985 Emeritus Faculty Center a birthday card. 56 00:02:31,985 --> 00:02:34,160 There are a couple of our staff there with 57 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:36,230 her to sing happy birthday to her. 58 00:02:36,230 --> 00:02:40,130 She was coherent and lively with that and as 59 00:02:40,130 --> 00:02:45,290 energetic as Winifred is known to be. 60 00:02:45,290 --> 00:02:47,645 Why are you singing to me? 61 00:02:47,645 --> 00:02:50,600 She is a wonderful dear colleague. 62 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,195 She had a severe stroke about a year ago. 63 00:02:53,195 --> 00:02:56,240 There wasn't a lot of expectations of her bouncing back, 64 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,115 but she has done quite well actually 65 00:02:58,115 --> 00:03:00,590 from that and yet she is at home. 66 00:03:00,590 --> 00:03:02,240 I think it was up to about four years ago 67 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:04,100 she actually attended these lectures and 68 00:03:04,100 --> 00:03:05,570 then just physically it became 69 00:03:05,570 --> 00:03:08,585 impossible for her to continue to be here. 70 00:03:08,585 --> 00:03:10,940 For those of us that knew her some, 71 00:03:10,940 --> 00:03:13,160 some of you knew her a lot better than I. 72 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:14,900 She's a dear colleague that leaves 73 00:03:14,900 --> 00:03:17,120 a legacy with us and a memory with us 74 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:19,130 of the importance of these kinds of 75 00:03:19,130 --> 00:03:22,565 events force and the life of our university. 76 00:03:22,565 --> 00:03:26,240 I must say something that I discovered just recently. 77 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:29,760 In addition to be being a professor of classics here, 78 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,410 she was the first women's sports coach at 79 00:03:33,410 --> 00:03:35,900 Seattle Pacific and a key advocate 80 00:03:35,900 --> 00:03:37,700 for the athletic program here. 81 00:03:37,700 --> 00:03:41,150 On May 4th, she will be visited by our wonderful, 82 00:03:41,150 --> 00:03:43,670 remarkable championship women's basketball 83 00:03:43,670 --> 00:03:45,470 team at her home 84 00:03:45,470 --> 00:03:47,360 who they'll have some time to spend with 85 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:50,605 her and hear some stories from her I am sure. 86 00:03:50,605 --> 00:03:54,410 We are deeply grateful for Winifred in her work and I 87 00:03:54,410 --> 00:03:56,510 cannot stop my introductory comments 88 00:03:56,510 --> 00:03:58,550 without echoing what she would say. 89 00:03:58,550 --> 00:04:01,625 She would say, women faculty, 90 00:04:01,625 --> 00:04:03,800 be sure to apply for this lecture. 91 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,605 We need more women doing this. 92 00:04:06,605 --> 00:04:09,319 In that vein, Dr. Susan Gallagher, 93 00:04:09,319 --> 00:04:12,110 one of our women faculty in English and director of 94 00:04:12,110 --> 00:04:14,405 the Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development 95 00:04:14,405 --> 00:04:16,235 will introduce our lecture for the evening. 96 00:04:16,235 --> 00:04:18,050 Susan. 97 00:04:18,050 --> 00:04:22,775 I just want to 98 00:04:22,775 --> 00:04:25,685 join lesson welcoming are all here tonight. 99 00:04:25,685 --> 00:04:27,860 It's great to have such a good turnout. 100 00:04:27,860 --> 00:04:29,330 One of the objectives of 101 00:04:29,330 --> 00:04:31,580 the Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development 102 00:04:31,580 --> 00:04:35,450 is to promote a campus climate in which research, 103 00:04:35,450 --> 00:04:38,870 writing, creating, teaching, and learning 104 00:04:38,870 --> 00:04:43,280 are understood and valued as Christian vocations. 105 00:04:43,280 --> 00:04:46,430 I think the annual Weter Lecture represents 106 00:04:46,430 --> 00:04:48,410 one significant opportunity for 107 00:04:48,410 --> 00:04:52,385 the promotion and celebration of such activities. 108 00:04:52,385 --> 00:04:56,434 I also think tonight's speech lecture 109 00:04:56,434 --> 00:04:58,670 demonstrates in wonderful ways that 110 00:04:58,670 --> 00:05:02,225 genuinely ecumenical spirit of SPU. 111 00:05:02,225 --> 00:05:03,800 After all, we are going to have 112 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,740 a Wesleyan theologian lecture on 113 00:05:06,740 --> 00:05:11,405 a Calvinist theologian and a Greek Orthodox theologian. 114 00:05:11,405 --> 00:05:14,465 I'm wondering about the reformed people in here. 115 00:05:14,465 --> 00:05:17,660 But I guess that I'm the token Calvinist, 116 00:05:17,660 --> 00:05:19,640 although I'm not a theologian and 117 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:22,195 all I get to do are the introductions. 118 00:05:22,195 --> 00:05:25,940 The reform people are getting cut short. 119 00:05:25,940 --> 00:05:29,450 I'm going to introduce our lecturer tonight. 120 00:05:29,450 --> 00:05:32,630 Following his lecture, we will have a response and I will 121 00:05:32,630 --> 00:05:36,005 introduce the respondent before he gives the response. 122 00:05:36,005 --> 00:05:37,970 The academic biographies of 123 00:05:37,970 --> 00:05:39,590 both of these gentlemen are on 124 00:05:39,590 --> 00:05:41,570 your programs and they include 125 00:05:41,570 --> 00:05:44,165 details of their education, 126 00:05:44,165 --> 00:05:47,540 their experiences, their publications, etc. 127 00:05:47,540 --> 00:05:49,010 I'm not going to rehearse what you 128 00:05:49,010 --> 00:05:50,945 can find in the program, 129 00:05:50,945 --> 00:05:53,990 but I do want to add a few personal notes. 130 00:05:53,990 --> 00:05:56,180 Dr. Steele's many activities and 131 00:05:56,180 --> 00:05:58,850 contributions to SPU are well-known. 132 00:05:58,850 --> 00:06:02,090 I think he's especially respected for 133 00:06:02,090 --> 00:06:04,790 his measured and thoughtful responses 134 00:06:04,790 --> 00:06:07,505 to controversial issues on campus. 135 00:06:07,505 --> 00:06:09,410 Ranging from the mundane, 136 00:06:09,410 --> 00:06:11,359 whether that be leaf blowers, 137 00:06:11,359 --> 00:06:15,080 to the profound, 138 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,600 such as his work on the question of 139 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,290 the suffering of children and how we perceive that. 140 00:06:21,290 --> 00:06:23,930 I personally have been privileged to hear 141 00:06:23,930 --> 00:06:26,060 numerous testimonies from students 142 00:06:26,060 --> 00:06:28,610 concerning his effectiveness in the classroom, 143 00:06:28,610 --> 00:06:32,240 about the ways that he has taught them not only to 144 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:36,185 think more deeply and carefully about their faith, 145 00:06:36,185 --> 00:06:41,750 but also to practice that faith in deep and careful ways. 146 00:06:41,750 --> 00:06:44,480 These kinds of contributions are what lead to 147 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:45,890 the SPU student body 148 00:06:45,890 --> 00:06:48,470 honoring him as their professor of the year, 149 00:06:48,470 --> 00:06:50,695 in the year 2002. 150 00:06:50,695 --> 00:06:53,390 At SPU, we strive to encourage 151 00:06:53,390 --> 00:06:56,855 our faculty to excel as teacher scholars. 152 00:06:56,855 --> 00:06:59,720 Dr. Steele exemplifies for all of us that 153 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:02,855 union of teaching and scholarship. 154 00:07:02,855 --> 00:07:04,700 We look forward to learning from 155 00:07:04,700 --> 00:07:07,325 his wisdom and his scholarship this evening. 156 00:07:07,325 --> 00:07:07,760 Rick. 157 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:26,420 We are getting dressed in public. 158 00:07:26,420 --> 00:07:31,530 Thank you very much. 159 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,980 Thank you very much for being here, all of you. 160 00:07:37,980 --> 00:07:41,850 It's a wonderful pleasure 161 00:07:41,850 --> 00:07:46,065 and privilege to address this body. 162 00:07:46,065 --> 00:07:51,150 I want to thank Less and Susan for their hospitality 163 00:07:51,150 --> 00:07:53,850 and generosity in the last few days 164 00:07:53,850 --> 00:07:56,190 as we have neared this point. 165 00:07:56,190 --> 00:07:58,200 I especially want to thank Father Jonah 166 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,020 for making the trip up from California. 167 00:08:01,020 --> 00:08:03,360 Father Jonah is the abbot of 168 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:05,850 the monastery and a former SPU student, 169 00:08:05,850 --> 00:08:07,230 who was one of my students, 170 00:08:07,230 --> 00:08:09,840 is now a monk and brother and that has 171 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,300 led to a wonderful friendship over the years. 172 00:08:12,300 --> 00:08:16,260 I want to 173 00:08:16,260 --> 00:08:20,175 also add my gratitude to Professor Wieder, 174 00:08:20,175 --> 00:08:22,395 to Professor Mr. Shaw, 175 00:08:22,395 --> 00:08:25,275 and I want to thank all of 176 00:08:25,275 --> 00:08:27,885 my wonderful colleagues, friends, 177 00:08:27,885 --> 00:08:31,050 students, and visitors to 178 00:08:31,050 --> 00:08:34,270 the campus tonight for being here. 179 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,910 The idea that underlies this lecture, 180 00:08:38,910 --> 00:08:41,310 namely that there are 181 00:08:41,310 --> 00:08:46,755 some close and rather surprising affinities between 182 00:08:46,755 --> 00:08:49,065 the theological visions of 183 00:08:49,065 --> 00:08:52,695 Gregory Palamas and Jonathan Edwards, 184 00:08:52,695 --> 00:08:56,970 goes back to an informal conversation that I 185 00:08:56,970 --> 00:09:01,650 had about 12 years ago with Father Alexander Golitzin. 186 00:09:01,650 --> 00:09:05,820 Father Golitzin had recently been appointed as 187 00:09:05,820 --> 00:09:09,735 Professor of Orthodox Theology at Marquette University, 188 00:09:09,735 --> 00:09:12,750 where I had done my graduate work and 189 00:09:12,750 --> 00:09:16,960 where I was at that time an adjunct professor. 190 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:20,624 One day I met him in the hall. 191 00:09:20,624 --> 00:09:23,985 For some reason that quite escapes me now, 192 00:09:23,985 --> 00:09:26,340 I showed him a passage of 193 00:09:26,340 --> 00:09:30,360 Jonathan Edwards' wonderful programmatic sermon, 194 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,035 A Divine and Supernatural Light. 195 00:09:34,035 --> 00:09:37,890 As he read, Father Golitzin's eyes 196 00:09:37,890 --> 00:09:41,730 grew wide with astonishment and pleasure. 197 00:09:41,730 --> 00:09:45,255 Finally, he exclaimed, why? 198 00:09:45,255 --> 00:09:48,390 This is positively Palamite. 199 00:09:48,390 --> 00:09:52,320 I suppose I 200 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,740 had at least heard of Gregory Palamas, at that point, 201 00:09:55,740 --> 00:09:59,745 the great 14th-century Byzantine theologian, 202 00:09:59,745 --> 00:10:03,690 or the reference would have been lost on me. 203 00:10:03,690 --> 00:10:05,610 But I'm quite sure that I had never 204 00:10:05,610 --> 00:10:07,980 read a word of his writings. 205 00:10:07,980 --> 00:10:10,800 I must have known something about 206 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:13,815 Eastern Orthodox views on 207 00:10:13,815 --> 00:10:18,360 the uncreated light which shone upon or emanated 208 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,700 from Jesus on the occasion of 209 00:10:20,700 --> 00:10:24,045 his transfiguration on Mount Tabor. 210 00:10:24,045 --> 00:10:27,450 Otherwise, I would scarcely have thought to ask 211 00:10:27,450 --> 00:10:30,150 a Russian Orthodox priest what he could make of 212 00:10:30,150 --> 00:10:33,970 a passage by a colonial American Puritan. 213 00:10:34,100 --> 00:10:38,130 But it was surely Father Golitzin not me who made 214 00:10:38,130 --> 00:10:40,260 the connection between Edwards and 215 00:10:40,260 --> 00:10:42,540 Palamas' sharp and explicit. 216 00:10:42,540 --> 00:10:46,860 This lecture is really little more than an effort to work 217 00:10:46,860 --> 00:10:52,270 out the details and mark out the limits of his insight. 218 00:10:52,370 --> 00:10:54,959 Now, in one sense, 219 00:10:54,959 --> 00:10:57,900 any similarities we may find between 220 00:10:57,900 --> 00:11:01,605 these two theologians are entirely accidental. 221 00:11:01,605 --> 00:11:04,170 There is no evidence that Edwards 222 00:11:04,170 --> 00:11:06,540 knew anything about Palamas 223 00:11:06,540 --> 00:11:09,045 whose writings in the original Greek 224 00:11:09,045 --> 00:11:11,460 did not become available in the West until 225 00:11:11,460 --> 00:11:15,419 the publication of Migne's Patrologia Graeca 226 00:11:15,419 --> 00:11:18,045 a century after Edwards' death. 227 00:11:18,045 --> 00:11:20,160 In fact, the first critical editions 228 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:24,045 of Palamas Greek writings, 229 00:11:24,045 --> 00:11:27,495 as well as the first English translations 230 00:11:27,495 --> 00:11:30,330 have only appeared in the last few decades. 231 00:11:30,330 --> 00:11:34,095 In the one place in Edwards' writings where 232 00:11:34,095 --> 00:11:37,515 Edwards refers to Eastern Orthodoxy at all. 233 00:11:37,515 --> 00:11:41,055 What he says is brief, superficial, 234 00:11:41,055 --> 00:11:46,080 negative, and wrong. 235 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:47,730 But precisely because there is 236 00:11:47,730 --> 00:11:50,100 no direct historical connection 237 00:11:50,100 --> 00:11:54,770 between the colonial Puritan and the Byzantine Hesychast. 238 00:11:54,770 --> 00:11:58,100 Any theological convergences will 239 00:11:58,100 --> 00:12:01,280 be all the more striking cases of 240 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:05,675 arriving at similar conclusions 241 00:12:05,675 --> 00:12:08,630 from very different directions. 242 00:12:08,630 --> 00:12:11,525 My procedure will be this. 243 00:12:11,525 --> 00:12:14,825 First, I shall give a biographical sketch 244 00:12:14,825 --> 00:12:17,745 of Gregory Palamas highlighting 245 00:12:17,745 --> 00:12:20,970 the fierce controversy that broke out in 246 00:12:20,970 --> 00:12:25,875 the fifth decade of his life over the Taboric Light. 247 00:12:25,875 --> 00:12:30,030 It was his brilliant defense of the reality of 248 00:12:30,030 --> 00:12:34,340 this light and of the so-called holy Hesychasts, 249 00:12:34,340 --> 00:12:36,245 the monks of the Eastern Church 250 00:12:36,245 --> 00:12:38,030 who devoted their lives to 251 00:12:38,030 --> 00:12:41,820 its contemplation that established Palamas 252 00:12:41,820 --> 00:12:44,565 as one of the most revered theologians 253 00:12:44,565 --> 00:12:46,650 of the Eastern Church. 254 00:12:46,650 --> 00:12:48,750 Then in the second section, 255 00:12:48,750 --> 00:12:50,985 I shall offer an extended analysis 256 00:12:50,985 --> 00:12:54,430 of his defense of the Toboric Light. 257 00:12:54,430 --> 00:12:56,480 In the third section, 258 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,150 I shall move to Jonathan Edwards and 259 00:12:59,150 --> 00:13:01,790 give a short biographical synopsis of 260 00:13:01,790 --> 00:13:05,310 his life paying particular attention to 261 00:13:05,310 --> 00:13:07,800 several breakthrough experiences in 262 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:09,615 his own life with God, 263 00:13:09,615 --> 00:13:13,080 and to his efforts as 264 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:14,430 a pastor to induce 265 00:13:14,430 --> 00:13:17,505 similar experiences in his parishioners. 266 00:13:17,505 --> 00:13:19,980 These experiences have to do with 267 00:13:19,980 --> 00:13:27,405 his own seeing of A Divine and Supernatural Light. 268 00:13:27,405 --> 00:13:30,885 Like Palamas, Edwards was embroiled 269 00:13:30,885 --> 00:13:33,855 in theological controversy over the nature of 270 00:13:33,855 --> 00:13:35,790 authentic Christian experience and 271 00:13:35,790 --> 00:13:38,310 practice and he too often 272 00:13:38,310 --> 00:13:43,395 used the symbolism of light to describe the aesthetic, 273 00:13:43,395 --> 00:13:48,255 moral, and spiritual aspects of that experience. 274 00:13:48,255 --> 00:13:51,210 In the fourth section, I shall investigate 275 00:13:51,210 --> 00:13:53,130 several key passages in 276 00:13:53,130 --> 00:13:56,325 Edwards' writings that demonstrate this. 277 00:13:56,325 --> 00:13:59,820 Having us introduced our two heroes and 278 00:13:59,820 --> 00:14:03,825 their respective understandings of Christian experience, 279 00:14:03,825 --> 00:14:05,805 I shall conclude by comparing 280 00:14:05,805 --> 00:14:08,220 and contrasting their theologies. 281 00:14:08,220 --> 00:14:10,740 I shall try to show that there are 282 00:14:10,740 --> 00:14:14,235 indeed close parallels in their views, 283 00:14:14,235 --> 00:14:17,700 as well as some notable differences which reflect 284 00:14:17,700 --> 00:14:20,430 the distinctive dogmatic commitments and 285 00:14:20,430 --> 00:14:22,575 spiritual practices of 286 00:14:22,575 --> 00:14:26,940 Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglo-American Calvinism. 287 00:14:26,940 --> 00:14:31,125 Let's begin with Gregory Palamas. 288 00:14:31,125 --> 00:14:36,105 He was born in 1296 in Constantinople, 289 00:14:36,105 --> 00:14:41,590 the capital of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. 290 00:14:43,500 --> 00:14:46,240 On this map, 291 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:48,970 Constantinople is right here, 292 00:14:48,970 --> 00:14:51,760 overlooking the Bosporus which is 293 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:59,710 the small strait of water that separates or connects, 294 00:14:59,710 --> 00:15:00,985 depending on your point of view, 295 00:15:00,985 --> 00:15:04,390 the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean. 296 00:15:04,390 --> 00:15:11,965 Mount Athos is this finger of land which stretches out 297 00:15:11,965 --> 00:15:16,390 into the Aegean sea and Thessalonica where 298 00:15:16,390 --> 00:15:19,030 Palamas spent some time and eventually 299 00:15:19,030 --> 00:15:22,240 became the bishop is over here. 300 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:26,080 At the time of Palamas' life, 301 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,560 the Byzantine Empire consisted 302 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,320 of very small amount of territory. 303 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,110 This pink area here, 304 00:15:35,110 --> 00:15:37,555 this little spit of land here, 305 00:15:37,555 --> 00:15:40,060 the Serbs actually controlled 306 00:15:40,060 --> 00:15:43,225 the territory on which Mount Athos is located, 307 00:15:43,225 --> 00:15:45,835 and there was a small area 308 00:15:45,835 --> 00:15:47,680 down here in what's called the Morea, 309 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:49,120 the Southern Peloponnese, 310 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:50,815 which was also part of the empire. 311 00:15:50,815 --> 00:15:55,510 It was a vastly attenuated empire 312 00:15:55,510 --> 00:15:57,130 from what it had been at 313 00:15:57,130 --> 00:16:00,710 its height some centuries before. 314 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:06,000 Palamas' father was a senator and 315 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:10,545 a close friend and advisor of Emperor Andronicus II, 316 00:16:10,545 --> 00:16:13,060 Palaeologus, and was 317 00:16:13,060 --> 00:16:16,690 responsible for the education of the emperor's grandson, 318 00:16:16,690 --> 00:16:20,530 who later reigned as Andronicus III. 319 00:16:20,530 --> 00:16:24,820 In 1303, when Palamas was seven, his father died. 320 00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:27,985 He and his four younger siblings, 321 00:16:27,985 --> 00:16:30,400 two brothers and two sisters, 322 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:33,220 became wards of the Emperor and were 323 00:16:33,220 --> 00:16:36,250 educated at Imperial expense. 324 00:16:36,250 --> 00:16:38,530 He, Palamas, entered 325 00:16:38,530 --> 00:16:40,720 the University of Constantinople as 326 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:42,970 a teenager at a time when as in 327 00:16:42,970 --> 00:16:44,380 the west the philosophy of 328 00:16:44,380 --> 00:16:47,200 Aristotle was in the ascendancy and 329 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:52,420 that of Plato deemed incompatible with Christian faith. 330 00:16:52,420 --> 00:16:54,760 He was an excellent student. 331 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,910 But in 1316, when he was 20, 332 00:16:57,910 --> 00:17:01,780 his entire family felt the call to monastic life. 333 00:17:01,780 --> 00:17:04,180 His mother and sisters entered 334 00:17:04,180 --> 00:17:07,360 a monastery for women in Constantinople. 