Wednesday, January 19, 2011

studying theology...

Hello Family and Friends!

Long time no talk :)

Life has been quite busy around here. I’m coming into the final part of my program (writing the thesis), which should take anywhere from 1-2 semesters.

Just thought I’d share a nice little excerpt from Fr. Stephen Freeman’s blog:

“Another specific activity, deeply related to this false and true self, is the knowledge of God, and all that we speak of when we say, “doctrine.” Part of the argument of St. Gregory Palamas, against those who argued for a different manner of knowing God, was his insistence on the experiential character of the proper knowledge of God. Thus when we know God properly, we know Him as Person, not as object or topic. Someone may know all of the dogmatic formulas such that they can repeat them with no trouble, or even quickly analyze a statement as somehow being contrary to the doctrine of the Church, and yet know all of this in a way that is not proper. They simply become experts, like someone studying for a game show. This is an activity that fosters the false self, and may be more dangerous than many, because the person involved can suffer under the delusion that because they “know” all of the true facts, they actually know the truth, when they do not.“



http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com


Lots of love!


mike