Using the Theme of the Penetration of Fire into Iron for Description of Uniting with God in Eastern Christian Theology: the Path from Origen to Gregory Palamas. Part I
https://doi.org/10.31802/2658-4476-2020-1-5-115-134
Abstract
The publication is the first part of a study on the use in Eastern Christian theological literature of the theme of the penetration of fire into iron to describe uniting with God, from Origen to Gregory Palamas. Through the example of penetration of fire into iron I consider the ways, whereby the Stoic natural philosophical paradigm of total blending was naturalized by the Early Christian and Byzantine theologians who wished to describe the penetration of the divine into the created and the conjunction of the created with the divine, with the condition that the created does not dissolve in the divine but remains within its own nature while being penetrated by the properties of deity. The character of this paradigm carries the presence of distinctive and uniting potentials within itself because it presupposes interaction of two natures remaining different but uniting in a certain respect. This paradigm seems to have first appeared in the writings of Origen, who spoke of the conjunction of Christ’s soul with God through the example of the penetration of fire into iron. The further development of this topic by the Byzantine theologians comprised two principal lines, already adumbrated in Origen: these are the Christological line and the line of theosis. In the present article, I am interested mostly in the latter, in the context of one more line, which uses the example of iron and fire in order to clarify the distinctions in modes of existence for the created and the divine. I examine this line as rep resented by the Cappadocians and Cyril of Alexandria, and show as this line has made actual
About the Author
D. S. Biryukov
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Dmitry S. Biryukov - Doctor of Philosophy, PhD in Philosophy, Researcher
20 Myasnitskaya street, Moscow 101000
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Review
For citations:
Biryukov D.S. Using the Theme of the Penetration of Fire into Iron for Description of Uniting with God in Eastern Christian Theology: the Path from Origen to Gregory Palamas. Part I. Bible and Christian Antiquity. 2020;5(1):115-134. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31802/2658-4476-2020-1-5-115-134
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