335 00:17:07,360 --> 00:17:11,634 While he and his two brothers struck out for Mount Athos, 336 00:17:11,634 --> 00:17:17,395 the holy mountain, the center of Byzantine monasticism. 337 00:17:17,395 --> 00:17:20,050 It's important to understand that there are 338 00:17:20,050 --> 00:17:24,430 three basic forms of Christian monasticism. 339 00:17:24,430 --> 00:17:27,400 The first is the eremitic life, 340 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:29,650 as exemplified by St. Anthony of 341 00:17:29,650 --> 00:17:33,955 the Desert in third century figure. 342 00:17:33,955 --> 00:17:36,700 The Hermit lives far removed from 343 00:17:36,700 --> 00:17:39,745 human society and as much as possible 344 00:17:39,745 --> 00:17:42,970 avoids association with other Christians 345 00:17:42,970 --> 00:17:46,675 and supervision by ecclesiastical authorities. 346 00:17:46,675 --> 00:17:49,450 Active ministry and participation 347 00:17:49,450 --> 00:17:51,460 in liturgy and sacrament are 348 00:17:51,460 --> 00:17:53,350 reduced to a minimum and 349 00:17:53,350 --> 00:17:56,905 replaced by the practice of mental prayer. 350 00:17:56,905 --> 00:17:59,800 It was among the hermits that the form of 351 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:03,850 spirituality known as Hesychasm from the Greek word, 352 00:18:03,850 --> 00:18:06,775 "hesychia, " meaning quietude or 353 00:18:06,775 --> 00:18:12,355 tranquility or holy silence, was first developed. 354 00:18:12,355 --> 00:18:15,310 The second and more common form of 355 00:18:15,310 --> 00:18:19,555 Christian monasticism is the cenobitic or communal life, 356 00:18:19,555 --> 00:18:21,820 originally developed by Anthony's 357 00:18:21,820 --> 00:18:24,880 younger contemporary St. Pachomius, 358 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:28,585 and later refined by Saint Basil of Caesarea. 359 00:18:28,585 --> 00:18:31,495 Each monk has his own cell, 360 00:18:31,495 --> 00:18:34,600 but the cells are close together and indeed often 361 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:38,185 more like private rooms in dormitories. 362 00:18:38,185 --> 00:18:41,470 Cenobitic monasticism generally lays 363 00:18:41,470 --> 00:18:45,280 great emphasis on the corporate recitation of Samadhi, 364 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:47,470 the celebration of sacraments 365 00:18:47,470 --> 00:18:50,740 and social service to the wider community. 366 00:18:50,740 --> 00:18:54,970 The third type of Christian monasticism is a hybrid, 367 00:18:54,970 --> 00:18:58,600 which seeks to blend the distinct advantages and 368 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,740 correct the potential abuses of the two pure types. 369 00:19:02,740 --> 00:19:04,870 Here monks live in separate cells 370 00:19:04,870 --> 00:19:06,760 some distance from each other and 371 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:11,005 enjoy uninterrupted solitude from Monday through Friday. 372 00:19:11,005 --> 00:19:13,120 But on Saturday and Sunday, 373 00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:15,250 they gather together for liturgy, 374 00:19:15,250 --> 00:19:19,465 mutual edification, and ordinary human fellowship. 375 00:19:19,465 --> 00:19:22,300 It was this semi-erimitic life that 376 00:19:22,300 --> 00:19:25,045 Gregory Palamas apparently preferred. 377 00:19:25,045 --> 00:19:27,520 Although, he also lived in cenobitic settings for 378 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:30,760 several extended periods and eventually had to give 379 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,270 up monastics seclusion altogether in his later life when 380 00:19:34,270 --> 00:19:37,810 theological controversies and episcopal duties 381 00:19:37,810 --> 00:19:40,555 were thrust upon him. 382 00:19:40,555 --> 00:19:43,150 Palamas and his brothers took up 383 00:19:43,150 --> 00:19:46,450 semi-erimitic life near the Athonite Monastery of 384 00:19:46,450 --> 00:19:50,170 Vatopedi in 1316 under 385 00:19:50,170 --> 00:19:53,735 the direction of the Hesychast master Nicodemus. 386 00:19:53,735 --> 00:19:58,770 But Nicodemus and one of Palamas' brothers soon died. 387 00:19:58,770 --> 00:20:01,350 In 1319, Palamas and 388 00:20:01,350 --> 00:20:02,910 his other brother entered 389 00:20:02,910 --> 00:20:05,325 cenobitic life at the Great Lavra, 390 00:20:05,325 --> 00:20:09,580 the oldest and largest monastery on Mount Athos. 391 00:20:09,580 --> 00:20:12,265 Two years later, Palamas entered a hermitage 392 00:20:12,265 --> 00:20:16,405 associated with the Great Lavra, but in 1325, 393 00:20:16,405 --> 00:20:18,670 he and many other Athonite monks 394 00:20:18,670 --> 00:20:21,025 were forced by the constant raids of 395 00:20:21,025 --> 00:20:22,990 Turkish pirates to flee 396 00:20:22,990 --> 00:20:24,700 the holy mountain all together and 397 00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:29,095 take refuge in the nearby fortified city of Thessalonica. 398 00:20:29,095 --> 00:20:31,900 A year later at the canonical age of 30, 399 00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:34,300 Palamas was ordained a priest. 400 00:20:34,300 --> 00:20:36,640 But instead of taking up pastoral work, 401 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:38,980 he and 10 other monks went to 402 00:20:38,980 --> 00:20:41,770 a mountain retreat near the city of Berea, 403 00:20:41,770 --> 00:20:44,590 where they lived the semi-erimitic life. 404 00:20:44,590 --> 00:20:46,360 There, Palamas stayed for 405 00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:49,915 five years until the Turkish threat had subsided, 406 00:20:49,915 --> 00:20:53,560 and he and his friends could return to Mount Athos. 407 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:57,490 During this time, the aged Emperor Andronicus II 408 00:20:57,490 --> 00:21:00,985 was deposed for incompetence by his grandson, 409 00:21:00,985 --> 00:21:03,670 Andronicus III, and the commander in 410 00:21:03,670 --> 00:21:07,180 chief of his armies, John Kantakouzenos. 411 00:21:07,180 --> 00:21:11,485 From 1331-1335, 412 00:21:11,485 --> 00:21:13,300 Palamas lived in another hermitage 413 00:21:13,300 --> 00:21:15,130 attached to the Great Lavra. 414 00:21:15,130 --> 00:21:17,109 There, he began to experience 415 00:21:17,109 --> 00:21:20,080 mystical visions and is embarked on 416 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,750 the literary labors which were to bring him 417 00:21:22,750 --> 00:21:26,290 both great fame and great trouble. 418 00:21:26,290 --> 00:21:30,340 He wrote a biography of a famous Hesychast master and 419 00:21:30,340 --> 00:21:32,290 a defense of the Orthodox doctrine of 420 00:21:32,290 --> 00:21:34,630 the single procession of the Holy Spirit. 421 00:21:34,630 --> 00:21:37,930 The belief that the Spirit proceeds only from the father, 422 00:21:37,930 --> 00:21:41,875 and not as the Latins taught from the son as well. 423 00:21:41,875 --> 00:21:46,810 In 1336, Palamas was named Abbot of Esphigmenou, 424 00:21:46,810 --> 00:21:49,660 another Athonite monastery, 425 00:21:49,660 --> 00:21:51,640 but his monks objected to 426 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,490 the austerities he instituted so 427 00:21:54,490 --> 00:21:56,620 he resigned after a year and returned 428 00:21:56,620 --> 00:21:59,560 to his hermitage and his books. 429 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,320 Like a professor becoming a dean and then going back 430 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,299 to the professoriate 431 00:22:05,299 --> 00:22:08,350 Shortly afterwards however the controversy that 432 00:22:08,350 --> 00:22:11,365 was to define the next 20 years of his life 433 00:22:11,365 --> 00:22:12,880 and was indeed to throw 434 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:17,155 the entire Byzantine church into an uproar broke out. 435 00:22:17,155 --> 00:22:20,230 This was triggered by an attack made upon 436 00:22:20,230 --> 00:22:22,540 Hesychast's spirituality by 437 00:22:22,540 --> 00:22:27,355 the Greek Italian philosopher Barlaam of Calabria. 438 00:22:27,355 --> 00:22:31,150 I have referred several times already to Hesychasm, 439 00:22:31,150 --> 00:22:34,165 but I've not said much about what it is. 440 00:22:34,165 --> 00:22:37,524 I shall do so presently and in some detail. 441 00:22:37,524 --> 00:22:40,780 I shall also summarize Barlaam's objections 442 00:22:40,780 --> 00:22:44,380 to it and Palamas' defense of it. 443 00:22:44,380 --> 00:22:46,120 But for simplicity sake let 444 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:47,740 us bracket this matter out for 445 00:22:47,740 --> 00:22:52,240 a moment and finish our sketch of Palamas' life. 446 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:55,300 In 1338 he journeyed to 447 00:22:55,300 --> 00:22:58,090 Thessalonica to meet Barlaam 448 00:22:58,090 --> 00:22:59,905 and work out their differences. 449 00:22:59,905 --> 00:23:02,125 The talks were amicable enough, 450 00:23:02,125 --> 00:23:04,735 but no settlement was reached. 451 00:23:04,735 --> 00:23:06,835 Over the next 40 years, 452 00:23:06,835 --> 00:23:10,555 a stream of writings back and forth appeared. 453 00:23:10,555 --> 00:23:15,115 In all Palamas wrote nine treatises against Barlaam. 454 00:23:15,115 --> 00:23:18,100 These were published in three installments between 455 00:23:18,100 --> 00:23:21,625 1338 and 1341, 456 00:23:21,625 --> 00:23:24,370 with three treatises per installment, 457 00:23:24,370 --> 00:23:28,690 and hence are known as the triads in defense of 458 00:23:28,690 --> 00:23:31,390 the holy Hesychats which has to be 459 00:23:31,390 --> 00:23:35,600 the greatest book title in the history of the world. 460 00:23:36,060 --> 00:23:39,820 Also published in 1341 was 461 00:23:39,820 --> 00:23:42,070 his Hagiorite tome from 462 00:23:42,070 --> 00:23:44,425 the Greek words for holy mountain, 463 00:23:44,425 --> 00:23:48,670 which was adopted by a synod of Athonite monks as 464 00:23:48,670 --> 00:23:50,650 the official theological rationale 465 00:23:50,650 --> 00:23:53,900 for their way of life and prayer. 466 00:23:54,090 --> 00:23:57,910 At this point theological controversy got tangled 467 00:23:57,910 --> 00:24:01,675 up with the intrigues of Byzantine politics. 468 00:24:01,675 --> 00:24:05,140 Barlaam as noted earlier came from Calabria, 469 00:24:05,140 --> 00:24:07,240 a region in southern Italy 470 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,310 that had been settled in classical times 471 00:24:09,310 --> 00:24:11,230 by the Greeks and was in 472 00:24:11,230 --> 00:24:13,570 fact still largely Greek in language, 473 00:24:13,570 --> 00:24:15,130 culture, and religion though it was 474 00:24:15,130 --> 00:24:17,920 politically under Italian control. 475 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,280 Although Barlaam was formally Greek Orthodox, 476 00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:25,060 he was deeply sympathetic with Italian culture and in 477 00:24:25,060 --> 00:24:27,130 particular with the new currents of thinking 478 00:24:27,130 --> 00:24:29,995 emerging from the Early Renaissance. 479 00:24:29,995 --> 00:24:32,380 In 1330 when he emigrated to 480 00:24:32,380 --> 00:24:35,560 Constantinople his brilliance as a scholar and 481 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,270 his familiarity with 482 00:24:37,270 --> 00:24:40,855 the intellectual and artistic fashions of the day in 483 00:24:40,855 --> 00:24:43,450 Italy earned him the support of 484 00:24:43,450 --> 00:24:45,010 John Cantacuzene one of 485 00:24:45,010 --> 00:24:48,805 the leading figures in Byzantine politics. 486 00:24:48,805 --> 00:24:51,729 Ultimately Barlaam was actually appointed 487 00:24:51,729 --> 00:24:54,460 as the ambassador of 488 00:24:54,460 --> 00:24:56,800 the Byzantine Empire to 489 00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:02,875 the pope who was then residing in Avignon in France, 490 00:25:02,875 --> 00:25:04,990 with hopes that he might engineer 491 00:25:04,990 --> 00:25:06,760 a reconciliation between 492 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:09,625 the divided Greek and Latin churches. 493 00:25:09,625 --> 00:25:14,169 That embassy however failed to achieve its purpose. 494 00:25:14,169 --> 00:25:17,170 After his return to Constantinople 495 00:25:17,170 --> 00:25:20,350 took church councils held in 1341 under 496 00:25:20,350 --> 00:25:25,210 the auspices of Andronicus III and John Cantacuzene 497 00:25:25,210 --> 00:25:27,340 supported Palamas and 498 00:25:27,340 --> 00:25:30,955 repudiated Barlaam's anti-Palamite writings. 499 00:25:30,955 --> 00:25:36,610 Barlaam fled Constantinople and returned to Calabria. 500 00:25:36,610 --> 00:25:42,535 But the departure of his enemy, his opponent, 501 00:25:42,535 --> 00:25:45,505 did not solve Palamas' problems for 502 00:25:45,505 --> 00:25:50,335 adjust this time Andronicus III died suddenly. 503 00:25:50,335 --> 00:25:53,110 His son John V was too young to 504 00:25:53,110 --> 00:25:56,530 rule so a regency government was set up 505 00:25:56,530 --> 00:25:59,349 led by the boy's mother and of Savoy 506 00:25:59,349 --> 00:26:03,445 and the Patriarch of Constantinople, John Calacus. 507 00:26:03,445 --> 00:26:06,490 Cantacuzene was dismissed but 508 00:26:06,490 --> 00:26:09,355 soon proclaimed himself co-emperor. 509 00:26:09,355 --> 00:26:12,295 Civil war broke out. 510 00:26:12,295 --> 00:26:18,235 That lasted from 1341-1347. 511 00:26:18,235 --> 00:26:22,480 Cantacuzene though originally a supporter of Barlaam 512 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:25,060 had by this time thrown in his lot with 513 00:26:25,060 --> 00:26:27,880 Palamas and the Athonite monks. 514 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:33,205 Thus Palamas was regarded by the Regency as an enemy, 515 00:26:33,205 --> 00:26:35,890 formally condemned at 516 00:26:35,890 --> 00:26:39,325 a third church council and imprisoned. 517 00:26:39,325 --> 00:26:42,370 During his confinement, he wrote a confession of 518 00:26:42,370 --> 00:26:46,000 faith and a treatise on the spiritual life. 519 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,160 Apparently, he saw a little difference 520 00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:51,290 between a hermitage and a jail cell. 521 00:26:51,450 --> 00:26:56,080 With the ultimate victory of Cantacuzene in early 1347, 522 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,660 Palamas was formerly vindicated by 523 00:26:58,660 --> 00:27:00,910 yet another church council and 524 00:27:00,910 --> 00:27:04,345 consecrated Archbishop of Thessalonica. 525 00:27:04,345 --> 00:27:08,440 Unfortunately, lingering political turmoil in 526 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,140 Thessalonica prevented him from 527 00:27:11,140 --> 00:27:13,705 entering his sea for several years. 528 00:27:13,705 --> 00:27:16,210 In the interim, he wrote another major work, 529 00:27:16,210 --> 00:27:19,195 topics of natural and theological science 530 00:27:19,195 --> 00:27:21,800 and on the moral and aesthetic life. 531 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,900 In 1350 he was finally installed by 532 00:27:24,900 --> 00:27:28,430 Cantacuzene and assumed his episcopal duties. 533 00:27:28,430 --> 00:27:32,440 In 1351, a fifth church counsel 534 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,110 definitively approved his confession 535 00:27:35,110 --> 00:27:37,644 and condemned his enemies. 536 00:27:37,644 --> 00:27:44,470 However, in 1354 he was captured by Turks during 537 00:27:44,470 --> 00:27:48,280 a sea voyage and incarcerated for a year in Bithynia 538 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,260 northern Turkey until he was 539 00:27:50,260 --> 00:27:53,080 ransomed and returned to Thessalonica. 540 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,810 This is a Byzantine soap opera. 541 00:27:56,820 --> 00:27:59,890 The last four years of his life from 542 00:27:59,890 --> 00:28:03,550 1355-1359, were relatively tranquil. 543 00:28:03,550 --> 00:28:05,110 He wrote a short treatise on 544 00:28:05,110 --> 00:28:07,419 the moral teachings of the New Testament. 545 00:28:07,419 --> 00:28:11,080 He was very popular because a very practical preacher, 546 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:12,460 a number of sermons mostly 547 00:28:12,460 --> 00:28:14,680 dealing with the ethical, social, 548 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,095 liturgical life of ordinary Christians 549 00:28:17,095 --> 00:28:19,420 and mostly dating from the years of 550 00:28:19,420 --> 00:28:22,090 his episcopacy survive and are now 551 00:28:22,090 --> 00:28:25,975 being translated into English for the first time. 552 00:28:25,975 --> 00:28:28,420 On November 14th, 1359, 553 00:28:28,420 --> 00:28:30,550 Gregory Palamas died after 554 00:28:30,550 --> 00:28:34,030 suffering from some internal disorder for several months. 555 00:28:34,030 --> 00:28:36,220 He was buried in the Cathedral of 556 00:28:36,220 --> 00:28:38,365 the Holy Wisdom in Thessalonica, 557 00:28:38,365 --> 00:28:42,280 where his relics remain much venerated to this day. 558 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:46,840 1368, he was formerly canonized as a saint of 559 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:48,700 the Eastern Orthodox Church and 560 00:28:48,700 --> 00:28:53,050 proclaimed the greatest among the fathers of the church. 561 00:28:53,050 --> 00:28:56,050 He is honored by two different feast days 562 00:28:56,050 --> 00:28:57,775 on the Orthodox calendar. 563 00:28:57,775 --> 00:29:00,610 The second Sunday in Great Lent and 564 00:29:00,610 --> 00:29:04,790 November 14th, the date of his death. 565 00:29:05,550 --> 00:29:08,470 Let us now turn to a description 566 00:29:08,470 --> 00:29:10,300 of the beliefs and practices of 567 00:29:10,300 --> 00:29:11,920 Hesychasm and the form of 568 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,940 spirituality practiced and defended by Gregory Palamas. 569 00:29:15,940 --> 00:29:18,340 As we have seen, Hesychasm was 570 00:29:18,340 --> 00:29:20,440 originally developed by the Christian Hermits who 571 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,240 dwelled in the deserts of Egypt and 572 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,260 Syria in the fourth through the sixth centuries. 573 00:29:26,260 --> 00:29:29,770 Naturally Christian solitary cannot depend for 574 00:29:29,770 --> 00:29:33,700 their spiritual sustenance on the daily office. 575 00:29:33,700 --> 00:29:37,089 That is the round of short communal worship services, 576 00:29:37,089 --> 00:29:40,915 which structure the day of incentibidic monasteries. 577 00:29:40,915 --> 00:29:43,390 Unless a group of solitary make 578 00:29:43,390 --> 00:29:48,025 special either weekly for liturgy and fellowship, 579 00:29:48,025 --> 00:29:51,534 they may miss even these most basic elements 580 00:29:51,534 --> 00:29:53,350 of the Christian life. 581 00:29:53,350 --> 00:29:56,560 The potential for loneliness, boredom, 582 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,375 spiritual delusion, 583 00:29:58,375 --> 00:30:02,455 and utter madness is accordingly very great. 584 00:30:02,455 --> 00:30:07,360 Aesthetic disciplines such as fasting, celibacy, silence, 585 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,870 and manual labor may if properly practice, 586 00:30:10,870 --> 00:30:13,360 temper the human passions. 587 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:16,090 But they may just as easily arouse 588 00:30:16,090 --> 00:30:20,020 the very agitations of soul they are meant to tame. 589 00:30:20,020 --> 00:30:23,020 For example, if one goes without 590 00:30:23,020 --> 00:30:24,370 food but then thinks about 591 00:30:24,370 --> 00:30:26,740 nothing other than his next meal, 592 00:30:26,740 --> 00:30:29,320 the practice of fasting itself becomes 593 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,234 the cause of a refined form of gluttony. 594 00:30:33,234 --> 00:30:36,850 Two one may take a vow of celibacy and still burn with 595 00:30:36,850 --> 00:30:39,760 lust or muzzle one's lips 596 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:44,650 while hankering for gossip and distraction or perform 597 00:30:44,650 --> 00:30:46,630 manual labor out of 598 00:30:46,630 --> 00:30:51,310 a sole sense of duty or a secret desire for gain. 599 00:30:51,310 --> 00:30:53,530 The Hermit needs a form of prayer 600 00:30:53,530 --> 00:30:56,170 which when used in concert with 601 00:30:56,170 --> 00:30:58,375 the acetic disciplines can quiet 602 00:30:58,375 --> 00:31:02,040 these insurgent passions and 603 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:03,900 provide a deep and abiding sense of 604 00:31:03,900 --> 00:31:06,825 both human and divine companionship. 