The divinely inspired theologies of the saints

What significance can an ancient document, such as the Synodicon of Orthodoxy, hold for our Church as we approach the 21^st century?

One prominent and well-known new-calendar bishop, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, Greece, has given us a timely and relevant answer to that question. In his recent book, The Mind of the Orthodox Church (translated by Esther Williams, and published in 1998 by the Birth of the Theotokos Monastery in Levadia, Greece), His Eminence writes:

Anyone who studies the Synodicon of Orthodoxy will surely observe, when he comes to the chapters that refer to the heresy of Barlaam and Akindynos, that this phrase occurs six times: "against the God-inspired theology of the saints and the devout mind of the Church." And indeed he will observe that the Council uses the same phrase in opposing all the heretical views of Barlaam and Akindynos and in referring to the teaching of the Church on this particular subject. The heretics are condemned because they do not believe and do not confess "in accordance with the God-inspired theology of the saints and the devout mind of the Church."

We must notice that the professions of the saints are characterised as God-inspired. And of course divine inspiration is linked with Revelation. The saints experienced God, they attained experience of divine grace, they knew God personally, they reached Pentecost, they received Revelation and therefore are characterised as divinely inspired and unerring teachers of the Church.

We should underline particularly the method which they used and the way they lived in order to become divinely inspired by grace. This way is hesychasm, which is made explicit in the three stages of spiritual perfection: purification of the heart, illumination of the nous, and deification. These deified and God-inspired saints are the Prophets in the Old Testament, the Apostles and the holy Fathers. Therefore, the Synodicon of Orthodoxy says: "As the Prophets saw, as the Apostles taught, as the Church received, as the Teachers laid down as doctrine, as the world has agreed, as grace has shone." So there is identity of what has been experienced by all the saints, precisely because they followed the same method, they experienced the whole mystery of the Cross, which is our flight from sin, the flight of sin from within us, and the ascent to the vision of God.

Furthermore, the divinely inspired teaching of the saints is closely connected with the devout mind of the Church. The Church produces the saints and the saints express the devout mind of the Church. Saints cannot be thought of apart from the Church and saints are unthinkable who have heretical and erroneous views on serious theological questions.

In the Church, as St. Gregory Palamas says, there are "those initiated by experience" and those who follow and revere these tested ones. Thus, if we do not have our own experience on these matters, we must nevertheless follow the teaching of those who see God, the deified and experienced saints. It is only in this way that we have the mind of the Church and the consciousness of the Church. Otherwise we open the path to self-destruction in various ways.

We must constantly believe and confess "in accordance with the divinely inspired theology of the saints and the devout mind of the Church."

The Synodicon of Orthodoxy is an excellent and very concise text, which is a summing up of the whole orthodox teaching of our Church. This is why the Church has inserted it in its worship, on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and it is read in an attitude of attention and prayer. It is a holy text. And we must harmonise with it all our thinking, and above all, our life.

We need to study it closely in order to recognise what constitutes the orthodox faith and orthodox life. And, in fact, the orthodox way of life is free of scholasticism and moralism. It is hesychastic and theological.

Our positive or negative stand towards this text shows to what extent we are animated by the orthodox mind of the Church or are possessed by scholasticism. We are of the Church insofar as we are of the holy Fathers.

Editor's Note: We are pleased to announce that our Diocese’s forthcoming issue of The True Vine will be a double issue, containing the unabridged text of the Synodicon of Orthodoxy, translated for the first time into the English language. As Metropolitan Hierotheos writes, "The Synodicon of Orthodoxy is an excellent and very concise text, which is a summing up of the whole orthodox teaching of our Church. . . . Our positive or negative stand towards this text shows to what extent we are animated by the orthodox mind of the Church or are possessed by scholasticism." Would that all took these words to heart and put the Synodicon of Orthodoxy into practice.

To receive a copy of the first unabridged English translation of The Synodicon of Orthodoxy, please send $9.00, plus postage and handling to: