Orthodox Blog

St. Gregory Palamas defended Hesychasm from people who believed the body was fundamentally evil, and therefore God should be sought without rather than within. St. Palamas asked: If knowledge of God can be attained through secular knowledge, why did the pagans worship demons? As Holy Apostle Paul says, they are “wise according to the flesh (1 Cor. 1:26).” St. Palamas argues that through prayer and ascetic struggle the body can become the dwelling place of God, which is the ultimate goal of Hesychasm. The Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts (Jer. 31:33).” Therefore, it makes sense that looking inward, man will find communion with God. St. Palamas argues that those who let the mind wander outside the body are giving themselves over to demonic suggestion and fleshly desires. He poses the question “If the Kingdom …

This paper examines the provenance of the four Gospels: authorship, origin, and intended audience and outlines the unique characteristics of each. Analysing each Gospel’s provenance will show that each one served a particular need, at a specific time in the early Church. The Gospel According to Matthew The Gospel of St. Matthew was written for Jewish communities, probably eight years after Christ’s Ascension . St. Matthew’s geneaology of Jesus proves him to be of the tribe of Judah1 fulfilling Old Testament prophecies of which tribe the Messiah would come. Writing for Jews, he used Aramaic rather than Greek, as the latter Gospels used, and unlike2 Luke and Mark, he rarely explains Jewish customs, assuming readers already understood. St. Matthew frequently (66 times), and often verbatim (43 times), cites the Old Testament;3 since Gentiles would have had little to no knowledge of the Old Testament, these citations benefit the Jewish reader, …

A Brief Overview Henry Chadwick’s The Early Church presents a historical narrative of the formation of the early Christian Church and its spread across the Roman Empire. The book is concise and demonstrates a deep font of research. However, Chadwick’s non-Orthodox perspective is apparent in his recounting of historical events.The book begins with the emergence of Christianity from Judaism and their gradual separation, finalised by the destruction of Jerusalem. Chadwick then defines what he considered the biggest threat to the early Church – Gnosticism. In fact, a disproportionate amount of this book is dedicated to Gnosticism and exploring the influence of Plato and other philosophers on Christian theology. Chadwick’s analytical approach often hampers the development of his arguments, as he overemphasises philosophical development from Greek philosophers rather than demonstrating Christianity to be a faith revealed through the Holy Spirit.The following chapters look at the main challenges facing the early Church, …