605 00:31:06,825 --> 00:31:09,705 The answer to this need proved to be 606 00:31:09,705 --> 00:31:14,315 the perpetual recitation of the Jesus Prayer. 607 00:31:14,315 --> 00:31:19,915 The basic formula for this prayer is Lord Jesus Christ, 608 00:31:19,915 --> 00:31:24,320 Son of God have mercy on me a sinner. 609 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,990 The ceaseless repetition of this formula was 610 00:31:27,990 --> 00:31:30,570 found to enable the mind or intellect, 611 00:31:30,570 --> 00:31:32,415 the noose as it is called, 612 00:31:32,415 --> 00:31:35,300 which apprehends divine reality 613 00:31:35,300 --> 00:31:37,690 to descend into the heart, 614 00:31:37,690 --> 00:31:43,750 kardia, or spiritual center of the human being. 615 00:31:43,750 --> 00:31:48,385 For when one's attention is focused on Christ, 616 00:31:48,385 --> 00:31:51,400 the power of divine grace bathes 617 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,460 one's consciousness and gradually 618 00:31:54,460 --> 00:31:58,705 seeps into the depths of one's subconscious self. 619 00:31:58,705 --> 00:32:00,610 Eventually, it was found that 620 00:32:00,610 --> 00:32:03,985 certain bodily postures and breathing regimens, 621 00:32:03,985 --> 00:32:06,310 could enhance the effectiveness of 622 00:32:06,310 --> 00:32:10,150 the prayer formula thus has castes often bow their heads 623 00:32:10,150 --> 00:32:12,610 when they pray and seem to stare with 624 00:32:12,610 --> 00:32:16,810 half-closed eyes at their midriffs. 625 00:32:16,810 --> 00:32:20,710 Barlaam called them Omphaloscopoi. 626 00:32:20,710 --> 00:32:23,410 Those who had their soul in their navel. 627 00:32:23,410 --> 00:32:28,360 They usually time the recitation of 628 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,705 the Jesus prayer to the rhythm of their breathing. 629 00:32:31,705 --> 00:32:33,940 As they inhale, they mentally voice 630 00:32:33,940 --> 00:32:36,670 the salutation Lord Jesus Christ, 631 00:32:36,670 --> 00:32:39,100 Son of God, drawing him as it 632 00:32:39,100 --> 00:32:42,220 were almost physically into themselves. 633 00:32:42,220 --> 00:32:45,295 Then as they exhale, 634 00:32:45,295 --> 00:32:46,884 they utter the petition, 635 00:32:46,884 --> 00:32:49,240 have mercy on me a sinner. 636 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:53,410 Thereby imaginatively linking the flushing of sins and 637 00:32:53,410 --> 00:32:55,540 passions from the heart with 638 00:32:55,540 --> 00:32:58,255 the expulsion of air from the lungs. 639 00:32:58,255 --> 00:33:01,750 Now, all Christian monks take seriously 640 00:33:01,750 --> 00:33:06,205 St. Paul's admonition to pray constantly. 641 00:33:06,205 --> 00:33:08,200 The different kinds of 642 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,690 monasticism are in effect different ways of 643 00:33:10,690 --> 00:33:12,895 interpreting that admonition and of 644 00:33:12,895 --> 00:33:15,745 organizing life in strict obedience to it. 645 00:33:15,745 --> 00:33:17,320 Cenobites, for example, 646 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:20,350 understand constant prayer in light of Psalm 119, 647 00:33:20,350 --> 00:33:23,170 164, seven times a day I 648 00:33:23,170 --> 00:33:26,710 praise you for your righteous ordinances. 649 00:33:26,710 --> 00:33:28,420 Hence, they gather as a community 650 00:33:28,420 --> 00:33:30,370 regularly throughout the day to pray. 651 00:33:30,370 --> 00:33:32,575 Some of their services are 652 00:33:32,575 --> 00:33:34,855 devoted primarily to the singing of psalms, 653 00:33:34,855 --> 00:33:36,865 others to meditation of scripture, 654 00:33:36,865 --> 00:33:39,340 others to the celebration of the Eucharist. 655 00:33:39,340 --> 00:33:41,080 Private mental prayer is 656 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,060 frequently practiced in the intervals, 657 00:33:43,060 --> 00:33:46,300 but the Hesychasts take 658 00:33:46,300 --> 00:33:51,100 constant prayer with astonishing literalists. 659 00:33:51,100 --> 00:33:53,770 They believe that their attention to 660 00:33:53,770 --> 00:33:56,920 the Lord should be unbroken. 661 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:01,630 That devotion should occupy every waking moment. 662 00:34:01,630 --> 00:34:04,375 They find to their delight that the Jesus prayer 663 00:34:04,375 --> 00:34:07,120 is uniquely well-suited to this purpose. 664 00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:09,985 The formula takes no time at all to memorize. 665 00:34:09,985 --> 00:34:13,060 In contrast to the Psalter, the daily office, 666 00:34:13,060 --> 00:34:14,650 and the complex cycle of 667 00:34:14,650 --> 00:34:16,990 liturgies for the Christian year. 668 00:34:16,990 --> 00:34:21,040 It can be recited silently in the heart as they said, 669 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:23,815 even when one is performing other duties. 670 00:34:23,815 --> 00:34:26,770 It does take some practice to coordinate 671 00:34:26,770 --> 00:34:28,300 the recitation of the formula 672 00:34:28,300 --> 00:34:29,980 with the rhythm of the breath. 673 00:34:29,980 --> 00:34:33,070 Although it is obviously physically impossible for anyone 674 00:34:33,070 --> 00:34:34,810 even a Hermite to do nothing but 675 00:34:34,810 --> 00:34:36,985 gaze constantly at one's navel. 676 00:34:36,985 --> 00:34:39,130 It turns out that they can learn to say 677 00:34:39,130 --> 00:34:41,290 the prayer and control the breath even 678 00:34:41,290 --> 00:34:43,900 when busy with other activities. 679 00:34:43,900 --> 00:34:46,210 In fact, some Hesychasts insist that 680 00:34:46,210 --> 00:34:48,729 after some months or years of practice, 681 00:34:48,729 --> 00:34:52,300 one no longer has to say the prayer at all. 682 00:34:52,300 --> 00:34:56,365 It seems somehow to say itself. 683 00:34:56,365 --> 00:35:00,775 It is as the Russian tradition says, self activating. 684 00:35:00,775 --> 00:35:04,015 It goes on in the heart day and night. 685 00:35:04,015 --> 00:35:05,650 Not only during times 686 00:35:05,650 --> 00:35:08,290 dedicated to concentrated mental prayer, 687 00:35:08,290 --> 00:35:10,465 but even during times of 688 00:35:10,465 --> 00:35:14,680 vigorous physical exercise and triangles sleep. 689 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,710 Indeed so simple was this technique to learn, 690 00:35:17,710 --> 00:35:19,915 though it might take years to master. 691 00:35:19,915 --> 00:35:23,380 Effective wasn't in grounding one's life in Christ, 692 00:35:23,380 --> 00:35:25,000 that he'd eventually spread from 693 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,580 the Hermitage where it had first been developed, 694 00:35:27,580 --> 00:35:30,520 to the Cenobitic and Semi Aromythmic monasteries, 695 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:34,720 and finally to Parishes all throughout orthodoxy. 696 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:37,180 It thrives to this day as one of 697 00:35:37,180 --> 00:35:40,240 the dominant spiritual practices of the Christian East, 698 00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:42,910 both among monks and lay people and is 699 00:35:42,910 --> 00:35:45,565 beginning to make inroads in the West as well. 700 00:35:45,565 --> 00:35:46,780 Any of you who have read 701 00:35:46,780 --> 00:35:51,085 Salinger's Franny and Zoey will be familiar with it. 702 00:35:51,085 --> 00:35:54,010 One could object and the 703 00:35:54,010 --> 00:35:57,250 Barlaamites did object that this practice is 704 00:35:57,250 --> 00:36:01,570 impossible or impractical or superstitious or 705 00:36:01,570 --> 00:36:03,160 even a flagrant violation of 706 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,805 Jesus' prohibition against vain repetitions. 707 00:36:06,805 --> 00:36:09,610 But the Hesychasts insisted it was 708 00:36:09,610 --> 00:36:11,290 possible that it did not 709 00:36:11,290 --> 00:36:13,630 interrupt the performance of ones other duties, 710 00:36:13,630 --> 00:36:15,730 but rather suffused them with 711 00:36:15,730 --> 00:36:17,020 a vivid sense of 712 00:36:17,020 --> 00:36:20,335 the abiding presence of the living Christ. 713 00:36:20,335 --> 00:36:22,180 That far from being 714 00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:25,840 an empty ritual or a form of self hypnotism, 715 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:30,115 it had a wonderfully clarifying and crucifying effect 716 00:36:30,115 --> 00:36:33,520 on one's moral and spiritual life. 717 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,195 For Jesus' warning against vain repetitions, 718 00:36:37,195 --> 00:36:38,260 that was aimed at 719 00:36:38,260 --> 00:36:42,290 street corner exhibitionism and pious self display. 720 00:36:42,290 --> 00:36:45,300 Whereas this prayer was recited in the silence of 721 00:36:45,300 --> 00:36:48,725 one's heart and in the seclusion of one cell. 722 00:36:48,725 --> 00:36:51,505 So far it seem the Hesychast 723 00:36:51,505 --> 00:36:53,665 could respond to their critics. 724 00:36:53,665 --> 00:36:55,300 But in one respect, 725 00:36:55,300 --> 00:36:57,850 they seem to overreach themselves to 726 00:36:57,850 --> 00:37:00,580 make claims for their spiritual methods that 727 00:37:00,580 --> 00:37:02,215 we're not only absurdly 728 00:37:02,215 --> 00:37:06,775 extravagant but theologically unwarranted. 729 00:37:06,775 --> 00:37:09,700 They asserted that the stealing of 730 00:37:09,700 --> 00:37:11,950 the passions through the practice of 731 00:37:11,950 --> 00:37:14,740 the aesthetic techniques and 732 00:37:14,740 --> 00:37:15,970 constant attention to 733 00:37:15,970 --> 00:37:18,230 the living Christ through the liturgy, 734 00:37:18,230 --> 00:37:20,610 scripture meditation, and 735 00:37:20,610 --> 00:37:23,310 mental prayer enabled one to develop 736 00:37:23,310 --> 00:37:29,315 the capacity to see in this life with one's bodily eyes. 737 00:37:29,315 --> 00:37:31,225 It is sometimes said, 738 00:37:31,225 --> 00:37:34,990 the same divine light that Peter, James, 739 00:37:34,990 --> 00:37:38,680 and John had seen radiating from Jesus when he was 740 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:43,820 holding converse with Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor. 741 00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:46,870 Of course, the Hesychast could point to 742 00:37:46,870 --> 00:37:48,700 numerous biblical stories in which 743 00:37:48,700 --> 00:37:50,560 God's saints beheld were shown 744 00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,080 with the radian glory of God. 745 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:54,700 Moses' face shone so 746 00:37:54,700 --> 00:37:57,160 brilliantly after his encounters with Yahweh on 747 00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:59,200 Mount Sinai that he had to wear 748 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,260 a veil when he descended to speak with his people. 749 00:38:02,260 --> 00:38:04,990 Elijah called down the fire of the Lord 750 00:38:04,990 --> 00:38:07,420 during his contest with the priests of 751 00:38:07,420 --> 00:38:10,150 Baal and later was taken up into heaven 752 00:38:10,150 --> 00:38:13,735 on a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire. 753 00:38:13,735 --> 00:38:15,700 When saint Stephen preached, 754 00:38:15,700 --> 00:38:18,235 his face was like the face of an angel. 755 00:38:18,235 --> 00:38:19,990 When he was about to be martyred, 756 00:38:19,990 --> 00:38:21,940 he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of 757 00:38:21,940 --> 00:38:25,870 God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 758 00:38:25,870 --> 00:38:28,360 Saul of Tarsus, the erstwhile 759 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,670 persecutor of Christ's people, 760 00:38:30,670 --> 00:38:33,430 underwent his dramatic conversion experience on 761 00:38:33,430 --> 00:38:36,370 the Damascus Road during which he 762 00:38:36,370 --> 00:38:41,080 beheld a light from heaven brighter than the sun. 763 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:46,150 But did such stories from scripture authorized 764 00:38:46,150 --> 00:38:48,460 the Hesychast's claim that they 765 00:38:48,460 --> 00:38:52,840 too are sometimes granted a vision of the Taboric light. 766 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,300 Might they not simply have been undergoing 767 00:38:55,300 --> 00:39:00,655 religious hallucination or demonic delusion. 768 00:39:00,655 --> 00:39:03,670 For scripture also tells us that Satan disguises 769 00:39:03,670 --> 00:39:07,255 himself as an angel of light. 770 00:39:07,255 --> 00:39:10,870 It was precisely this claim that mental prayer and 771 00:39:10,870 --> 00:39:13,720 ascetic practice can bring about a vision of 772 00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:17,830 the Taboric light that was at the root of 773 00:39:17,830 --> 00:39:19,690 the controversy between Berlem and 774 00:39:19,690 --> 00:39:22,630 Polamoss in the 1330s and '40s. 775 00:39:22,630 --> 00:39:26,740 Polamoss insisted that the spiritual experiences of 776 00:39:26,740 --> 00:39:29,770 the Hesychast exemplify the profound truths 777 00:39:29,770 --> 00:39:31,075 of the Christian faith. 778 00:39:31,075 --> 00:39:32,650 Indeed, they enable us to make 779 00:39:32,650 --> 00:39:36,340 fully explicit one truth about God that 780 00:39:36,340 --> 00:39:38,245 had hitherto been only 781 00:39:38,245 --> 00:39:41,770 implicit in the history of Christian theology. 782 00:39:41,770 --> 00:39:46,600 Namely, the existence of the divine energies. 783 00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:49,270 Polamoss rights. 784 00:39:49,270 --> 00:40:00,730 Three realities pertain to God, essence, energy. 785 00:40:00,730 --> 00:40:04,640 The triad of divine persons. 786 00:40:04,700 --> 00:40:08,460 Now, we in the West are familiar with 787 00:40:08,460 --> 00:40:11,910 the distinction between the essence and the persons, 788 00:40:11,910 --> 00:40:14,460 but this third reality, 789 00:40:14,460 --> 00:40:17,600 the divine energies may baffle us. 790 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,510 Certainly it seemed like 791 00:40:19,510 --> 00:40:21,550 a scandalous innovation to Barlaam 792 00:40:21,550 --> 00:40:22,720 and his followers who 793 00:40:22,720 --> 00:40:25,090 despite their connections with the West, 794 00:40:25,090 --> 00:40:28,780 still thought of themselves as loyal orthodox. 795 00:40:28,780 --> 00:40:32,470 Palamas was at pains to show this idea was 796 00:40:32,470 --> 00:40:37,000 implicit in the teachings of the Ancient Fathers. 797 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,730 It had simply gone undefined 798 00:40:39,730 --> 00:40:41,470 until the Hesychast controversy 799 00:40:41,470 --> 00:40:43,419 forced the church to formulate 800 00:40:43,419 --> 00:40:46,390 it with new clarity and precision. 801 00:40:46,390 --> 00:40:48,969 Palamas begins by reasserting 802 00:40:48,969 --> 00:40:51,430 what no one question that the essence, 803 00:40:51,430 --> 00:40:56,450 ousia, of God infinitely transcends human knowing. 804 00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,650 Indeed, Palamas often prefers to 805 00:40:59,650 --> 00:41:01,855 speak none of the divine essence, 806 00:41:01,855 --> 00:41:06,095 but of the divine super essentiality 807 00:41:06,095 --> 00:41:09,690 to indicate God's infinite qualitative difference 808 00:41:09,690 --> 00:41:11,940 from all creatures. 809 00:41:11,940 --> 00:41:15,755 But although God remains mysterious to us, 810 00:41:15,755 --> 00:41:18,460 we can at least know that God is 811 00:41:18,460 --> 00:41:22,315 mysterious to us beyond our conceptions and categories. 812 00:41:22,315 --> 00:41:24,805 This is the aim of what is called 813 00:41:24,805 --> 00:41:28,405 apophatic theology or the way of negation. 814 00:41:28,405 --> 00:41:31,105 We cannot state directly what God is, 815 00:41:31,105 --> 00:41:33,730 but we can state what God is not. 816 00:41:33,730 --> 00:41:36,760 Namely, that which is incomprehensible, 817 00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:40,900 unsurpassable, and holy other than creatures. 818 00:41:40,900 --> 00:41:43,660 But since our speech and thought-forms 819 00:41:43,660 --> 00:41:45,880 are wedded to our experience of creatures, 820 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:47,515 our knowledge of God would remain 821 00:41:47,515 --> 00:41:49,660 a bear abstraction to us 822 00:41:49,660 --> 00:41:52,389 if it were not for those other two realities 823 00:41:52,389 --> 00:41:53,680 which pertain to God, 824 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:56,800 to use his term, and which have been revealed to us, 825 00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:58,450 namely the triad of 826 00:41:58,450 --> 00:42:04,060 divine persons and the manifold divine energies. 827 00:42:04,060 --> 00:42:10,135 God is personal, or rather tri-personal. 828 00:42:10,135 --> 00:42:13,075 God is self-revealed as Father, 829 00:42:13,075 --> 00:42:14,860 Son, and Holy Spirit. 830 00:42:14,860 --> 00:42:17,110 Each of these persons or 831 00:42:17,110 --> 00:42:21,445 hypostasis is fully and completely God. 832 00:42:21,445 --> 00:42:24,790 The divine essence is not divided between them, 833 00:42:24,790 --> 00:42:27,130 like the shares of a joint-stock company 834 00:42:27,130 --> 00:42:30,085 co-owned by three co-equal partners. 835 00:42:30,085 --> 00:42:33,340 Rather, each of the three divine persons in 836 00:42:33,340 --> 00:42:37,750 his particularity possesses the whole of deity, 837 00:42:37,750 --> 00:42:39,775 undividedly. 838 00:42:39,775 --> 00:42:42,220 Yet, each simultaneously 839 00:42:42,220 --> 00:42:44,665 shares the whole of deity with the 840 00:42:44,665 --> 00:42:48,100 other two in self-dispossessing communion 841 00:42:48,100 --> 00:42:50,050 of perfect love. 842 00:42:50,050 --> 00:42:54,730 More amazingly, one of the persons, the son, 843 00:42:54,730 --> 00:42:57,670 has irrevocably joined human nature 844 00:42:57,670 --> 00:43:00,760 to the divine nature in the incarnation. 845 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,205 This hypostatic union, 846 00:43:03,205 --> 00:43:04,600 the union of two natures, 847 00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:10,645 in one hypostasis or person means that the properties 848 00:43:10,645 --> 00:43:13,720 and attributes of each nature are fully 849 00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:17,125 and perfectly integrated in a single being, 850 00:43:17,125 --> 00:43:20,665 a single person, Jesus of Nazareth. 851 00:43:20,665 --> 00:43:23,650 Neither nature is changed by, 852 00:43:23,650 --> 00:43:28,135 absorbed into, or confused with the other. 853 00:43:28,135 --> 00:43:31,375 Each is preserved intact 854 00:43:31,375 --> 00:43:34,120 and functions fully and perfectly in 855 00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:36,565 its distinctive ways without 856 00:43:36,565 --> 00:43:38,620 impairing or disrupting the functions 857 00:43:38,620 --> 00:43:40,855 and qualities of the other nature. 858 00:43:40,855 --> 00:43:45,265 Yet the fusion of natures in Christ is such that He, 859 00:43:45,265 --> 00:43:47,950 Christ, is neither more nor less, 860 00:43:47,950 --> 00:43:49,675 nor other than God, 861 00:43:49,675 --> 00:43:55,330 just as He is neither more nor less nor other than human. 862 00:43:55,330 --> 00:43:59,110 He is both together fully and perfectly. 863 00:43:59,110 --> 00:44:01,195 Because he is both together, 864 00:44:01,195 --> 00:44:04,165 we who are in him by grace through faith, 865 00:44:04,165 --> 00:44:06,430 are given a share of the divinity 866 00:44:06,430 --> 00:44:09,235 which he alone possesses by nature. 867 00:44:09,235 --> 00:44:12,040 All this too is the familiar orthodoxy of 868 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:14,230 the early ecumenical councils and 869 00:44:14,230 --> 00:44:16,945 it was accepted by both parties in the dispute. 870 00:44:16,945 --> 00:44:19,630 What had never received 871 00:44:19,630 --> 00:44:22,060 adequate dogmatic formulation, however, 872 00:44:22,060 --> 00:44:26,530 is the soteriological claim that Christ, 873 00:44:26,530 --> 00:44:30,145 being at once divine and human, 874 00:44:30,145 --> 00:44:35,770 somehow shares his divinity with us, humans. 875 00:44:35,770 --> 00:44:40,060 Several of the church fathers had said that God becomes 876 00:44:40,060 --> 00:44:44,560 human so that humans might become divine. 877 00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:47,425 But how are we to understand this? 878 00:44:47,425 --> 00:44:50,050 For surely we do not become 879 00:44:50,050 --> 00:44:51,670 divine in the same sense that 880 00:44:51,670 --> 00:44:54,130 the incarnate Son of God was. 881 00:44:54,130 --> 00:44:55,870 The two natures are not 882 00:44:55,870 --> 00:44:59,905 hypostatically joined in us as they are in Him. 883 00:44:59,905 --> 00:45:03,370 Yet scripture does affirm that we become recipients of 884 00:45:03,370 --> 00:45:08,545 divine power and even partakers of the divine nature. 