3. St. Gregory Palamas - and the time of saints Philosopher, monk, a Hesychast abbot, then an archbishop who led his society in troubled times, and finally a Saint, who helped to shape the thinking of his church from the C14th. until the present .... Gregory Palamas can give us a clearer understanding of what might be called the time of saints in the early church. His Triads throw new light onto the First Millennium of the Church, particularly onto novel conclusions about early Christian forms of: · History · Philosophy of knowledge · Spirituality. Some most remarkable writings survive from the holy men of the church of the First Millennium, forming a second testament of a Church growing in size and sanctity over the centuries. Gregory Palamas was the successor and summation of those saints who described their thought not as doctrine but, as did Palamas, as a special kind of philosophy. Their philosophical work was rigorous, coherent, and formed a consensus, and formed one of the cornerstones of their sanctity. Palamas himself was a practitioner of the methods the early fathers of the church used for attaining hesychia or deep inner stillness. |