885 00:45:08,545 --> 00:45:12,700 What differentiates Christ from ourselves is also what 886 00:45:12,700 --> 00:45:17,185 mystical unites us with him and with each other in Him. 887 00:45:17,185 --> 00:45:19,660 We receive by the indwelling of 888 00:45:19,660 --> 00:45:22,000 the Holy Spirit what the Son of God is 889 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:23,920 by virtue of his free act 890 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:26,785 of emptying himself for our sake, 891 00:45:26,785 --> 00:45:28,840 taking the form of a servant and 892 00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,255 being born in human likeness, 893 00:45:31,255 --> 00:45:39,160 we become by grace what Christ is by nature. 894 00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,170 We have, as it were, 895 00:45:41,170 --> 00:45:44,110 a borrowed divinity, but 896 00:45:44,110 --> 00:45:45,190 not in such a way that we 897 00:45:45,190 --> 00:45:47,515 lose our concrete individuality, 898 00:45:47,515 --> 00:45:50,785 our creatureliness, our finite human consciousness, 899 00:45:50,785 --> 00:45:52,630 or our sad history as 900 00:45:52,630 --> 00:45:54,070 fallen persons who depend 901 00:45:54,070 --> 00:45:56,889 forever on the merits of the crucified. 902 00:45:56,889 --> 00:46:00,490 Thus, one might say that although the distance between 903 00:46:00,490 --> 00:46:03,385 ourselves and God has been overcome in Christ, 904 00:46:03,385 --> 00:46:06,295 the difference between ourselves and God remains. 905 00:46:06,295 --> 00:46:08,139 In this respect, we are spiritually 906 00:46:08,139 --> 00:46:10,810 united with the Father through the Son in 907 00:46:10,810 --> 00:46:14,230 the spirit and so transfigured by this union that we 908 00:46:14,230 --> 00:46:18,295 can even be said to be deified or divinized, 909 00:46:18,295 --> 00:46:21,220 though without losing our humanity or simply being 910 00:46:21,220 --> 00:46:25,225 merged with the infinite in some pantheistic blur. 911 00:46:25,225 --> 00:46:30,775 This is where Palamas takes a decisive step forward 912 00:46:30,775 --> 00:46:32,380 dogmatically by proposing 913 00:46:32,380 --> 00:46:35,815 a solution to the soteriological, 914 00:46:35,815 --> 00:46:37,180 the doctor of salvation, 915 00:46:37,180 --> 00:46:40,120 the soteriological paradox implicit 916 00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:43,390 in the creeds of Nicaea and Chalcedon, 917 00:46:43,390 --> 00:46:47,470 he recognizes that the infinite qualitative difference 918 00:46:47,470 --> 00:46:51,205 between God and human beings must be preserved. 919 00:46:51,205 --> 00:46:54,700 But he also insists that the distance between God and 920 00:46:54,700 --> 00:46:58,330 human beings has been overcome such that we, 921 00:46:58,330 --> 00:47:03,115 without losing our human nature and personal identity, 922 00:47:03,115 --> 00:47:06,985 nevertheless become partakers of the divine nature. 923 00:47:06,985 --> 00:47:08,890 To close this gap, 924 00:47:08,890 --> 00:47:13,459 Palamas introduces the doctrine of the divine energies. 925 00:47:13,770 --> 00:47:16,375 To understand his doctrine, 926 00:47:16,375 --> 00:47:18,670 we must first recognize that he's using 927 00:47:18,670 --> 00:47:21,070 the Greek word in 928 00:47:21,070 --> 00:47:24,040 its Aristotelian sense to mean an activity 929 00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:27,280 or operation characteristic of a living being. 930 00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:29,560 He's most emphatically not using it in 931 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,290 its Newtonian or Einsteinian sense 932 00:47:32,290 --> 00:47:35,210 to mean some impersonal force. 933 00:47:36,270 --> 00:47:38,950 The energy or energies of God, 934 00:47:38,950 --> 00:47:41,650 the singular is simply a collective way of speaking of 935 00:47:41,650 --> 00:47:45,910 the plural of all of God's activities taken together, 936 00:47:45,910 --> 00:47:48,745 these energies are the workings of God 937 00:47:48,745 --> 00:47:52,360 in and on and through His creatures. 938 00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:56,110 Indeed, all creation is but 939 00:47:56,110 --> 00:48:00,145 the manifestation of the creative energy of God. 940 00:48:00,145 --> 00:48:04,270 That is, of God's burning desire to 941 00:48:04,270 --> 00:48:09,160 share the superabundance of God's love with other beings. 942 00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:14,710 But that love, that energy is not itself a creature, 943 00:48:14,710 --> 00:48:17,680 rather it is the divine condition of 944 00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:21,895 possibility for the very existence of creation, 945 00:48:21,895 --> 00:48:24,790 the divine medium by which creation is 946 00:48:24,790 --> 00:48:27,610 providentially ordered and the 947 00:48:27,610 --> 00:48:29,410 divine agency by which 948 00:48:29,410 --> 00:48:31,870 God's immediate and ultimate purposes 949 00:48:31,870 --> 00:48:34,520 for creation are accomplished. 950 00:48:34,650 --> 00:48:39,175 For Palamas the divine energies are uncreated, 951 00:48:39,175 --> 00:48:42,040 yet they differ from the divine essence in being 952 00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:44,830 participable by His creatures. 953 00:48:44,830 --> 00:48:46,780 We participate in them. 954 00:48:46,780 --> 00:48:49,359 That is, God acts directly 955 00:48:49,359 --> 00:48:51,850 and immediately upon creatures through 956 00:48:51,850 --> 00:48:55,600 the energies and the creatures intern experience 957 00:48:55,600 --> 00:49:01,550 God's energies and in so doing, truly experience God. 958 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:04,420 The energies differ too from 959 00:49:04,420 --> 00:49:06,580 the three divine persons, the Father, the Son, 960 00:49:06,580 --> 00:49:08,710 and the Holy Spirit are discrete centers of 961 00:49:08,710 --> 00:49:11,470 consciousness who nevertheless fully 962 00:49:11,470 --> 00:49:13,600 interpenetrate each other in 963 00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:15,490 a perfect communion of mutually 964 00:49:15,490 --> 00:49:17,650 self-giving love and who 965 00:49:17,650 --> 00:49:19,825 work together in perfect harmony, 966 00:49:19,825 --> 00:49:24,700 an undeviating coordination in managing the creation. 967 00:49:24,700 --> 00:49:26,980 The divine energies are precisely the 968 00:49:26,980 --> 00:49:29,170 providential and redemptive activities 969 00:49:29,170 --> 00:49:31,220 of the Blessed Trinity. 970 00:49:32,070 --> 00:49:38,230 They operate ceaselessly upon creation. 971 00:49:38,230 --> 00:49:40,405 Indeed, creation could not exist at 972 00:49:40,405 --> 00:49:43,345 all apart from their operation, 973 00:49:43,345 --> 00:49:46,430 and would be nothing but madness. 974 00:49:47,380 --> 00:49:51,470 If that operation were not lovingly redemptive at 975 00:49:51,470 --> 00:49:55,985 every moment but only two creatures; 976 00:49:55,985 --> 00:49:58,580 angels and people, 977 00:49:58,580 --> 00:50:00,829 are capable of knowing and responding 978 00:50:00,829 --> 00:50:02,885 to the redemptive energies of God. 979 00:50:02,885 --> 00:50:06,605 Of the angels we must hearsay nothing and of ourselves, 980 00:50:06,605 --> 00:50:08,720 we must admit that the capacity to 981 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:11,825 know God is hardly well exercised. 982 00:50:11,825 --> 00:50:16,745 Stupid indifference, culpable ignorance, 983 00:50:16,745 --> 00:50:20,720 and outright rebellion are far more common. 984 00:50:20,720 --> 00:50:25,625 Nevertheless, some people we call them the saints, 985 00:50:25,625 --> 00:50:29,180 do exercise that capacity and indeed 986 00:50:29,180 --> 00:50:32,990 organize their whole lives around it's exercise 987 00:50:32,990 --> 00:50:36,770 in order to experience the ineffable bliss that knowing 988 00:50:36,770 --> 00:50:38,720 God brings and to help 989 00:50:38,720 --> 00:50:41,480 others to enjoy the same experience. 990 00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:43,520 But differently the saints are 991 00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:45,290 those who eagerly contemplate 992 00:50:45,290 --> 00:50:47,360 the divine energies in which 993 00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:50,225 all creation is ceaselessly bathed, 994 00:50:50,225 --> 00:50:52,400 who learn to see what ought to be 995 00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:54,920 the most dazzlingly obvious reality 996 00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:59,705 of all and who by the very contemplation of that reality, 997 00:50:59,705 --> 00:51:03,770 are themselves increasingly energized by it. 998 00:51:03,770 --> 00:51:09,935 That is transformed, transfigured, and divinized. 999 00:51:09,935 --> 00:51:13,070 We might almost say, 1000 00:51:13,070 --> 00:51:18,150 they become what they behold. 1001 00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:21,140 Palamas summarizes his theology of 1002 00:51:21,140 --> 00:51:23,599 spirituality in the paragraph 1003 00:51:23,599 --> 00:51:26,360 whose first sentence I quoted earlier. 1004 00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:29,180 Three realities pertaining to God; 1005 00:51:29,180 --> 00:51:33,005 essence, energy and the triad of divine hypotheses. 1006 00:51:33,005 --> 00:51:36,695 As we have seen those privileged to be united to God 1007 00:51:36,695 --> 00:51:40,520 so as to become one spirit with him as St Paul said, 1008 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:44,390 He who cleaves to the Lord is one Spirit with him, 1009 00:51:44,390 --> 00:51:48,230 are not united to God with respect to his essence, 1010 00:51:48,230 --> 00:51:50,360 since all the theologians testify 1011 00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:52,910 that with respect to His essence, 1012 00:51:52,910 --> 00:51:55,520 God suffers no participation. 1013 00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:57,920 Moreover, the hydrostatic union is fulfilled 1014 00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:00,935 only in the case of the logos, the God-Man. 1015 00:52:00,935 --> 00:52:02,900 Thus, those privileged to 1016 00:52:02,900 --> 00:52:05,000 attain union with God are united to him 1017 00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:07,595 with respect to his energy 1018 00:52:07,595 --> 00:52:10,040 and the spirit according to which they who 1019 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:12,680 cleaved to God are one with him is and is 1020 00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:15,650 called the uncreated energy of the Holy Spirit, 1021 00:52:15,650 --> 00:52:18,065 but not the essence of God. 1022 00:52:18,065 --> 00:52:21,980 But note, while it 1023 00:52:21,980 --> 00:52:24,500 is true that the saints become what they behold, 1024 00:52:24,500 --> 00:52:25,595 it is still they, 1025 00:52:25,595 --> 00:52:29,000 in their embodied humanity and creaturely finitude, 1026 00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:32,105 who undergo this transfiguration. 1027 00:52:32,105 --> 00:52:34,820 Here, Palamas draws a sharp line between 1028 00:52:34,820 --> 00:52:39,500 his theology and the light mysticism of Neoplatonism. 1029 00:52:39,500 --> 00:52:41,780 The founder of that school, Plotinus, 1030 00:52:41,780 --> 00:52:45,560 was said by his biography to feel ashamed of being 1031 00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:49,400 in the body but the hesychast saints 1032 00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:53,825 feel no such shame and although they do strive for a path 1033 00:52:53,825 --> 00:52:56,435 that state of perfect tranquility 1034 00:52:56,435 --> 00:52:59,765 which betokens the mastery of the passions. 1035 00:52:59,765 --> 00:53:02,840 They utterly repudiate an outeasier, 1036 00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:07,745 that is bodily insensibility or mental obtuseness. 1037 00:53:07,745 --> 00:53:12,095 Hesychast spirituality is in fact a celebration 1038 00:53:12,095 --> 00:53:13,610 of the Christian conviction that 1039 00:53:13,610 --> 00:53:16,145 the Son of God has taken human flesh, 1040 00:53:16,145 --> 00:53:20,360 has risen bodily from death and makes himself savingly 1041 00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:22,190 present to us here and now 1042 00:53:22,190 --> 00:53:24,830 through the materiality of the sacraments. 1043 00:53:24,830 --> 00:53:27,290 Our mortal bodies are temples of 1044 00:53:27,290 --> 00:53:29,600 the Holy Spirit and one day 1045 00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,585 they will be raised incorruptible like His. 1046 00:53:32,585 --> 00:53:35,705 Of course all Christians can say that much. 1047 00:53:35,705 --> 00:53:39,080 Where the hesychasts go further is in 1048 00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:40,670 stressing the extent to which 1049 00:53:40,670 --> 00:53:42,860 the eschatological promises can 1050 00:53:42,860 --> 00:53:45,080 be realized even in this life through 1051 00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:46,820 the rigorous practice of 1052 00:53:46,820 --> 00:53:49,955 mental prayer and aesthetic discipline. 1053 00:53:49,955 --> 00:53:52,580 The ultimate transfiguration of 1054 00:53:52,580 --> 00:53:56,675 our bodies can begin on this side of the grave, 1055 00:53:56,675 --> 00:53:59,030 so that our natural bodily and 1056 00:53:59,030 --> 00:54:01,670 mental powers are enhanced by 1057 00:54:01,670 --> 00:54:04,520 the divine energies enabling us to 1058 00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:07,655 experience the sober ecstasy of heaven, 1059 00:54:07,655 --> 00:54:09,335 the vision of God. 1060 00:54:09,335 --> 00:54:12,320 It was this enhancement that Peter, James, 1061 00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:15,320 and John experienced when they beheld Jesus, 1062 00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:19,140 Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor. 1063 00:54:39,220 --> 00:54:43,145 We turn now to the life of Jonathan Edwards. 1064 00:54:43,145 --> 00:54:45,800 He was never formally been declared a 1065 00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,470 saint though many of his greatest writings 1066 00:54:48,470 --> 00:54:50,420 are analyses of 1067 00:54:50,420 --> 00:54:53,090 Christian sainthood and those who knew him 1068 00:54:53,090 --> 00:55:01,805 best said that he brilliantly exemplified sainthood. 1069 00:55:01,805 --> 00:55:04,820 There's no feast day in his honor, 1070 00:55:04,820 --> 00:55:08,510 Puritans disdained such things and no church council has 1071 00:55:08,510 --> 00:55:11,120 officially proclaimed Him the 1072 00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:13,070 greatest among the fathers of the church, 1073 00:55:13,070 --> 00:55:14,960 though many have argued that he remains the 1074 00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:18,270 greatest of American theologians. 1075 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:20,420 Edwards was born on 1076 00:55:20,420 --> 00:55:23,210 October 5 1703 to 1077 00:55:23,210 --> 00:55:26,150 Timothy and Esther Edwards of East Windsor, Connecticut. 1078 00:55:26,150 --> 00:55:30,275 He was the fifth of their 11 children and the only boy. 1079 00:55:30,275 --> 00:55:32,780 Timothy Edwards was the founding pastor of 1080 00:55:32,780 --> 00:55:35,630 the congregational church of the village and was 1081 00:55:35,630 --> 00:55:39,950 an effective conventional Puritan preacher 1082 00:55:39,950 --> 00:55:43,925 and he was known in his day as an awakening of souls. 1083 00:55:43,925 --> 00:55:47,720 Esther Edwards was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, 1084 00:55:47,720 --> 00:55:50,780 the pastor of the congregational church of North Hampton, 1085 00:55:50,780 --> 00:55:52,460 a much revered figure in 1086 00:55:52,460 --> 00:55:55,880 the Connecticut Valley and River Valley and another 1087 00:55:55,880 --> 00:55:57,620 figure whose ministry was often 1088 00:55:57,620 --> 00:56:01,204 punctuated by divine harvests of souls. 1089 00:56:01,204 --> 00:56:04,760 That these occasional awakenings and harvests were so 1090 00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:08,705 prized by the colonial Puritans of the 17th century. 1091 00:56:08,705 --> 00:56:11,330 That is some decades before 1092 00:56:11,330 --> 00:56:13,250 the awakening that Jonathan Edwards 1093 00:56:13,250 --> 00:56:15,425 triggered in the 1730s, 1094 00:56:15,425 --> 00:56:17,270 is one indication that there 1095 00:56:17,270 --> 00:56:18,710 was a widespread feeling that 1096 00:56:18,710 --> 00:56:22,250 a general spiritual declensions had befallen 1097 00:56:22,250 --> 00:56:24,230 the Holy Commonwealth of New England 1098 00:56:24,230 --> 00:56:26,825 since their founding in the 1630s. 1099 00:56:26,825 --> 00:56:29,900 One reason that Edwards is such a towering figure in 1100 00:56:29,900 --> 00:56:32,930 American religious history is that he helped by his 1101 00:56:32,930 --> 00:56:34,820 preaching to extend and by 1102 00:56:34,820 --> 00:56:38,750 his writings to justify 1103 00:56:38,750 --> 00:56:41,750 precisely what the people of his time craved. 1104 00:56:41,750 --> 00:56:44,300 The revival of the spiritual fervor that 1105 00:56:44,300 --> 00:56:47,480 was presumed to have characterized the founders. 1106 00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:49,790 Like Palamas, he regarded 1107 00:56:49,790 --> 00:56:52,835 his innovations as restorations. 1108 00:56:52,835 --> 00:56:56,480 Piety came naturally to Edwards as 1109 00:56:56,480 --> 00:56:58,760 a 10-year-old boy while his friends were 1110 00:56:58,760 --> 00:57:01,940 playing the Puritan equivalent of cops and robbers. 1111 00:57:01,940 --> 00:57:04,220 He built a– and I don't know what 1112 00:57:04,220 --> 00:57:07,650 that was actually. 1113 00:57:07,650 --> 00:57:10,880 He built a booth in a swamp in 1114 00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:12,860 a very secret and retired place 1115 00:57:12,860 --> 00:57:15,125 for a place of prayer, he says. 1116 00:57:15,125 --> 00:57:17,690 But as he later came to see the very fact that 1117 00:57:17,690 --> 00:57:19,760 piety did come naturally to him was of 1118 00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:22,100 problem partly because it's 1119 00:57:22,100 --> 00:57:24,620 sometimes came off to others as irritating, 1120 00:57:24,620 --> 00:57:27,410 sanctimoniousness, but mainly 1121 00:57:27,410 --> 00:57:30,530 because genuine piety is not a natural quality at all, 1122 00:57:30,530 --> 00:57:31,835 but as supernatural one, 1123 00:57:31,835 --> 00:57:33,785 a gift of grace. 1124 00:57:33,785 --> 00:57:36,440 It wasn't until the spring of 1721 1125 00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:38,270 when he was 17 years old that he began 1126 00:57:38,270 --> 00:57:40,370 to experience something more 1127 00:57:40,370 --> 00:57:42,410 than his personal proclivities, 1128 00:57:42,410 --> 00:57:47,270 family heritage, and cultural context could have induced. 1129 00:57:47,270 --> 00:57:50,570 This is what he called variously a wonderful 1130 00:57:50,570 --> 00:57:52,520 alteration in my mind with 1131 00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:55,325 respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, 1132 00:57:55,325 --> 00:57:57,890 a delightful conviction of God's justice 1133 00:57:57,890 --> 00:58:00,605 with respect to salvation and damnation, 1134 00:58:00,605 --> 00:58:04,700 a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ and the 1135 00:58:04,700 --> 00:58:05,960 work of redemption and 1136 00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:08,990 the glorious way of salvation by him, 1137 00:58:08,990 --> 00:58:12,965 an inward sweet sense of divine things. 1138 00:58:12,965 --> 00:58:15,860 His first inkling of this new sense came 1139 00:58:15,860 --> 00:58:18,515 characteristically enough as he was reading scriptures, 1140 00:58:18,515 --> 00:58:21,770 specifically 1st Timothy 1:17. 1141 00:58:21,770 --> 00:58:25,445 "Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, 1142 00:58:25,445 --> 00:58:29,765 the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever." 1143 00:58:29,765 --> 00:58:33,020 Edwards tells us that the immediate consequences of 1144 00:58:33,020 --> 00:58:34,040 this new sense was 1145 00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:36,410 the resolution of a religious doubt that 1146 00:58:36,410 --> 00:58:39,020 he had been harboring for 1147 00:58:39,020 --> 00:58:40,160 some time about 1148 00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:43,235 the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. 1149 00:58:43,235 --> 00:58:45,440 But note, well, it was not just that he 1150 00:58:45,440 --> 00:58:47,510 came to ascend to a doctrine 1151 00:58:47,510 --> 00:58:51,545 that is offensive to natural reason, no, 1152 00:58:51,545 --> 00:58:55,040 Edwards came to delight in the doctrine precisely 1153 00:58:55,040 --> 00:58:59,840 because it brought into sharpest focus the deity of God, 1154 00:58:59,840 --> 00:59:03,320 that is, the sweet conjunction, as he called it, 1155 00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:06,560 of God's majesty in governing the universe and God's 1156 00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:10,745 meekness in rescuing the elect for the cross of Christ. 1157 00:59:10,745 --> 00:59:14,104 This conjunction of opposites is complete. 1158 00:59:14,104 --> 00:59:15,545 "It was," he says, 1159 00:59:15,545 --> 00:59:18,275 "A sweet and gentle and holy majesty, 1160 00:59:18,275 --> 00:59:20,735 and also a majestic meekness, 1161 00:59:20,735 --> 00:59:23,240 an awful sweetness, a 1162 00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:26,405 high and great and holy gentleness." 1163 00:59:26,405 --> 00:59:29,300 It was, in short, his first glimpse of 1164 00:59:29,300 --> 00:59:32,150 the divine glory and the point at 1165 00:59:32,150 --> 00:59:34,160 which his distinctive theological vision 1166 00:59:34,160 --> 00:59:35,945 began to germinate. 1167 00:59:35,945 --> 00:59:38,240 He would spend the rest of his career as 1168 00:59:38,240 --> 00:59:40,505 a pastor attempting to induce in 1169 00:59:40,505 --> 00:59:45,065 others the experience of that sense of divine things, 1170 00:59:45,065 --> 00:59:48,380 even though he knew that it is finally an unmerited, 1171 00:59:48,380 --> 00:59:50,030 an unmediated gift of God, 1172 00:59:50,030 --> 00:59:53,060 not the rhetorical razzle-dazzle of the preacher, 1173 00:59:53,060 --> 00:59:55,730 which imparts it to the soul. 1174 00:59:55,730 --> 00:59:58,280 He would spend the rest of his career as 1175 00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:00,980 a theologian interpreting every Christian doctrine 1176 01:00:00,980 --> 01:00:04,355 in aesthetic and doxological terms 1177 01:00:04,355 --> 01:00:06,020 and diagnosing the spiritual, 1178 01:00:06,020 --> 01:00:08,060 moral, and psychological effects of 1179 01:00:08,060 --> 01:00:10,070 this divinely given sense of the 1180 01:00:10,070 --> 01:00:13,710 divine upon those who experienced. 1181 01:00:13,930 --> 01:00:16,310 The dawning of his new sense took 1182 01:00:16,310 --> 01:00:19,235 place in 1721 when he was 17, 1183 01:00:19,235 --> 01:00:21,470 the year after he had graduated as 1184 01:00:21,470 --> 01:00:24,905 valedictorian of his undergraduate class at Yale. 1185 01:00:24,905 --> 01:00:28,520 He was still at Yale studying for his master's degree. 1186 01:00:28,520 --> 01:00:30,260 Before completing that degree, 1187 01:00:30,260 --> 01:00:32,930 he took off nine months to serve as the pastor of 1188 01:00:32,930 --> 01:00:35,840 a Presbyterian Church in New York City, 1189 01:00:35,840 --> 01:00:38,570 then returned to New Haven 1190 01:00:38,570 --> 01:00:41,660 in 1723 to write his MA thesis. 1191 01:00:41,660 --> 01:00:44,480 During these years, his great literary talents 1192 01:00:44,480 --> 01:00:47,825 began to emerge and 1193 01:00:47,825 --> 01:00:53,090 much of the so-called miscellaneous or journal writings 1194 01:00:53,090 --> 01:00:54,500 begin to sketch out, 1195 01:00:54,500 --> 01:00:57,290 even at that time, the idealistic metaphysics and 1196 01:00:57,290 --> 01:00:59,450 the post-millennial eschatology that 1197 01:00:59,450 --> 01:01:02,190 characterize all his writings. 1198 01:01:02,830 --> 01:01:06,275 He also wrote a curious little paragraph called 1199 01:01:06,275 --> 01:01:09,500 Apostrophe to Sarah Pierrepont, 1200 01:01:09,500 --> 01:01:11,600 in which he blends the most 1201 01:01:11,600 --> 01:01:14,525 intense and to him probably unnerving 1202 01:01:14,525 --> 01:01:20,390 eroticism and the most sublime spiritual admiration. 1203 01:01:20,390 --> 01:01:25,650 He finally became a candidate 1204 01:01:25,900 --> 01:01:28,820 as a junior pastor of 1205 01:01:28,820 --> 01:01:30,740 the Congregational Church in North Hampton, 1206 01:01:30,740 --> 01:01:33,830 Massachusetts where his grandfather was pastor. 1207 01:01:33,830 --> 01:01:36,290 In February of the next year, 1208 01:01:36,290 --> 01:01:38,975 he was settled in that place 1209 01:01:38,975 --> 01:01:43,220 and married Sarah in the following summer. 1210 01:01:43,220 --> 01:01:45,890 Now, as we've seen, the senior pastor 1211 01:01:45,890 --> 01:01:47,330 of the North Hampton church was 1212 01:01:47,330 --> 01:01:49,430 the Venerable Solomon Stoddard 1213 01:01:49,430 --> 01:01:51,830 , Edward's maternal grandfather. 1214 01:01:51,830 --> 01:01:54,350 Stoddard died two years after Edward 1215 01:01:54,350 --> 01:01:56,510 joined the staff and Edward took over 1216 01:01:56,510 --> 01:01:58,280 the reins of what was then 1217 01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:02,285 the most prestigious pulpit in the Connecticut Valley. 1218 01:02:02,285 --> 01:02:04,550 He quickly established himself 1219 01:02:04,550 --> 01:02:06,050 as a force in his own right. 1220 01:02:06,050 --> 01:02:08,750 His preaching was not flamboyant and 1221 01:02:08,750 --> 01:02:12,230 even his famous or infamous hellfire sermons 1222 01:02:12,230 --> 01:02:14,690 were delivered in a quiet and stately manner, 1223 01:02:14,690 --> 01:02:18,720 unadorned by gesticulation or hysteria. 1224 01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:21,440 Indeed, usually read from 1225 01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:23,810 a carefully prepared manuscript. 1226 01:02:23,810 --> 01:02:26,915 But there was 1227 01:02:26,915 --> 01:02:30,830 an immense dignity and presence about him that commanded 1228 01:02:30,830 --> 01:02:33,320 attention and respect and he 1229 01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:36,320 relieved the severity of his Biblical exposition and 1230 01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:39,635 logical argumentation with a cascade 1231 01:02:39,635 --> 01:02:43,355 of vivid images and illuminating analogies. 1232 01:02:43,355 --> 01:02:46,220 His aim was to drive his points 1233 01:02:46,220 --> 01:02:49,340 home and to help his listeners experience 1234 01:02:49,340 --> 01:02:51,200 for themselves the wonder of 1235 01:02:51,200 --> 01:02:55,980 divine grace and the dreadfulness of divine judgment. 1236 01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:59,555 His popularity with his parishioners 1237 01:02:59,555 --> 01:03:00,830 and his stature among 1238 01:03:00,830 --> 01:03:03,020 the New England clergy grew steadily during 1239 01:03:03,020 --> 01:03:05,690 the years of his North Hampton ministry. 1240 01:03:05,690 --> 01:03:09,500 But in 1733, a train of events began that was to make 1241 01:03:09,500 --> 01:03:11,330 him a celebrated figure in 1242 01:03:11,330 --> 01:03:13,895 the international evangelical community. 1243 01:03:13,895 --> 01:03:16,580 As we've seen, his grandfather had reaped 1244 01:03:16,580 --> 01:03:18,380 several harvests of souls during 1245 01:03:18,380 --> 01:03:20,735 his long pastorate in North Hampton, 1246 01:03:20,735 --> 01:03:23,944 so the revival that broke out under Edwards' ministry 1247 01:03:23,944 --> 01:03:27,545 in 1733 was welcomed by all. 1248 01:03:27,545 --> 01:03:29,750 But its intensity, duration, 1249 01:03:29,750 --> 01:03:33,575 and impact on the local community were unprecedented. 1250 01:03:33,575 --> 01:03:37,700 When Edwards published an account of the revival in 1737, 1251 01:03:37,700 --> 01:03:41,540 readers throughout the Anglo-American evangelical world 1252 01:03:41,540 --> 01:03:44,660 were astonished and entranced. 1253 01:03:44,660 --> 01:03:46,565 For a variety of reasons, 1254 01:03:46,565 --> 01:03:49,760 the British world was ripe for a fresh outpouring of 1255 01:03:49,760 --> 01:03:52,295 the Holy Spirit and 1256 01:03:52,295 --> 01:03:55,190 the faithful narrative of the surprising work of 1257 01:03:55,190 --> 01:03:58,910 God precipitated the wave of 1258 01:03:58,910 --> 01:04:01,010 revivals that spread throughout 1259 01:04:01,010 --> 01:04:05,780 England and the colonies during the 1730s and '40s. 1260 01:04:05,780 --> 01:04:08,750 He soon produced three more major works 1261 01:04:08,750 --> 01:04:11,015 documenting, analyzing, justifying, 1262 01:04:11,015 --> 01:04:13,370 and promoting these revivals and was 1263 01:04:13,370 --> 01:04:15,200 the leading evangelical figure on 1264 01:04:15,200 --> 01:04:18,785 both sides of the Atlantic during this time. 1265 01:04:18,785 --> 01:04:22,355 But then at the height of his international fame, 1266 01:04:22,355 --> 01:04:25,685 everything began going wrong for Jonathan Edwards, 1267 01:04:25,685 --> 01:04:28,340 just as things had gone wrong for Palamas, 1268 01:04:28,340 --> 01:04:30,740 and I suppose for all of us in life. 1269 01:04:30,740 --> 01:04:32,660 For a variety of reasons, 1270 01:04:32,660 --> 01:04:34,790 he aroused the anger, 1271 01:04:34,790 --> 01:04:37,580 both personal and theological 1272 01:04:37,580 --> 01:04:40,205 of several influential neighbors. 1273 01:04:40,205 --> 01:04:43,160 He had periodic salary disputes 1274 01:04:43,160 --> 01:04:44,990 with his own congregation, 1275 01:04:44,990 --> 01:04:46,850 he badly bungled the case in 1276 01:04:46,850 --> 01:04:48,680 his parish in which some teenagers 1277 01:04:48,680 --> 01:04:52,430 were using a midwives manual for pornographic purposes, 1278 01:04:52,430 --> 01:04:56,180 and he had to bury 1279 01:04:56,180 --> 01:04:58,340 his uncle and strongest local supporter 1280 01:04:58,340 --> 01:05:00,319 Colonel John Stoddard, 1281 01:05:00,319 --> 01:05:03,920 the son of Solomon Stoddard. 1282 01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:07,040 Moreover, Solomon Stoddard's ghost still 1283 01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:10,820 walked in North Hampton half a century before 1284 01:05:10,820 --> 01:05:13,580 the old patriarch had instituted a new policy 1285 01:05:13,580 --> 01:05:17,750 for admitting members to the church. 1286 01:05:17,750 --> 01:05:21,350 He allowed anyone whose moral conduct was not publicly 1287 01:05:21,350 --> 01:05:23,360 scandalous and who could in 1288 01:05:23,360 --> 01:05:25,430 good conscience affirm the basic doctrines 1289 01:05:25,430 --> 01:05:26,780 of the faith to join, 1290 01:05:26,780 --> 01:05:29,360 they didn't have to profess either privately or 1291 01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:31,220 publicly that they had 1292 01:05:31,220 --> 01:05:34,220 personally experienced saving grace. 1293 01:05:34,220 --> 01:05:36,230 Put differently, Stoddard said 1294 01:05:36,230 --> 01:05:38,195 that the sacraments of the church 1295 01:05:38,195 --> 01:05:40,700 were henceforth to be regarded not 1296 01:05:40,700 --> 01:05:44,135 as testimonial signs of grace, 1297 01:05:44,135 --> 01:05:47,150 but rather as effectual means 1298 01:05:47,150 --> 01:05:49,670 by which grace might be communicated. 1299 01:05:49,670 --> 01:05:51,440 In effect, America had 1300 01:05:51,440 --> 01:05:54,950 its first seeker-friendly church in 1677. 1301 01:05:54,950 --> 01:05:58,070 This policy was unheard of in 1302 01:05:58,070 --> 01:06:02,425 puritanism and aroused bitter opposition 1303 01:06:02,425 --> 01:06:04,180 among the Boston Brahmins. 1304 01:06:04,180 --> 01:06:06,070 But the people of North Hampton loved 1305 01:06:06,070 --> 01:06:08,320 it and had been firmly in place for 1306 01:06:08,320 --> 01:06:14,875 six decades when Jonathan Edwards revoked it in 1748. 1307 01:06:14,875 --> 01:06:18,550 He himself had enforced it for 20 years, 1308 01:06:18,550 --> 01:06:20,680 but he now claimed that it had worried 1309 01:06:20,680 --> 01:06:22,660 him ever since his installation. 1310 01:06:22,660 --> 01:06:25,350 This was the last straw for his flock, 1311 01:06:25,350 --> 01:06:27,290 and in June 1750, 1312 01:06:27,290 --> 01:06:29,030 after much wrangling and maneuvering, 1313 01:06:29,030 --> 01:06:32,780 they voted by a 10 to one margin to fire him. 1314 01:06:32,780 --> 01:06:34,940 The decision was upheld by 1315 01:06:34,940 --> 01:06:36,590 a council of regional Churches, 1316 01:06:36,590 --> 01:06:38,960 though Edwards himself was exonerated 1317 01:06:38,960 --> 01:06:43,860 from charges of hypocrisy and malfeasance. 1318 01:06:43,900 --> 01:06:47,570 Unfortunately, Edwards had spent so much of 1319 01:06:47,570 --> 01:06:50,000 the previous few years trying to keep 1320 01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:53,795 his job that he had made no provisions to find another. 1321 01:06:53,795 --> 01:06:56,450 Moreover, the North Hampton congregation 1322 01:06:56,450 --> 01:06:59,870 was in no state to call a successor, 1323 01:06:59,870 --> 01:07:05,420 so for a full year on a week-by-week basis, 1324 01:07:05,420 --> 01:07:07,115 Edwards supplied the pulp 1325 01:07:07,115 --> 01:07:09,020 from which he had just been dismissed. 1326 01:07:09,020 --> 01:07:14,570 Finally, in the summer of 1751, 1327 01:07:14,570 --> 01:07:17,060 he moved to the frontier town of Stockbridge, 1328 01:07:17,060 --> 01:07:19,160 Massachusetts to serve as the pastor of 1329 01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:21,170 the local English congregation and as 1330 01:07:21,170 --> 01:07:23,645 a missionary to the Native Americans. 1331 01:07:23,645 --> 01:07:25,670 Thus rusticated and with 1332 01:07:25,670 --> 01:07:28,730 the awakening gradually twinkling, 1333 01:07:28,730 --> 01:07:31,400 he was able to find the time to produce 1334 01:07:31,400 --> 01:07:34,205 five Wikibooks in seven years. 1335 01:07:34,205 --> 01:07:36,830 One of which his dissertation concerning 1336 01:07:36,830 --> 01:07:39,590 the end for which God created the world. 1337 01:07:39,590 --> 01:07:42,620 The second best title of a book ever 1338 01:07:42,620 --> 01:07:46,010 written is of particular importance for our purposes 1339 01:07:46,010 --> 01:07:47,090 since it represents his 1340 01:07:47,090 --> 01:07:49,129 mature reflections on the relationship 1341 01:07:49,129 --> 01:07:52,835 between divine glory and human blessedness. 1342 01:07:52,835 --> 01:07:57,095 The theme that had animated his life and thought since 1343 01:07:57,095 --> 01:07:58,790 the dawning of his new sense of 1344 01:07:58,790 --> 01:08:01,910 divine things 30 years earlier. 1345 01:08:01,910 --> 01:08:04,580 Then in late 1757, 1346 01:08:04,580 --> 01:08:06,440 he received an invitation to become 1347 01:08:06,440 --> 01:08:08,840 the president of the College of New Jersey, 1348 01:08:08,840 --> 01:08:12,350 today known as Princeton University. 1349 01:08:12,350 --> 01:08:15,800 After consulting his friends and after candidly 1350 01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:19,010 warning the trustees of his faults and weaknesses, 1351 01:08:19,010 --> 01:08:20,900 he accepted the posts and journeyed 1352 01:08:20,900 --> 01:08:23,060 South in the dead of winter to take 1353 01:08:23,060 --> 01:08:25,835 the reigns of the young and struggling school. 1354 01:08:25,835 --> 01:08:30,905 At that time, a smallpox epidemic was raging in the area. 1355 01:08:30,905 --> 01:08:32,480 Edwards submitted to 1356 01:08:32,480 --> 01:08:35,840 the primitive vaccination procedure then in use, 1357 01:08:35,840 --> 01:08:39,650 contracted the disease from the vaccination, 1358 01:08:39,650 --> 01:08:42,830 recovered briefly, and then succumbed to 1359 01:08:42,830 --> 01:08:47,940 a secondary infection on March 22, 1758. 1360 01:08:48,220 --> 01:08:52,160 Now the starting point for any examination of 1361 01:08:52,160 --> 01:08:54,950 Edwards's theology of Christian experience 1362 01:08:54,950 --> 01:08:56,795 is his great sermon, 1363 01:08:56,795 --> 01:08:59,705 a divine and supernatural light. 1364 01:08:59,705 --> 01:09:01,715 It was delivered in 1365 01:09:01,715 --> 01:09:03,830 August 1733 on the eve 1366 01:09:03,830 --> 01:09:06,630 of the Great North Hampton revival. 1367 01:09:06,670 --> 01:09:10,280 The text is Matthew 16:17. 1368 01:09:10,280 --> 01:09:12,560 Jesus's response to Peter's confession 1369 01:09:12,560 --> 01:09:13,610 that he is the Christ, 1370 01:09:13,610 --> 01:09:15,170 the Son of the living God. 1371 01:09:15,170 --> 01:09:17,675 Blessed art thou Simon bar Jonah, 1372 01:09:17,675 --> 01:09:20,930 for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 1373 01:09:20,930 --> 01:09:23,420 but my Father, which is in heaven. 1374 01:09:23,420 --> 01:09:28,520 Edwards uses the phrase flesh and blood to signify 1375 01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:31,550 whatever unregenerate persons may know of God through 1376 01:09:31,550 --> 01:09:36,120 natural conscience or ordinary human reason. 1377 01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:39,890 He acknowledges that God from common grace can 1378 01:09:39,890 --> 01:09:42,680 enrich and intensify our natural knowledge of 1379 01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:44,990 God but he also insists that no amount of 1380 01:09:44,990 --> 01:09:48,245 moral rumination or intellectual inquiry, 1381 01:09:48,245 --> 01:09:51,290 even with the aid of common grace can produce 1382 01:09:51,290 --> 01:09:56,120 the revelation that God imparted Peter. 1383 01:09:56,120 --> 01:09:58,400 Spiritual illumination does not 1384 01:09:58,400 --> 01:10:00,410 consist in heightened guilt 1385 01:10:00,410 --> 01:10:04,565 for moral failings or greater fear of divine wrath 1386 01:10:04,565 --> 01:10:06,500 or new religious insights and 1387 01:10:06,500 --> 01:10:08,660 visions or a deeper appreciation for 1388 01:10:08,660 --> 01:10:10,505 the doctrines of the Christian religion 1389 01:10:10,505 --> 01:10:12,905 or an intensification of religion and motion. 1390 01:10:12,905 --> 01:10:15,350 None of that. True. 1391 01:10:15,350 --> 01:10:17,570 It's compatible with all of these and often 1392 01:10:17,570 --> 01:10:20,975 accompanied by them but spiritual insight 1393 01:10:20,975 --> 01:10:24,230 is an act of divine grace, 1394 01:10:24,230 --> 01:10:27,155 not the result of human effort. 1395 01:10:27,155 --> 01:10:29,360 It arises when the Spirit of God 1396 01:10:29,360 --> 01:10:32,045 unites himself with the mind of the saint, 1397 01:10:32,045 --> 01:10:34,385 takes him for his temple, 1398 01:10:34,385 --> 01:10:37,400 actuates and influences him as 1399 01:10:37,400 --> 01:10:43,430 a new supernatural principle of life and action. 1400 01:10:43,430 --> 01:10:47,600 Put simply to be born again is to see everything anew. 1401 01:10:47,600 --> 01:10:50,330 To undergo a decisive shift in 1402 01:10:50,330 --> 01:10:53,615 the way one experiences reality. 1403 01:10:53,615 --> 01:10:55,490 Edwards describes 1404 01:10:55,490 --> 01:10:58,970 the spiritually illuminated person thus, 1405 01:10:58,970 --> 01:11:02,570 he don't merely rationally believe that God is glorious 1406 01:11:02,570 --> 01:11:03,830 but he has a sense of 1407 01:11:03,830 --> 01:11:06,230 the gloriousness of God in his heart. 1408 01:11:06,230 --> 01:11:08,630 There was not only a rational belief 1409 01:11:08,630 --> 01:11:10,400 that God is holy and that holiness is 1410 01:11:10,400 --> 01:11:12,485 a good thing but there is a sense 1411 01:11:12,485 --> 01:11:15,035 of the loveliness of God's holiness. 1412 01:11:15,035 --> 01:11:17,840 There's not only a speculatively judging that 1413 01:11:17,840 --> 01:11:20,270 God is gracious but a sense 1414 01:11:20,270 --> 01:11:22,970 that how amiable God is upon 1415 01:11:22,970 --> 01:11:25,220 that account or a sense of 1416 01:11:25,220 --> 01:11:28,920 the beauty of this divine attribute. 1417 01:11:29,080 --> 01:11:32,030 Edwards uses one of his favorite analogies 1418 01:11:32,030 --> 01:11:33,590 to illustrate the point. 1419 01:11:33,590 --> 01:11:38,225 You can know that honey is sweet before tasting it. 1420 01:11:38,225 --> 01:11:40,730 But you cannot know what the sweetness of honey 1421 01:11:40,730 --> 01:11:43,880 is until you taste it for yourself. 1422 01:11:43,880 --> 01:11:46,130 The analogy limps a bit, however, 1423 01:11:46,130 --> 01:11:48,230 because it refers to the taste of a new food 1424 01:11:48,230 --> 01:11:51,305 rather than to a new way of tasting all foods. 1425 01:11:51,305 --> 01:11:53,630 But the divine and supernatural light, 1426 01:11:53,630 --> 01:11:57,770 which the saints see is really both an inner sensation of 1427 01:11:57,770 --> 01:12:00,200 God's own beauty and 1428 01:12:00,200 --> 01:12:01,550 a thorough transformation of 1429 01:12:01,550 --> 01:12:03,780 their worldview and comportment. 1430 01:12:03,780 --> 01:12:05,830 Thus, an infinite chasm 1431 01:12:05,830 --> 01:12:08,440 separates one who merely believes that God is 1432 01:12:08,440 --> 01:12:10,840 glorious because the Bible says 1433 01:12:10,840 --> 01:12:14,630 so and the person who actually sees the glory of 1434 01:12:14,630 --> 01:12:15,755 God to which the Bible 1435 01:12:15,755 --> 01:12:18,350 attests and sees everything else differently 1436 01:12:18,350 --> 01:12:23,495 for having seen God's glory shining out from creation. 1437 01:12:23,495 --> 01:12:25,730 Edwards takes pains to show that 1438 01:12:25,730 --> 01:12:26,870 both holy scripture and 1439 01:12:26,870 --> 01:12:29,420 human reason support the belief that 1440 01:12:29,420 --> 01:12:30,650 there is such a thing as 1441 01:12:30,650 --> 01:12:33,470 a supernatural and divine light 1442 01:12:33,470 --> 01:12:35,540 and that this light is immediately 1443 01:12:35,540 --> 01:12:37,655 imparted to the soul by God, 1444 01:12:37,655 --> 01:12:40,595 not the upshot of any natural means. 1445 01:12:40,595 --> 01:12:42,590 To show that it is scriptural, 1446 01:12:42,590 --> 01:12:44,735 he cites a variety of texts, 1447 01:12:44,735 --> 01:12:47,480 culminating in 2nd Peter 1:16, 1448 01:12:47,480 --> 01:12:50,855 which refers to Christ's transfiguration 1449 01:12:50,855 --> 01:12:53,915 positively Palomite indeed. 1450 01:12:53,915 --> 01:12:56,210 But here Edwards runs into 1451 01:12:56,210 --> 01:12:58,730 a jam for what Peter and the other apostles 1452 01:12:58,730 --> 01:13:00,470 witnessed on that occasion was apparently 1453 01:13:00,470 --> 01:13:02,780 a visible light and hence in principle, 1454 01:13:02,780 --> 01:13:03,950 something that everyone, not 1455 01:13:03,950 --> 01:13:06,770 just the saints should be able to see. 1456 01:13:06,770 --> 01:13:08,690 Yet the essence of Edwards, 1457 01:13:08,690 --> 01:13:11,300 his argument is that the divine and supernatural light, 1458 01:13:11,300 --> 01:13:12,410 which the saints see is 1459 01:13:12,410 --> 01:13:16,640 spiritual and invisible to the unsanctified. 1460 01:13:16,640 --> 01:13:18,320 To get around this problem, 1461 01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:21,635 Edwards deploys the theory of religious topology. 1462 01:13:21,635 --> 01:13:24,260 That is his belief that creation in scripture 1463 01:13:24,260 --> 01:13:26,795 are a complex tapestry of types or 1464 01:13:26,795 --> 01:13:28,850 images by which God communicates 1465 01:13:28,850 --> 01:13:32,690 supernatural meaning to those illuminated by grace. 1466 01:13:32,690 --> 01:13:34,940 We can't go deeply into this here. 1467 01:13:34,940 --> 01:13:38,330 It's enough to say that Edwards believes that 1468 01:13:38,330 --> 01:13:40,055 what the apostles beheld on 1469 01:13:40,055 --> 01:13:42,785 the mouth was Christ's outward glory. 1470 01:13:42,785 --> 01:13:45,080 They were granted a preliminary or 1471 01:13:45,080 --> 01:13:47,150 this worldly glimpse of how Christ 1472 01:13:47,150 --> 01:13:48,950 now appears in heaven 1473 01:13:48,950 --> 01:13:52,175 and as he will do on the day of judgment. 1474 01:13:52,175 --> 01:13:54,680 His point is that on judgment day, 1475 01:13:54,680 --> 01:13:57,785 everyone will see the same thing. 1476 01:13:57,785 --> 01:14:02,690 The difference is how they see it. 1477 01:14:02,690 --> 01:14:05,030 The saints will be permitted to see 1478 01:14:05,030 --> 01:14:07,340 outwardly the things unseen which they have 1479 01:14:07,340 --> 01:14:10,700 believed in all along while the reprobate will 1480 01:14:10,700 --> 01:14:12,410 be compelled to see outwardly 1481 01:14:12,410 --> 01:14:14,960 what they have either too denied. 1482 01:14:14,960 --> 01:14:17,630 If there were no unsanctified persons 1483 01:14:17,630 --> 01:14:19,760 present on the mountain wasn't because they couldn't 1484 01:14:19,760 --> 01:14:21,695 have seen Christ's outward glory 1485 01:14:21,695 --> 01:14:24,020 but because God wanted on that occasion 1486 01:14:24,020 --> 01:14:25,790 to grant the site only to those who would 1487 01:14:25,790 --> 01:14:29,370 comprehend its spiritual significance. 1488 01:14:30,670 --> 01:14:36,170 Edwards wants to insist not only that scripture attests 1489 01:14:36,170 --> 01:14:38,870 the existence of the divine and supernatural light 1490 01:14:38,870 --> 01:14:41,330 but that human reason does too. 1491 01:14:41,330 --> 01:14:44,240 He doesn't say that human reason unaided by 1492 01:14:44,240 --> 01:14:47,435 grace can attain spiritual illumination, 1493 01:14:47,435 --> 01:14:49,340 he says that those who have attained 1494 01:14:49,340 --> 01:14:52,550 spiritual illumination will find that what has 1495 01:14:52,550 --> 01:14:54,500 been wrought in them by grace is 1496 01:14:54,500 --> 01:14:56,150 the highest excellency and 1497 01:14:56,150 --> 01:14:59,075 perfection of a rational creature. 1498 01:14:59,075 --> 01:15:01,280 Put sharply, no one can think a 1499 01:15:01,280 --> 01:15:03,590 way to the beatific vision, 1500 01:15:03,590 --> 01:15:05,690 but she who has seen it 1501 01:15:05,690 --> 01:15:09,080 will find nothing so reasonable as the fact that God 1502 01:15:09,080 --> 01:15:12,350 reserves to himself the right to grant it to whoever he 1503 01:15:12,350 --> 01:15:15,170 wants and in so doing to 1504 01:15:15,170 --> 01:15:19,080 make them participants in the divine nature. 1505 01:15:20,920 --> 01:15:23,780 Here Edwards comes as close as 1506 01:15:23,780 --> 01:15:26,060 a Calvinist can to saying something we have 1507 01:15:26,060 --> 01:15:28,760 already found in poly-mass that in 1508 01:15:28,760 --> 01:15:33,275 some sense to see God is to be God. 1509 01:15:33,275 --> 01:15:35,840 He writes, it is 1510 01:15:35,840 --> 01:15:38,420 rational to suppose that this blessing should be 1511 01:15:38,420 --> 01:15:41,540 immediately from God for there is no gift or 1512 01:15:41,540 --> 01:15:43,100 benefit that is in itself so 1513 01:15:43,100 --> 01:15:45,515 nearly related to the divine nature. 1514 01:15:45,515 --> 01:15:47,540 There's nothing the creature 1515 01:15:47,540 --> 01:15:49,340 receives that is so much of God of 1516 01:15:49,340 --> 01:15:53,330 his nature so much of participation of the deity. 1517 01:15:53,330 --> 01:15:56,660 It is emanation of God's beauty and is 1518 01:15:56,660 --> 01:16:00,455 related to God as the light to the sun. 1519 01:16:00,455 --> 01:16:02,450 It is therefore congruence and fit 1520 01:16:02,450 --> 01:16:04,850 that when it is given of God, 1521 01:16:04,850 --> 01:16:08,074 it should be next leaf from himself. 1522 01:16:08,074 --> 01:16:11,280 According to his own sovereign will. 1523 01:16:11,770 --> 01:16:14,690 The use of light as a symbol of 1524 01:16:14,690 --> 01:16:17,420 authentic religious experience is found in 1525 01:16:17,420 --> 01:16:20,540 many places throughout Edwards's writings, 1526 01:16:20,540 --> 01:16:25,150 but nowhere more dramatically than 1527 01:16:25,150 --> 01:16:27,250 in his dissertation concerning 1528 01:16:27,250 --> 01:16:30,430 the end for which God created the world. 1529 01:16:30,430 --> 01:16:38,050 Let me just mention a few things there and then move on. 1530 01:16:38,050 --> 01:16:41,065 Like all of Edwards's later writings, 1531 01:16:41,065 --> 01:16:44,785 the dissertation is an assault against what he 1532 01:16:44,785 --> 01:16:47,950 regarded as the unbiblical anthropocentrism 1533 01:16:47,950 --> 01:16:50,725 of British Enlightenment theology. 1534 01:16:50,725 --> 01:16:53,200 Their God is typically depicted as 1535 01:16:53,200 --> 01:16:55,915 a cosmic errand boy for humanity, 1536 01:16:55,915 --> 01:16:58,060 frantically patching up the mess we 1537 01:16:58,060 --> 01:17:00,220 make of the world by the misuse of 1538 01:17:00,220 --> 01:17:02,500 our so-called free will and 1539 01:17:02,500 --> 01:17:05,399 dutifully serving our little needs and interests. 1540 01:17:05,399 --> 01:17:07,415 Against this ideology, 1541 01:17:07,415 --> 01:17:09,410 Edwards stoutly insists that there are 1542 01:17:09,410 --> 01:17:11,794 no accidents in God's universe 1543 01:17:11,794 --> 01:17:14,075 that events unfold in a wise, 1544 01:17:14,075 --> 01:17:16,865 though inscrutable design that 1545 01:17:16,865 --> 01:17:19,040 the alleged indeterminacy and 1546 01:17:19,040 --> 01:17:20,600 autonomy of the human will is 1547 01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:22,100 a fiction that duped us into 1548 01:17:22,100 --> 01:17:24,800 a false sense of self-importance and 1549 01:17:24,800 --> 01:17:27,230 that God exercises his absolute sovereignty 1550 01:17:27,230 --> 01:17:29,630 over nature in human history alike. 1551 01:17:29,630 --> 01:17:32,510 The universe exists to serve 1552 01:17:32,510 --> 01:17:35,615 God's ends and not vice versa. 1553 01:17:35,615 --> 01:17:38,000 But what are God's sets? 1554 01:17:38,000 --> 01:17:40,655 Ultimately, there is only one. 1555 01:17:40,655 --> 01:17:45,215 The emanation of true external expression 1556 01:17:45,215 --> 01:17:48,334 of God's internal glory and fullness. 1557 01:17:48,334 --> 01:17:51,830 The universe, as Calvin said, 1558 01:17:51,830 --> 01:17:54,740 is the theater of God's glory. 1559 01:17:54,740 --> 01:17:56,480 The arena in which God 1560 01:17:56,480 --> 01:18:00,335 exercises and displays his own perfections. 1561 01:18:00,335 --> 01:18:05,030 The word glory is used in scripture often to express 1562 01:18:05,030 --> 01:18:06,650 the exhibition emanation or 1563 01:18:06,650 --> 01:18:09,140 communion of the internal glory. 1564 01:18:09,140 --> 01:18:14,120 He writes. The universe is God's light show. 1565 01:18:14,120 --> 01:18:30,575 Edwards describes the relationship between 1566 01:18:30,575 --> 01:18:35,810 the two problems like here. 1567 01:18:35,810 --> 01:18:39,710 One is in the theology and one in the symbolism. 1568 01:18:39,710 --> 01:18:42,200 Edwards' effort to correct the notion 1569 01:18:42,200 --> 01:18:44,420 that God is an errand boy comes close to 1570 01:18:44,420 --> 01:18:46,940 suggesting that God is an egotist who 1571 01:18:46,940 --> 01:18:49,865 demands our funding adulation. 1572 01:18:49,865 --> 01:18:52,670 As to the second, the symbol of light emanating from 1573 01:18:52,670 --> 01:18:55,655 a luminary is finally impersonal, 1574 01:18:55,655 --> 01:19:01,415 the sun doesn't will it shining. 1575 01:19:01,415 --> 01:19:05,660 The moon reflects the shine of 1576 01:19:05,660 --> 01:19:10,340 the sun but it is not grateful in its reflectiveness. 1577 01:19:10,340 --> 01:19:12,350 Edwards solution to both of 1578 01:19:12,350 --> 01:19:14,090 these problems is condensed into 1579 01:19:14,090 --> 01:19:18,770 a single word coined for the purpose, remination. 1580 01:19:18,770 --> 01:19:21,920 Human beings are created for the express purpose of 1581 01:19:21,920 --> 01:19:23,930 beholding and rejoicing in 1582 01:19:23,930 --> 01:19:25,985 the glorious sovereignty of God. 1583 01:19:25,985 --> 01:19:28,565 Praise is not an automatic response 1584 01:19:28,565 --> 01:19:30,650 of the creature to the creator but 1585 01:19:30,650 --> 01:19:32,660 a voluntary one and 1586 01:19:32,660 --> 01:19:35,435 hence there is no guarantee that it will be offered. 1587 01:19:35,435 --> 01:19:37,100 But the failure to offer 1588 01:19:37,100 --> 01:19:40,430 such a response constitutes not merely 1589 01:19:40,430 --> 01:19:42,950 a sinful derogation of God but 1590 01:19:42,950 --> 01:19:47,210 a tragic self falsification of one's own nature. 1591 01:19:47,210 --> 01:19:51,350 Conversely, the joyful rendering of that response 1592 01:19:51,350 --> 01:19:55,670 constitutes not merely the payment of what God is due, 1593 01:19:55,670 --> 01:19:58,040 but the attainment of the end for which 1594 01:19:58,040 --> 01:20:01,580 human beings exist in the first place. 1595 01:20:01,580 --> 01:20:07,730 God shines and the Saints shine back. 1596 01:20:07,730 --> 01:20:10,535 Not as the moon blindly 1597 01:20:10,535 --> 01:20:14,000 and insensibly reflects the light of the sun, 1598 01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:15,800 but as the lover joyfully 1599 01:20:15,800 --> 01:20:18,500 lights up at the smile of the beloved, 1600 01:20:18,500 --> 01:20:22,130 and this ecstatic praise of God, 1601 01:20:22,130 --> 01:20:25,280 which the human being gives voluntarily and yet at 1602 01:20:25,280 --> 01:20:29,075 the same time spontaneously and unselfconsciously, 1603 01:20:29,075 --> 01:20:31,444 consists both in the enjoyment 1604 01:20:31,444 --> 01:20:33,665 of God's transcendent beauty, 1605 01:20:33,665 --> 01:20:38,210 as manifest in the glorified lord and in 1606 01:20:38,210 --> 01:20:41,000 active obedience to God's righteous law 1607 01:20:41,000 --> 01:20:44,390 after the example of the Suffering Servant. 1608 01:20:44,390 --> 01:20:48,470 On the one hand, Christ is the light of the world and 1609 01:20:48,470 --> 01:20:50,360 whoever follows him will never walk 1610 01:20:50,360 --> 01:20:53,210 in darkness but will have the light of life. 1611 01:20:53,210 --> 01:20:55,175 On the other hand, 1612 01:20:55,175 --> 01:20:57,770 Christ names us as the light of 1613 01:20:57,770 --> 01:21:01,100 the world and commands us to let our light shine 1614 01:21:01,100 --> 01:21:02,990 before others that they may see 1615 01:21:02,990 --> 01:21:08,225 God's works and give glory to our Father in heaven. 1616 01:21:08,225 --> 01:21:09,620 Thus for Edwards, 1617 01:21:09,620 --> 01:21:13,175 the Christian life is thoroughly doxological. 1618 01:21:13,175 --> 01:21:16,250 It involves both an aesthetic aspect, 1619 01:21:16,250 --> 01:21:21,410 our selfless delight in God's glory and a moral aspect, 1620 01:21:21,410 --> 01:21:24,650 our self-giving love of neighbor. 1621 01:21:24,650 --> 01:21:27,890 The aesthetic aspect prevents our morality 1622 01:21:27,890 --> 01:21:31,610 from degenerating into crafted moralism. 1623 01:21:31,610 --> 01:21:34,250 The moral aspect prevents our iteration of 1624 01:21:34,250 --> 01:21:38,870 God from lapsing into a fit aestheticism. 1625 01:21:38,870 --> 01:21:42,695 The attainment of our highest good as creatures 1626 01:21:42,695 --> 01:21:45,020 comes from remembering that 1627 01:21:45,020 --> 01:21:48,120 the creature is the highest good of all. 1628 01:21:49,810 --> 01:21:53,015 As I draw this lecture to a close, 1629 01:21:53,015 --> 01:21:56,705 I should like to say a few words about its subtitle. 1630 01:21:56,705 --> 01:22:00,740 I promised you a talk about theological aesthetics. 1631 01:22:00,740 --> 01:22:04,010 But until now I have not used the term at all, 1632 01:22:04,010 --> 01:22:07,055 nor have I explained what I mean by it. 1633 01:22:07,055 --> 01:22:10,490 To be honest I'm no longer sure after years of 1634 01:22:10,490 --> 01:22:14,015 thinking about the term exactly what it means. 1635 01:22:14,015 --> 01:22:16,625 To be sure something called 1636 01:22:16,625 --> 01:22:20,165 theological aesthetics is big business today, 1637 01:22:20,165 --> 01:22:23,210 in the academy whole new branch of theology 1638 01:22:23,210 --> 01:22:25,910 has been created with 1639 01:22:25,910 --> 01:22:29,210 the usual journal articles and conferences and so on. 1640 01:22:29,210 --> 01:22:32,510 Whatever merit all this may have I seriously doubt 1641 01:22:32,510 --> 01:22:34,040 whether Palamas or Edwards 1642 01:22:34,040 --> 01:22:35,900 would've seen much point to it. 1643 01:22:35,900 --> 01:22:37,970 Certainly they did not think they were doing 1644 01:22:37,970 --> 01:22:40,370 theological aesthetics when they meditated on 1645 01:22:40,370 --> 01:22:43,700 God's beauty anymore than they thought they were doing 1646 01:22:43,700 --> 01:22:45,140 theological ethics when they 1647 01:22:45,140 --> 01:22:47,480 meditated on God's righteousness, 1648 01:22:47,480 --> 01:22:49,670 they were simply doing theology. 1649 01:22:49,670 --> 01:22:51,830 What made them so unusual 1650 01:22:51,830 --> 01:22:54,110 was that they realized that theology can't be 1651 01:22:54,110 --> 01:22:56,510 done well unless due attention is given to 1652 01:22:56,510 --> 01:22:59,615 the delight that we're supposed to take in God. 1653 01:22:59,615 --> 01:23:02,240 Just as it cannot be done well, 1654 01:23:02,240 --> 01:23:03,830 unless due attention is 1655 01:23:03,830 --> 01:23:06,590 given to the obedience that we owe. 1656 01:23:06,590 --> 01:23:10,400 That seems almost platitudinous. 1657 01:23:10,400 --> 01:23:12,710 What these giants of the spirit set out to 1658 01:23:12,710 --> 01:23:15,110 show was precisely how the quality of 1659 01:23:15,110 --> 01:23:18,140 religious delight and for that matter of 1660 01:23:18,140 --> 01:23:20,285 religiously motivated moral conduct 1661 01:23:20,285 --> 01:23:23,310 is shaped by the nature of God. 1662 01:23:23,350 --> 01:23:25,850 For the beauty of God is not 1663 01:23:25,850 --> 01:23:28,235 the beauty of created beings. 1664 01:23:28,235 --> 01:23:30,350 Therefore, the delight we take in 1665 01:23:30,350 --> 01:23:32,030 God's beauty is not the same as 1666 01:23:32,030 --> 01:23:36,030 the delight we take in a symphony of most sad, 1667 01:23:36,030 --> 01:23:38,615 or a rosy sunset, 1668 01:23:38,615 --> 01:23:40,785 or love or smile. 1669 01:23:40,785 --> 01:23:43,030 Yes, it is like earthly beauty in 1670 01:23:43,030 --> 01:23:46,135 some ways for it is an apprehension of beauty. 1671 01:23:46,135 --> 01:23:48,325 It takes our breath away, 1672 01:23:48,325 --> 01:23:50,560 brings tears to our eyes, 1673 01:23:50,560 --> 01:23:54,260 fills our hearts with the sweetest pain. 1674 01:23:54,310 --> 01:23:56,930 But our delight in a symphony or 1675 01:23:56,930 --> 01:23:59,615 a sunset passes after a time, 1676 01:23:59,615 --> 01:24:02,300 though it may later awaken. 1677 01:24:02,300 --> 01:24:06,440 But our longing for God can never 1678 01:24:06,440 --> 01:24:10,955 be assuaged or satisfied. 1679 01:24:10,955 --> 01:24:14,915 For it is a longing for the infinite. 1680 01:24:14,915 --> 01:24:18,620 A longing which the infinite satisfies by 1681 01:24:18,620 --> 01:24:23,220 making the longing itself extend for eternity. 1682 01:24:23,230 --> 01:24:28,144 God satisfies our desires for himself. 1683 01:24:28,144 --> 01:24:31,700 Not by satiating us with his presence, 1684 01:24:31,700 --> 01:24:34,820 but by intensifying our desire for 1685 01:24:34,820 --> 01:24:39,690 his presence with every new manifestation of it. 1686 01:24:39,700 --> 01:24:41,720 Those who have felt 1687 01:24:41,720 --> 01:24:47,045 that desire long only to feel it again more keenly. 1688 01:24:47,045 --> 01:24:50,270 Aesthetic delight in God's glory is finally 1689 01:24:50,270 --> 01:24:52,579 inseparable from ethical obedience 1690 01:24:52,579 --> 01:24:54,515 to God's righteous will. 1691 01:24:54,515 --> 01:24:57,500 Precisely because our participation 1692 01:24:57,500 --> 01:25:00,050 in the divine nature through 1693 01:25:00,050 --> 01:25:04,280 ecstatic praise brings about the transformation of 1694 01:25:04,280 --> 01:25:06,350 our human nature through 1695 01:25:06,350 --> 01:25:10,020 liberation from bondage to sin and death. 1696 01:25:13,660 --> 01:25:19,265 Let me mention two especially striking similarities 1697 01:25:19,265 --> 01:25:23,420 in their approaches to theological aesthetics. 1698 01:25:23,420 --> 01:25:25,580 If that's what we must call it, 1699 01:25:25,580 --> 01:25:27,830 that have emerged from our investigations. 1700 01:25:27,830 --> 01:25:31,400 First, Palamas' distinction between 1701 01:25:31,400 --> 01:25:35,975 God's imparticipable essence and the divine energies. 1702 01:25:35,975 --> 01:25:38,780 Recalls Edwards is distinction between 1703 01:25:38,780 --> 01:25:41,960 the internal or imminent glory of God which God alone 1704 01:25:41,960 --> 01:25:44,810 knows and the emanation and 1705 01:25:44,810 --> 01:25:46,730 true external expression of 1706 01:25:46,730 --> 01:25:50,670 that glory in nature and history. 1707 01:25:52,780 --> 01:25:56,629 We must be cautious here for as we have seen, 1708 01:25:56,629 --> 01:26:00,350 Palamas ascribes concrete being to the divine essence 1709 01:26:00,350 --> 01:26:01,640 and believes that through 1710 01:26:01,640 --> 01:26:04,850 spiritual purification and aesthetic practice, 1711 01:26:04,850 --> 01:26:07,655 the Hesychast can actually see them. 1712 01:26:07,655 --> 01:26:09,320 Though in a way that transcends 1713 01:26:09,320 --> 01:26:11,990 the ordinary physiology of eyesight. 1714 01:26:11,990 --> 01:26:14,360 Edwards is cage here. 1715 01:26:14,360 --> 01:26:17,315 He says that the spiritual and divine light 1716 01:26:17,315 --> 01:26:19,715 does not consist in any impression made 1717 01:26:19,715 --> 01:26:22,340 upon the imagination or 1718 01:26:22,340 --> 01:26:25,670 is anything seen with the bodily eyes. 1719 01:26:25,670 --> 01:26:30,455 Palamas emphasizes the objective existence 1720 01:26:30,455 --> 01:26:33,785 of the turmeric light which the Saint beholds. 1721 01:26:33,785 --> 01:26:39,800 Whereas Edwards accentuates the subjective transformation 1722 01:26:39,800 --> 01:26:43,955 by which the saint is enabled to sense God's excellency. 1723 01:26:43,955 --> 01:26:46,670 But these are finally differences in 1724 01:26:46,670 --> 01:26:49,250 emphasis and tone for each can 1725 01:26:49,250 --> 01:26:55,860 assert that the truth emphasized by the other. 1726 01:26:56,870 --> 01:27:01,890 The two finally, I think assert that 1727 01:27:01,890 --> 01:27:08,895 despite that God is visible in an important way. 1728 01:27:08,895 --> 01:27:11,490 Despite their different theological idioms, 1729 01:27:11,490 --> 01:27:13,740 they share the conviction that although 1730 01:27:13,740 --> 01:27:17,085 God's essence infinitely transcends human knowing, 1731 01:27:17,085 --> 01:27:19,290 God's glory can in some sense be 1732 01:27:19,290 --> 01:27:21,390 seen by the saints and that 1733 01:27:21,390 --> 01:27:23,790 the actual vision of this glory draws those 1734 01:27:23,790 --> 01:27:27,400 who behold it into union with God. 1735 01:27:27,470 --> 01:27:30,990 Second, both theologians insist that 1736 01:27:30,990 --> 01:27:34,725 the experience of God is a result of divine grace, 1737 01:27:34,725 --> 01:27:37,170 not a byproduct of human effort. 1738 01:27:37,170 --> 01:27:40,230 Yet both insist that Christians must faithfully 1739 01:27:40,230 --> 01:27:44,025 practice the divinely appointed means of grace. 1740 01:27:44,025 --> 01:27:48,375 Here wide differences open up between them. 1741 01:27:48,375 --> 01:27:53,490 Palamas advocates the practice 1742 01:27:53,490 --> 01:27:57,270 of mental prayer and aesthetic discipline. 1743 01:27:57,270 --> 01:28:00,630 He does not claim that the vision of the Taboric Light is 1744 01:28:00,630 --> 01:28:04,515 a direct and automatic result of the Hesychast's labors. 1745 01:28:04,515 --> 01:28:06,930 But he does say that through 1746 01:28:06,930 --> 01:28:09,330 the practice of discipline and prayer, 1747 01:28:09,330 --> 01:28:13,545 the saint becomes worthy of the site of the divine light. 1748 01:28:13,545 --> 01:28:15,509 Edwards, as a Calvinist, 1749 01:28:15,509 --> 01:28:17,385 can say no such thing. 1750 01:28:17,385 --> 01:28:19,589 No one is ever worthy 1751 01:28:19,589 --> 01:28:23,160 of God's self-revelation to himself. 1752 01:28:23,160 --> 01:28:27,915 Edwards does however insist and in his pastoral practice 1753 01:28:27,915 --> 01:28:32,640 emphasized the importance of the pious routines. 1754 01:28:32,640 --> 01:28:35,610 He made good use of 1755 01:28:35,610 --> 01:28:39,315 the new trends in hymnity that were coming from England, 1756 01:28:39,315 --> 01:28:41,760 through Philip Doddridge and Isaac Watts. 1757 01:28:41,760 --> 01:28:44,205 He emphasized small group ministries. 1758 01:28:44,205 --> 01:28:49,665 He emphasized private prayer and scripture study, 1759 01:28:49,665 --> 01:28:52,005 and he certainly emphasized the importance 1760 01:28:52,005 --> 01:28:54,480 of Christian conferencing, 1761 01:28:54,480 --> 01:28:55,950 as Wesleyan's would call it, 1762 01:28:55,950 --> 01:28:59,265 regular conversation about one's personal spiritual life 1763 01:28:59,265 --> 01:29:02,850 with one's pastor and with other Christians. 1764 01:29:02,850 --> 01:29:07,950 Although Edwards will not broke any talk 1765 01:29:07,950 --> 01:29:09,135 that would seem like 1766 01:29:09,135 --> 01:29:12,735 self-salvation or self-induced state of salvation, 1767 01:29:12,735 --> 01:29:14,460 he too emphasizes in 1768 01:29:14,460 --> 01:29:17,790 his own way the importance of the practice of 1769 01:29:17,790 --> 01:29:20,550 spiritual disciplines in preparation 1770 01:29:20,550 --> 01:29:24,700 for one site of the divine. 1771 01:29:25,370 --> 01:29:30,090 I will omit one last discussion for 1772 01:29:30,090 --> 01:29:34,470 time sake and simply move to the conclusion. 1773 01:29:34,470 --> 01:29:36,450 From what we have seen, 1774 01:29:36,450 --> 01:29:38,430 there is good reason to agree with 1775 01:29:38,430 --> 01:29:40,530 father Glitzen's observation, 1776 01:29:40,530 --> 01:29:42,555 that in their deep structures, 1777 01:29:42,555 --> 01:29:44,610 the Edwardian and Palamite 1778 01:29:44,610 --> 01:29:48,990 theologies demonstrate remarkable similarities. 1779 01:29:48,990 --> 01:29:51,870 This isn't to minimize the wide differences in 1780 01:29:51,870 --> 01:29:55,185 the religious ethos of the churches they represented. 1781 01:29:55,185 --> 01:29:59,400 From what little Edward says about the Greek church, 1782 01:29:59,400 --> 01:30:01,140 we may presume that he, 1783 01:30:01,140 --> 01:30:03,270 like most colonial Puritans, 1784 01:30:03,270 --> 01:30:04,620 would have been hostile to 1785 01:30:04,620 --> 01:30:08,430 its episcopal polity, its monastic system, 1786 01:30:08,430 --> 01:30:11,640 many of its ceremonial and liturgical practices, 1787 01:30:11,640 --> 01:30:14,085 and its lavish use of icons, 1788 01:30:14,085 --> 01:30:16,800 incense, and holy relics. 1789 01:30:16,800 --> 01:30:18,960 Conversely, one suspects that 1790 01:30:18,960 --> 01:30:22,815 Palamas would have disliked both the plainness of 1791 01:30:22,815 --> 01:30:26,010 colonial American church architecture 1792 01:30:26,010 --> 01:30:27,870 and the sensationalism of 1793 01:30:27,870 --> 01:30:30,550 revivalists preaching and worship. 1794 01:30:30,770 --> 01:30:34,065 Despite their very different social worlds 1795 01:30:34,065 --> 01:30:36,285 and ecclesial settings, 1796 01:30:36,285 --> 01:30:39,570 it is striking how similarly Edwards and 1797 01:30:39,570 --> 01:30:42,930 Palamas render the Christian experience of God. 1798 01:30:42,930 --> 01:30:50,115 Both insisted that to know God is to enjoy God, 1799 01:30:50,115 --> 01:30:52,830 to delight in God, 1800 01:30:52,830 --> 01:30:58,180 to marvel at God's indescribable beauty. 1801 01:30:58,550 --> 01:31:01,920 But in emphasizing the aesthetic element 1802 01:31:01,920 --> 01:31:03,570 of Christian faith, 1803 01:31:03,570 --> 01:31:08,880 neither was misled into equating beauty with holiness, 1804 01:31:08,880 --> 01:31:12,015 for not all earthly beauty 1805 01:31:12,015 --> 01:31:15,510 or the pleasure we take in it is holy. 1806 01:31:15,510 --> 01:31:21,255 Conversely, the ultimate revelation of divine holiness is 1807 01:31:21,255 --> 01:31:24,105 a picture of unspeakable ugliness 1808 01:31:24,105 --> 01:31:27,045 from a purely human's point of view. 1809 01:31:27,045 --> 01:31:31,320 The Son of God hanging in shame before the world. 1810 01:31:31,320 --> 01:31:34,950 That I think by the way is the real merit of 1811 01:31:34,950 --> 01:31:38,640 the recent Mel Gibson film. 1812 01:31:38,640 --> 01:31:45,165 He shows the beauty of the ugliness of Christ sacrifice. 1813 01:31:45,165 --> 01:31:46,815 Isaiah put it this way. 1814 01:31:46,815 --> 01:31:50,730 He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. 1815 01:31:50,730 --> 01:31:55,450 Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 1816 01:31:55,450 --> 01:31:59,520 He's one from whom we hide our faces. 1817 01:31:59,530 --> 01:32:03,080 Now, the particular kind of beauty that Christ 1818 01:32:03,080 --> 01:32:06,775 embodies is the beauty of self-sacrificial love, 1819 01:32:06,775 --> 01:32:10,125 which is to say, a moral beauty, 1820 01:32:10,125 --> 01:32:14,940 the radiant beauty of dutiful obedience. 1821 01:32:14,940 --> 01:32:18,450 Christ crucifixion stands between 1822 01:32:18,450 --> 01:32:23,630 his transfiguration and his resurrection and ascension 1823 01:32:23,630 --> 01:32:25,790 precisely as the sign of 1824 01:32:25,790 --> 01:32:29,575 the ethically transfiguring effect upon the believer 1825 01:32:29,575 --> 01:32:32,460 that a lifetime of cross bearing must 1826 01:32:32,460 --> 01:32:37,630 affect upon those who are destined for heavenly glory. 1827 01:32:37,760 --> 01:32:41,580 That said, the theologies of Edwards and Palamas 1828 01:32:41,580 --> 01:32:44,445 are finally theologies of glory, 1829 01:32:44,445 --> 01:32:47,985 not like Luther's theology of the cross. 1830 01:32:47,985 --> 01:32:54,060 Edwards and Palamas accentuate not the agony of service, 1831 01:32:54,060 --> 01:32:57,870 but the ecstasy of adoration. 1832 01:32:57,870 --> 01:33:00,660 They emphasized how the triune God in 1833 01:33:00,660 --> 01:33:04,545 his external self-expression irradiates 1834 01:33:04,545 --> 01:33:08,235 all creation with glorious light. 1835 01:33:08,235 --> 01:33:13,215 Graciously enables us, his worshipers, 1836 01:33:13,215 --> 01:33:17,400 to behold that light and so draws 1837 01:33:17,400 --> 01:33:22,875 us into eternal participation in his own nature. 1838 01:33:22,875 --> 01:33:26,010 They affirm with the Psalmist 1839 01:33:26,010 --> 01:33:30,735 that in God's light, we see light. 1840 01:33:30,735 --> 01:33:34,755 They add that in seeing, 1841 01:33:34,755 --> 01:33:37,530 we ourselves become light. 1842 01:33:37,530 --> 01:33:56,100 Thank you. 1843 01:33:56,100 --> 01:33:58,125 Response to the lecture tonight will be 1844 01:33:58,125 --> 01:34:01,035 given by Father Jonah Paffhausen, 1845 01:34:01,035 --> 01:34:02,580 who earned a BA in 1846 01:34:02,580 --> 01:34:04,889 Anthropology at the University of California, 1847 01:34:04,889 --> 01:34:06,660 Santa Cruz before embarking on 1848 01:34:06,660 --> 01:34:09,075 his graduate work at Saint Vladimir's. 1849 01:34:09,075 --> 01:34:11,550 He has a rich diversity of activities, 1850 01:34:11,550 --> 01:34:13,260 including several years spent 1851 01:34:13,260 --> 01:34:15,690 working in banking and finance, 1852 01:34:15,690 --> 01:34:18,210 as well as serving as a novice at 1853 01:34:18,210 --> 01:34:22,695 the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration in Russia. 1854 01:34:22,695 --> 01:34:25,050 He's the founder, abbott, 1855 01:34:25,050 --> 01:34:27,480 and spiritual father of the monastery of 1856 01:34:27,480 --> 01:34:30,225 St. John of Shanghai in California, 1857 01:34:30,225 --> 01:34:32,040 which is near the Bay Area. 1858 01:34:32,040 --> 01:34:33,750 Father Jonah, we welcome you. 1859 01:34:33,750 --> 01:34:53,590 A wired monk. 1860 01:34:53,590 --> 01:34:59,950 I'm profoundly grateful 1861 01:34:59,950 --> 01:35:01,390 for the opportunity to be here. 1862 01:35:01,390 --> 01:35:03,190 It's a wonderful friendship that 1863 01:35:03,190 --> 01:35:06,490 I've come to enjoy with Dr. Steele and 1864 01:35:06,490 --> 01:35:09,880 profoundly grateful for that opportunity and 1865 01:35:09,880 --> 01:35:13,390 have tremendous respect for 1866 01:35:13,390 --> 01:35:16,225 Seattle Pacific and the work that you're doing here. 1867 01:35:16,225 --> 01:35:17,710 Every time I come, 1868 01:35:17,710 --> 01:35:20,020 I'm profoundly edified and 1869 01:35:20,020 --> 01:35:22,940 give thanks to God for the work that you do. 1870 01:35:30,740 --> 01:35:33,570 Saint Gregory Palamas and 1871 01:35:33,570 --> 01:35:34,980 Jonathan Edwards do indeed 1872 01:35:34,980 --> 01:35:36,510 share elements of a common vision, 1873 01:35:36,510 --> 01:35:39,270 otherwise, they could not have written what they did. 1874 01:35:39,270 --> 01:35:41,670 I feel there's no real need to give 1875 01:35:41,670 --> 01:35:44,285 a point-by-point critique of the lecture, 1876 01:35:44,285 --> 01:35:45,940 which is right on. 1877 01:35:45,940 --> 01:35:52,040 As many of these issues were addressed. 1878 01:35:52,950 --> 01:35:55,900 Well, but many of the issues 1879 01:35:55,900 --> 01:35:58,180 will be addressed in this response. 1880 01:35:58,180 --> 01:35:59,890 What I'm going to do is essentially 1881 01:35:59,890 --> 01:36:01,120 go through and pick up 1882 01:36:01,120 --> 01:36:05,695 points from each of these writers, 1883 01:36:05,695 --> 01:36:10,780 put into the context of an explanation of 1884 01:36:10,780 --> 01:36:12,565 a bit more of 1885 01:36:12,565 --> 01:36:18,080 a deeper explanation of hazy casts theology. 1886 01:36:21,120 --> 01:36:23,320 There's a quote I would like you to 1887 01:36:23,320 --> 01:36:25,735 keep in mind from Dostoevsky, 1888 01:36:25,735 --> 01:36:29,690 "We are saved by beauty." 1889 01:36:31,020 --> 01:36:34,960 The core question it seems to me is, 1890 01:36:34,960 --> 01:36:36,100 how do we understand 1891 01:36:36,100 --> 01:36:38,695 the reality of our experience of God? 1892 01:36:38,695 --> 01:36:42,490 What effect does it have on our souls? 1893 01:36:42,490 --> 01:36:45,610 This question underlies the entire battle of 1894 01:36:45,610 --> 01:36:49,195 Saint Gregory Palamas in his defensive Hesychasm, 1895 01:36:49,195 --> 01:36:52,375 and the dogma of the uncreated energies, 1896 01:36:52,375 --> 01:36:55,420 as well as Jonathan Edwards' concept of the vision of 1897 01:36:55,420 --> 01:36:59,240 God's beauty, excellency and light. 1898 01:36:59,370 --> 01:37:03,580 Of course, being an Orthodox 1899 01:37:03,580 --> 01:37:05,830 I can speak much better to St. Gregory's 1900 01:37:05,830 --> 01:37:07,450 vision and 1901 01:37:07,450 --> 01:37:11,530 the spiritual and intellectual and monastic context 1902 01:37:11,530 --> 01:37:12,865 in which he was working. 1903 01:37:12,865 --> 01:37:14,950 Saint Gregory, aside from being one of 1904 01:37:14,950 --> 01:37:16,720 the greatest monastic fathers of 1905 01:37:16,720 --> 01:37:18,775 the late Byzantine Empire, 1906 01:37:18,775 --> 01:37:22,450 was also the final synthesist and 1907 01:37:22,450 --> 01:37:24,670 the greatest synthesist of the 1908 01:37:24,670 --> 01:37:29,150 whole 1,000-year history of Byzantine theology. 1909 01:37:29,250 --> 01:37:34,240 Taking and developing aspects of that theology, 1910 01:37:34,240 --> 01:37:36,460 in particular, the divine energies. 1911 01:37:36,460 --> 01:37:38,860 Of course, the divine energies were also 1912 01:37:38,860 --> 01:37:43,100 the central issue of the sixth-decade Medical Council. 1913 01:37:44,490 --> 01:37:46,840 For Saint Gregory, 1914 01:37:46,840 --> 01:37:49,150 and talking about monastic life, 1915 01:37:49,150 --> 01:37:51,790 the purpose of monastic life and the practice of 1916 01:37:51,790 --> 01:37:56,065 Hesychasm is to actualize our salvation. 1917 01:37:56,065 --> 01:37:58,900 To attain to deification and 1918 01:37:58,900 --> 01:38:00,160 the conscious awareness of 1919 01:38:00,160 --> 01:38:03,670 God's presence, His paver seer. 1920 01:38:03,670 --> 01:38:06,340 The experience of uncreated light 1921 01:38:06,340 --> 01:38:08,410 is an aspect of this awareness. 1922 01:38:08,410 --> 01:38:13,285 It was prefigured to the Apostles at the Transfiguration. 1923 01:38:13,285 --> 01:38:16,150 The experience of uncreated light is also 1924 01:38:16,150 --> 01:38:18,910 an anti-type of the experience 1925 01:38:18,910 --> 01:38:21,385 of the resurrected life of the eschaton, 1926 01:38:21,385 --> 01:38:23,500 and thus it is prophetic. 1927 01:38:23,500 --> 01:38:27,505 Monasticism takes its ultimate prophetic vocation 1928 01:38:27,505 --> 01:38:31,810 from that eschatological experience and vision. 1929 01:38:31,810 --> 01:38:34,344 The state of the saved soul, 1930 01:38:34,344 --> 01:38:37,120 the enlightened noetic consciousness, 1931 01:38:37,120 --> 01:38:40,015 the deified human person, 1932 01:38:40,015 --> 01:38:43,690 is the current participation in this mystery 1933 01:38:43,690 --> 01:38:47,500 or sacrament of salvation into 1934 01:38:47,500 --> 01:38:52,870 which a Christian matures so that we become partakers of 1935 01:38:52,870 --> 01:38:55,525 the divine nature and grow to 1936 01:38:55,525 --> 01:38:57,370 a mature man to the measure of 1937 01:38:57,370 --> 01:39:00,040 the stature of the fullness of Christ. 1938 01:39:00,040 --> 01:39:03,160 The monastic life and the practice of Hesychasm 1939 01:39:03,160 --> 01:39:05,980 are the means of attaining to the sanctification, 1940 01:39:05,980 --> 01:39:10,310 and fulfillment of the possibilities of Christian life, 1941 01:39:10,410 --> 01:39:13,420 within the Orthodox context. 1942 01:39:13,420 --> 01:39:15,220 The Lord said to all, 1943 01:39:15,220 --> 01:39:18,715 "If you wish to be saved, keep the commandments." 1944 01:39:18,715 --> 01:39:20,470 But he said to the rich young man, 1945 01:39:20,470 --> 01:39:22,850 "If you wish to be perfect, 1946 01:39:22,850 --> 01:39:25,320 go sell all you have and give to the 1947 01:39:25,320 --> 01:39:28,230 poor and come and follow me." 1948 01:39:28,230 --> 01:39:32,730 Monasticism is the Christian way of perfection, 1949 01:39:32,730 --> 01:39:34,349 in which we actualize 1950 01:39:34,349 --> 01:39:36,480 our salvation through ascetic discipline. 1951 01:39:36,480 --> 01:39:38,700 The way of self-denial in the cross, 1952 01:39:38,700 --> 01:39:41,460 which leads us to the enlightenment of our soul and 1953 01:39:41,460 --> 01:39:44,930 the deification of our whole being, body and soul. 1954 01:39:44,930 --> 01:39:47,830 This can also be done by married people in the world, 1955 01:39:47,830 --> 01:39:49,420 but the necessary intensity of 1956 01:39:49,420 --> 01:39:53,065 focus in the world is very hard to maintain. 1957 01:39:53,065 --> 01:39:57,370 Thus it has been traditionally relegated to monasticism. 1958 01:39:57,370 --> 01:40:00,550 When a person begins to lead a spiritual life, 1959 01:40:00,550 --> 01:40:02,200 desiring God with all his heart 1960 01:40:02,200 --> 01:40:04,090 and wanting a life of repentance, 1961 01:40:04,090 --> 01:40:07,705 repentance means transformation of heart, 1962 01:40:07,705 --> 01:40:09,610 not feeling sorry about your sins. 1963 01:40:09,610 --> 01:40:12,680 It means transformation of heart, Metania. 1964 01:40:14,490 --> 01:40:17,830 He first started it goes the process of 1965 01:40:17,830 --> 01:40:22,390 purification leading to illumination. 1966 01:40:22,390 --> 01:40:25,780 These are phases not stages in the spiritual life and 1967 01:40:25,780 --> 01:40:29,425 the whole journey is the process of deification. 1968 01:40:29,425 --> 01:40:32,410 This presumes a spiritual awakening, 1969 01:40:32,410 --> 01:40:34,330 which means that a person has 1970 01:40:34,330 --> 01:40:36,505 become consciously aware of God, 1971 01:40:36,505 --> 01:40:38,230 and that God is calling him or 1972 01:40:38,230 --> 01:40:40,855 her to a life of total commitment. 1973 01:40:40,855 --> 01:40:43,630 At this point, it is not uncommon for 1974 01:40:43,630 --> 01:40:46,450 a person to have a profound experience of God. 1975 01:40:46,450 --> 01:40:48,130 The illumination of grace, 1976 01:40:48,130 --> 01:40:50,770 cutting through all the darkness of sin and the passions, 1977 01:40:50,770 --> 01:40:52,060 and imparting to him or 1978 01:40:52,060 --> 01:40:54,130 her the awareness of God's existence, 1979 01:40:54,130 --> 01:40:57,010 holiness, beauty, and excellency. 1980 01:40:57,010 --> 01:40:59,770 This experiences spiritual birth or 1981 01:40:59,770 --> 01:41:02,304 enlightenment changes one forever. 1982 01:41:02,304 --> 01:41:06,430 It is always a call by God to a deeper spiritual life, 1983 01:41:06,430 --> 01:41:10,490 and perhaps to a ministry of monastic renunciation. 1984 01:41:10,710 --> 01:41:14,410 This moment of illumination is very powerful, 1985 01:41:14,410 --> 01:41:17,125 but the sense of it can be denied and lost. 1986 01:41:17,125 --> 01:41:19,840 There's a wonderful account by Saint Simeon, 1987 01:41:19,840 --> 01:41:21,010 the New theologian who was 1988 01:41:21,010 --> 01:41:26,800 an 11th century Father of the Church. 1989 01:41:26,800 --> 01:41:29,035 This is the beginning, 1990 01:41:29,035 --> 01:41:30,490 and it seems that this is 1991 01:41:30,490 --> 01:41:34,460 one aspect of what Edwards was speaking of. 1992 01:41:34,560 --> 01:41:37,270 What he was trying to instill 1993 01:41:37,270 --> 01:41:40,910 in those who came to that revival. 1994 01:41:40,920 --> 01:41:45,415 Not only by preparing the ground, 1995 01:41:45,415 --> 01:41:49,615 but in order for people to experience 1996 01:41:49,615 --> 01:41:55,160 that initial spark at the divine energy. 1997 01:41:57,030 --> 01:42:04,010 It brings one from an objective relationship to a deity, 1998 01:42:04,140 --> 01:42:07,600 to an experience of God as person, 1999 01:42:07,600 --> 01:42:11,020 in a relationship of communion. 2000 01:42:11,020 --> 01:42:14,750 It's the beginning of transformation. 2001 01:42:16,170 --> 01:42:20,120 Then comes the process of self-denial, 2002 01:42:20,120 --> 01:42:23,250 the cross, the purification of the soul, 2003 01:42:23,250 --> 01:42:25,380 in which the grace of the Holy Spirit, 2004 01:42:25,380 --> 01:42:27,435 which is the energy of God, 2005 01:42:27,435 --> 01:42:29,430 begins to act on the soul to 2006 01:42:29,430 --> 01:42:32,640 expose and burn away all that resists God. 2007 01:42:32,640 --> 01:42:34,920 This not only includes the passions, 2008 01:42:34,920 --> 01:42:36,510 which are those areas of our life that 2009 01:42:36,510 --> 01:42:38,220 are out of control and 2010 01:42:38,220 --> 01:42:41,925 thus are passively experienced reactions, 2011 01:42:41,925 --> 01:42:45,129 but also the ego itself, 2012 01:42:45,129 --> 01:42:46,480 the old man or 2013 01:42:46,480 --> 01:42:49,240 the carnal or/and natural and psychic man 2014 01:42:49,240 --> 01:42:51,220 in the terminology of Saint Paul. 2015 01:42:51,220 --> 01:42:53,215 Thus, there is a fundamental 2016 01:42:53,215 --> 01:42:56,560 psychological and identity transformation 2017 01:42:56,560 --> 01:42:58,000 in a person as he or she 2018 01:42:58,000 --> 01:43:01,390 begins to live a serious spiritual life. 2019 01:43:01,390 --> 01:43:04,090 The old self conceptualizations, 2020 01:43:04,090 --> 01:43:06,670 egocentrism and self-centeredness are 2021 01:43:06,670 --> 01:43:08,545 exposed to what they are, 2022 01:43:08,545 --> 01:43:12,280 corruption, and the various activities, 2023 01:43:12,280 --> 01:43:15,535 energies of the soul and body are brought under 2024 01:43:15,535 --> 01:43:19,790 conscious control into subjection to the will. 2025 01:43:19,920 --> 01:43:21,985 At the same time, 2026 01:43:21,985 --> 01:43:24,775 the more one strives for repentance metanoia, 2027 01:43:24,775 --> 01:43:27,505 the transformation of the news 2028 01:43:27,505 --> 01:43:31,000 and brings one's soul and body into subjection, 2029 01:43:31,000 --> 01:43:33,010 the more one opens oneself 2030 01:43:33,010 --> 01:43:35,485 to the grace of God, the divine energy. 2031 01:43:35,485 --> 01:43:38,080 The divine energy is the will of God, 2032 01:43:38,080 --> 01:43:40,180 the activity of God ultimately, 2033 01:43:40,180 --> 01:43:43,340 his ultimate energy is his love. 2034 01:43:45,990 --> 01:43:50,155 Alive and indemnify the spirit and the news. 2035 01:43:50,155 --> 01:43:52,210 The news is the heart of our being, 2036 01:43:52,210 --> 01:43:53,800 the organ which was created in 2037 01:43:53,800 --> 01:43:56,140 us for the perception of God, 2038 01:43:56,140 --> 01:43:57,880 but was subjected to 2039 01:43:57,880 --> 01:44:00,865 the rational power of the soul by the fall, 2040 01:44:00,865 --> 01:44:03,175 thus darkening it's awareness, 2041 01:44:03,175 --> 01:44:05,140 and focusing it's attention on 2042 01:44:05,140 --> 01:44:07,690 the senses and their gratification, 2043 01:44:07,690 --> 01:44:10,885 rather than on God and His will. 2044 01:44:10,885 --> 01:44:15,490 The illumination of the news means that it's 2045 01:44:15,490 --> 01:44:20,590 faculty of attention is again focused on God, 2046 01:44:20,590 --> 01:44:24,415 and it begins to perceive the will of God. 2047 01:44:24,415 --> 01:44:27,055 The more of the soul is enlightened, 2048 01:44:27,055 --> 01:44:28,900 the more strength it has to bring 2049 01:44:28,900 --> 01:44:31,090 it's faculties under control, 2050 01:44:31,090 --> 01:44:32,785 and the more the person 2051 01:44:32,785 --> 01:44:36,995 becomes authentically him or herself. 2052 01:44:36,995 --> 01:44:40,650 This process of healing of the soul is 2053 01:44:40,650 --> 01:44:44,460 the core of what purification and illumination means. 2054 01:44:44,460 --> 01:44:47,160 It does not mean to obliterate the ego, 2055 01:44:47,160 --> 01:44:49,395 but rather to integrate it, 2056 01:44:49,395 --> 01:44:51,300 and to reorder the whole 2057 01:44:51,300 --> 01:44:53,295 internal structure of the person, 2058 01:44:53,295 --> 01:44:55,470 will, awareness, 2059 01:44:55,470 --> 01:44:58,450 and the use of all our faculties. 2060 01:44:58,650 --> 01:45:00,850 First among these, 2061 01:45:00,850 --> 01:45:06,235 is the relationship of the news to our rational mind. 2062 01:45:06,235 --> 01:45:08,560 In our culture, we exalt 2063 01:45:08,560 --> 01:45:12,595 reason since the so-called enlightenment, 2064 01:45:12,595 --> 01:45:16,750 Orthodox take a rather dim view of that terminology, 2065 01:45:16,750 --> 01:45:20,545 especially rationalism and individualism 2066 01:45:20,545 --> 01:45:23,485 have completely transformed our culture. 2067 01:45:23,485 --> 01:45:25,885 It has reduced human persons into 2068 01:45:25,885 --> 01:45:30,355 autonomous individuals in pursuit of so-called happiness, 2069 01:45:30,355 --> 01:45:33,910 which usually means the gratification of the passions 2070 01:45:33,910 --> 01:45:39,055 and a freedom devoid of any criterion of truth. 2071 01:45:39,055 --> 01:45:43,310 No wonder our culture is in the mess that it is today. 2072 01:45:43,740 --> 01:45:46,660 This is for us, Orthodox, 2073 01:45:46,660 --> 01:45:48,820 the very essence of what it means to be 2074 01:45:48,820 --> 01:45:54,580 fallen and lost in profound immaturity. 2075 01:45:54,580 --> 01:45:59,785 It creates individuals either blind to God or apathetic, 2076 01:45:59,785 --> 01:46:01,870 in the cultural sense of the word 2077 01:46:01,870 --> 01:46:04,495 apathetic and not apatheia. 2078 01:46:04,495 --> 01:46:08,530 The task of Christian spirituality is to 2079 01:46:08,530 --> 01:46:14,020 destroy autonomous individualism and to empower 2080 01:46:14,020 --> 01:46:16,390 people by grace to grow into 2081 01:46:16,390 --> 01:46:19,720 persons in communion with God and with one 2082 01:46:19,720 --> 01:46:22,480 another in a unity of vision of 2083 01:46:22,480 --> 01:46:27,550 the truth who is the person Jesus Christ. 2084 01:46:27,550 --> 01:46:30,100 I believe Jonathan Edwards 2085 01:46:30,100 --> 01:46:32,440 would agree wholeheartedly with this. 2086 01:46:32,440 --> 01:46:34,390 He also fought against 2087 01:46:34,390 --> 01:46:38,210 enlightenment rationalist reductionism. 2088 01:46:39,030 --> 01:46:44,440 The point of purification and illumination is to remove 2089 01:46:44,440 --> 01:46:45,730 all obstacles to 2090 01:46:45,730 --> 01:46:50,035 the constant conscious awareness of God, 2091 01:46:50,035 --> 01:46:53,245 again, the words of Saint Simeon, 2092 01:46:53,245 --> 01:46:56,080 and to harmonize our will and 2093 01:46:56,080 --> 01:46:59,335 our actions with God's will and actions. 2094 01:46:59,335 --> 01:47:02,770 It means to integrate our consciousness 2095 01:47:02,770 --> 01:47:06,575 and identity by that awareness. 2096 01:47:06,575 --> 01:47:10,575 This is already the phase of deification, 2097 01:47:10,575 --> 01:47:13,530 the permeation of our whole being, 2098 01:47:13,530 --> 01:47:16,980 body, soul, will, news, 2099 01:47:16,980 --> 01:47:19,620 heart by God's grace and it's 2100 01:47:19,620 --> 01:47:25,880 sanctification and synergizing with the divine energies. 2101 01:47:26,790 --> 01:47:30,970 Hesychas prayer is an aspect 2102 01:47:30,970 --> 01:47:34,464 of the context in which this occurs. 2103 01:47:34,464 --> 01:47:37,795 It is not simply the practice of the Jesus prayer, 2104 01:47:37,795 --> 01:47:40,270 though this is certainly a part of it. 2105 01:47:40,270 --> 01:47:43,915 Hesychasm is the practice of noetic prayer, 2106 01:47:43,915 --> 01:47:51,730 the focus or attention 2107 01:47:51,730 --> 01:47:53,290 of the news on 2108 01:47:53,290 --> 01:47:57,520 God's presence and the disregard of all. 2109 01:47:57,520 --> 01:48:00,430 logismoi, means thoughts, 2110 01:48:00,430 --> 01:48:01,945 but it means thoughts, 2111 01:48:01,945 --> 01:48:08,690 emotions, feelings, concepts, and so forth, images. 2112 01:48:09,840 --> 01:48:12,040 It is a battle to keep 2113 01:48:12,040 --> 01:48:15,880 one's attention completely focused. 2114 01:48:15,880 --> 01:48:19,460 The thoughts come ceaselessly. 2115 01:48:20,070 --> 01:48:23,440 All of us who have tried to 2116 01:48:23,440 --> 01:48:25,570 pray contemplatively will know 2117 01:48:25,570 --> 01:48:27,910 about this battle with thoughts. 2118 01:48:27,910 --> 01:48:33,415 This is the meaning ultimately of self-denial, 2119 01:48:33,415 --> 01:48:36,860 to cut off one's thoughts. 2120 01:48:37,530 --> 01:48:39,790 The real battle against 2121 01:48:39,790 --> 01:48:42,655 the passions is the battle against thoughts, 2122 01:48:42,655 --> 01:48:45,520 which are at the root of all actions. 2123 01:48:45,520 --> 01:48:47,680 The Jesus Prayer is used as 2124 01:48:47,680 --> 01:48:50,875 a means to keep the rational mind occupied, 2125 01:48:50,875 --> 01:48:53,560 which is the realm of conceptual thought, 2126 01:48:53,560 --> 01:48:57,805 while the noetic consciousness focuses on God, 2127 01:48:57,805 --> 01:49:00,380 which is pure prayer. 2128 01:49:00,930 --> 01:49:05,695 Eventually, with significant, that is, 2129 01:49:05,695 --> 01:49:07,870 years of practice, 2130 01:49:07,870 --> 01:49:10,030 the attention can become so 2131 01:49:10,030 --> 01:49:13,570 focused that even the Jesus Prayer itself drops 2132 01:49:13,570 --> 01:49:17,110 away and one can become totally immersed in 2133 01:49:17,110 --> 01:49:21,770 God in pure stillness or hesychia. 2134 01:49:22,020 --> 01:49:24,250 The deeper one goes, 2135 01:49:24,250 --> 01:49:26,260 the more profoundly God works in the soul, 2136 01:49:26,260 --> 01:49:28,660 burning away all that resists his will 2137 01:49:28,660 --> 01:49:32,095 and activity at illumining the news. 2138 01:49:32,095 --> 01:49:36,100 This purification and illumination is 2139 01:49:36,100 --> 01:49:40,105 proportional to the activity of grace, 2140 01:49:40,105 --> 01:49:42,235 not our own efforts, 2141 01:49:42,235 --> 01:49:47,605 other than to be willing to cooperate with God, 2142 01:49:47,605 --> 01:49:50,019 to submit to His will, 2143 01:49:50,019 --> 01:49:54,590 and to let go of our passions and the old man. 2144 01:49:56,310 --> 01:49:59,125 It's not about works. 2145 01:49:59,125 --> 01:50:02,080 It is only here that we can 2146 01:50:02,080 --> 01:50:06,050 begin to speak of the mystical vision of light. 2147 01:50:06,450 --> 01:50:09,655 Mystery for Orthodox does not 2148 01:50:09,655 --> 01:50:13,090 implies some hazy psychic phenomenon, 2149 01:50:13,090 --> 01:50:16,735 rather it means sacrament. 2150 01:50:16,735 --> 01:50:21,055 Authentic mysticism is sacramental. 2151 01:50:21,055 --> 01:50:24,310 That is, it is an anti-type and 2152 01:50:24,310 --> 01:50:28,960 participation in the reality of the new creation. 2153 01:50:28,960 --> 01:50:33,049 It is an eschatological reality. 2154 01:50:33,390 --> 01:50:36,610 Edwards saw this also. 2155 01:50:36,610 --> 01:50:42,475 As Vladimir Lossky, 2156 01:50:42,475 --> 01:50:48,050 all truth theology is necessarily mystical theology. 2157 01:50:48,210 --> 01:50:51,640 The vision of light is 2158 01:50:51,640 --> 01:50:56,440 an aspect of the illumination of the news by grace. 2159 01:50:56,440 --> 01:50:59,380 Enlightenment implies two things. 2160 01:50:59,380 --> 01:51:05,275 First, complete self-control or apatheia and second, 2161 01:51:05,275 --> 01:51:08,830 the interpenetration of the soul 2162 01:51:08,830 --> 01:51:11,965 and body of the Christian by grace, 2163 01:51:11,965 --> 01:51:15,250 which is the uncreated divine energy. 2164 01:51:15,250 --> 01:51:17,980 As the darkness of the passions, 2165 01:51:17,980 --> 01:51:19,885 the darkness of self-centeredness, 2166 01:51:19,885 --> 01:51:21,280 and the imprisonment of 2167 01:51:21,280 --> 01:51:24,640 the true self by the ego are cleared away, 2168 01:51:24,640 --> 01:51:26,860 the soul becomes more and more 2169 01:51:26,860 --> 01:51:29,725 enlightened and filled with God's grace. 2170 01:51:29,725 --> 01:51:31,360 This is the mystery of 2171 01:51:31,360 --> 01:51:34,180 our transformation which begins now, 2172 01:51:34,180 --> 01:51:36,205 but it's fulfilled at the Second Coming 2173 01:51:36,205 --> 01:51:38,890 when St. Paul says, 2174 01:51:38,890 --> 01:51:42,235 "We will be like him as he is. 2175 01:51:42,235 --> 01:51:45,745 The awareness becomes enlightened 2176 01:51:45,745 --> 01:51:49,495 and becomes consciously aware of God's presence. 2177 01:51:49,495 --> 01:51:53,020 The rational mind subjected to the news, 2178 01:51:53,020 --> 01:51:54,640 becomes aware of God, 2179 01:51:54,640 --> 01:51:58,520 and this becomes the dogmatic consciousness, 2180 01:51:58,860 --> 01:52:02,410 the knowledge of the truth. 2181 01:52:02,410 --> 01:52:05,020 The body becomes penetrated by 2182 01:52:05,020 --> 01:52:07,570 the divine energies and sanctified. 2183 01:52:07,570 --> 01:52:10,570 The news begins a new relationship with God, 2184 01:52:10,570 --> 01:52:13,690 not as subject to object, 2185 01:52:13,690 --> 01:52:17,695 but in a co-subjective awareness, 2186 01:52:17,695 --> 01:52:23,750 so that one does not see God in oneself, 2187 01:52:24,210 --> 01:52:29,240 but sees all things in God. 2188 01:52:30,210 --> 01:52:34,570 It's not seeing God 2189 01:52:34,570 --> 01:52:39,175 and seeing things in relation to God, 2190 01:52:39,175 --> 01:52:43,969 but it's in God seeing all things. 2191 01:52:46,320 --> 01:52:51,355 It is to actualize what St. Paul said, 2192 01:52:51,355 --> 01:52:54,190 "I no longer live, 2193 01:52:54,190 --> 01:52:58,220 but Christ lives in me." 2194 01:52:59,640 --> 01:53:03,880 Our prayer becomes the prayer of 2195 01:53:03,880 --> 01:53:10,070 the Holy Spirit within us into which we enter. 2196 01:53:12,300 --> 01:53:15,310 In the first phase of purification, 2197 01:53:15,310 --> 01:53:17,110 one is seldom aware of much, 2198 01:53:17,110 --> 01:53:18,460 but one's sinfulness, 2199 01:53:18,460 --> 01:53:20,725 brokenness, and the need for God. 2200 01:53:20,725 --> 01:53:24,020 Though sometimes grace does indeed breakthrough. 2201 01:53:24,300 --> 01:53:27,370 In the next phase of illumination, 2202 01:53:27,370 --> 01:53:30,220 what develops is in the terms of the Greek fathers, 2203 01:53:30,220 --> 01:53:35,335 natural contemplation. 2204 01:53:35,335 --> 01:53:40,225 This means to see the reason, 2205 01:53:40,225 --> 01:53:45,230 the divine word underlying each creature, 2206 01:53:45,540 --> 01:53:49,570 but it also means to be able to see 2207 01:53:49,570 --> 01:53:54,025 through the materiality of created being, 2208 01:53:54,025 --> 01:53:57,730 and to perceive them not simply with 2209 01:53:57,730 --> 01:54:01,570 our physical side and rational mind, 2210 01:54:01,570 --> 01:54:04,720 but to perceive them noetically, 2211 01:54:04,720 --> 01:54:07,760 to see them in God. 2212 01:54:08,490 --> 01:54:12,220 The gift of the vision of divine light is first and 2213 01:54:12,220 --> 01:54:17,810 foremost the perception of the illumination of the soul. 2214 01:54:18,390 --> 01:54:21,445 Not an objective vision, 2215 01:54:21,445 --> 01:54:25,880 but vision itself illuminated by grace. 2216 01:54:26,700 --> 01:54:30,860 The grace itself is the vision. 2217 01:54:31,200 --> 01:54:33,760 Saul also was the vision of 2218 01:54:33,760 --> 01:54:35,320 the transfiguration of Christ. 2219 01:54:35,320 --> 01:54:36,640 The apostles were enlightened by 2220 01:54:36,640 --> 01:54:41,800 Christ that they might see him as he is, 2221 01:54:41,800 --> 01:54:46,300 and perceive in this deified awareness, 2222 01:54:46,300 --> 01:54:49,450 both the illumination of their own hearts, 2223 01:54:49,450 --> 01:54:53,750 and the radiant divinity of the glorified Christ. 2224 01:54:55,710 --> 01:54:58,150 They perceive not simply 2225 01:54:58,150 --> 01:55:00,925 the man Jesus shining in the dark, 2226 01:55:00,925 --> 01:55:04,090 but rather the logos incarnate 2227 01:55:04,090 --> 01:55:07,280 illumined by the radians of the Holy Spirit. 2228 01:55:08,940 --> 01:55:12,385 The slide appears to be light, 2229 01:55:12,385 --> 01:55:15,730 but it is not physical objective light. 2230 01:55:15,730 --> 01:55:18,910 It is not a light visible to all, 2231 01:55:18,910 --> 01:55:22,000 only to those who see in the light, 2232 01:55:22,000 --> 01:55:26,395 by the light, as the light. 2233 01:55:26,395 --> 01:55:29,950 Beyond this, the most 2234 01:55:29,950 --> 01:55:33,980 perfect descend through contemplation, 2235 01:55:34,890 --> 01:55:39,340 Theologia, true theology. 2236 01:55:39,340 --> 01:55:42,250 This kind of theology has nothing to do 2237 01:55:42,250 --> 01:55:45,680 with what is taught in the classroom or read in a book. 2238 01:55:46,740 --> 01:55:49,990 Though hopefully, the words of 2239 01:55:49,990 --> 01:55:52,690 what's taught in the classroom and written in books 2240 01:55:52,690 --> 01:55:59,690 are founded in this vision of true theology. 2241 01:56:04,230 --> 01:56:07,975 Real theology is the experience, 2242 01:56:07,975 --> 01:56:14,155 the vision, the contemplation of the Trinity, 2243 01:56:14,155 --> 01:56:17,230 which means being caught up in 2244 01:56:17,230 --> 01:56:20,275 the relationship of the love of the father, 2245 01:56:20,275 --> 01:56:22,705 and the son, 2246 01:56:22,705 --> 01:56:26,140 by the Holy Spirit, by grace. 2247 01:56:26,140 --> 01:56:28,990 It means to be caught up into the inner life of 2248 01:56:28,990 --> 01:56:35,450 the Trinity and become by grace what Christ is by nature. 2249 01:56:36,000 --> 01:56:39,100 This is not an objective or subjective 2250 01:56:39,100 --> 01:56:42,700 experience that is reducible to rational categories. 2251 01:56:42,700 --> 01:56:45,490 Rather, it means that we transcend in 2252 01:56:45,490 --> 01:56:48,910 Christ the very dualism of 2253 01:56:48,910 --> 01:56:50,920 the fallen state of being 2254 01:56:50,920 --> 01:56:54,805 and enter into the unity which Christ promised us, 2255 01:56:54,805 --> 01:56:56,755 "I in them, 2256 01:56:56,755 --> 01:57:01,735 and thou in me, that we may be perfect in one." 2257 01:57:01,735 --> 01:57:05,454 This is also what is meant to be the body of Christ, 2258 01:57:05,454 --> 01:57:09,190 to have the mind of Christ, to be deified. 2259 01:57:09,190 --> 01:57:12,250 It is also what St. Paul means when he says, 2260 01:57:12,250 --> 01:57:14,440 "For it is the God who 2261 01:57:14,440 --> 01:57:17,440 commanded light to shine out of darkness, 2262 01:57:17,440 --> 01:57:20,890 who is shown in our hearts to give the light of 2263 01:57:20,890 --> 01:57:22,600 the knowledge of the glory of 2264 01:57:22,600 --> 01:57:26,480 God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2265 01:57:26,850 --> 01:57:29,830 The light of grace enables us 2266 01:57:29,830 --> 01:57:31,840 to recognize that Jesus is not 2267 01:57:31,840 --> 01:57:34,075 some failed dead Jewish prophet 2268 01:57:34,075 --> 01:57:36,040 who said some nice things, 2269 01:57:36,040 --> 01:57:37,360 but rather that he is 2270 01:57:37,360 --> 01:57:40,285 the incarnate son of God risen from the dead, 2271 01:57:40,285 --> 01:57:43,570 but it is more than an objective revelation. 2272 01:57:43,570 --> 01:57:48,130 The light of grace is the means by which we have faith, 2273 01:57:48,130 --> 01:57:52,240 which is noetic, transcending our rational belief. 2274 01:57:52,240 --> 01:57:54,790 The light may start out as a symbol to 2275 01:57:54,790 --> 01:57:58,075 signify the beginning of our conscious awareness of God, 2276 01:57:58,075 --> 01:58:01,030 but as we grow in our spiritual awareness, 2277 01:58:01,030 --> 01:58:05,225 light becomes the context of our experience of Christ, 2278 01:58:05,225 --> 01:58:07,800 not only reflected in us, 2279 01:58:07,800 --> 01:58:09,930 but penetrating our souls and 2280 01:58:09,930 --> 01:58:13,895 bodies and irradiating our awareness. 2281 01:58:13,895 --> 01:58:17,620 All of creation from our own souls, 2282 01:58:17,620 --> 01:58:20,320 to our bodies, to all human beings, 2283 01:58:20,320 --> 01:58:22,910 to all created beings, 2284 01:58:23,700 --> 01:58:29,425 we perceive to become radiant with divine light, 2285 01:58:29,425 --> 01:58:34,195 which is an eschatological vision of the age to come. 2286 01:58:34,195 --> 01:58:38,050 Yet beyond that, through that grace, 2287 01:58:38,050 --> 01:58:42,370 we transcend even the dualities of our creativeness, 2288 01:58:42,370 --> 01:58:45,115 of our individuality, 2289 01:58:45,115 --> 01:58:47,710 and are united by the grace of 2290 01:58:47,710 --> 01:58:51,985 the Holy Spirit to the person of the Son of God, 2291 01:58:51,985 --> 01:58:54,310 sharing his relationship to 2292 01:58:54,310 --> 01:58:58,910 the father in a profound unity of being. 2293 01:59:00,270 --> 01:59:06,054 This is the living experience of illumination by grace, 2294 01:59:06,054 --> 01:59:08,695 which imparts faith, 2295 01:59:08,695 --> 01:59:11,425 and the experience of God. 2296 01:59:11,425 --> 01:59:18,265 This is the ultimate experience of the beauty of God. 2297 01:59:18,265 --> 01:59:22,300 The beauty of God reflected in created things, 2298 01:59:22,300 --> 01:59:25,700 seen through spiritual eyes, 2299 01:59:26,370 --> 01:59:32,290 as the material becomes transparent to the noetic, 2300 01:59:32,290 --> 01:59:38,150 and all creation is radiant with the presence of God. 2301 01:59:40,530 --> 01:59:43,360 There's a hymn at this time that we 2302 01:59:43,360 --> 01:59:46,190 sing in the Orthodox Church which is, 2303 01:59:49,200 --> 01:59:52,329 "Shine on New Jerusalem 2304 01:59:52,329 --> 01:59:54,775 for the glory of the Lord has shown on you, 2305 01:59:54,775 --> 01:59:56,725 exalt and be glad, 2306 01:59:56,725 --> 01:59:58,630 be radiant pure Mother of 2307 01:59:58,630 --> 02:00:02,545 God in the resurrection of your son." 2308 02:00:02,545 --> 02:00:04,660 I greet you in the name of 2309 02:00:04,660 --> 02:00:06,460 the risen Christ. Christ is risen. 2310 02:00:06,460 --> 02:00:29,200 Thank you very much. 2311 02:00:29,200 --> 02:00:31,120 Rick, could you join me up here, please. 2312 02:00:31,120 --> 02:00:40,882 You've enlightened us, illuminated us with your characteristic carefulness, steel and gracefulness. 2313 02:00:40,882 --> 02:00:41,930 And I get to put the Weter medallion around your neck. You 2314 02:00:58,680 --> 02:01:01,570 will also receive an envelope in a bit 2315 02:01:01,570 --> 02:01:04,330 that you may indeed 2316 02:01:04,330 --> 02:01:09,100 be a problem for his passions, I would know. Join us 2317 02:01:09,100 --> 02:01:10,780 for a reception afterwards. Thank you. 2318 02:01:10,780 --> 02:01:18,603 Thank you.