A
- accident:
- Aristotle partitioned reality into substance and accident. An accident is an
incidental property of a thing.
B
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C
-
- Caesar:
- The Jewish people had been anticipating the eventual arrival of God's "anointed
one" (the Messiah, the Christ) who would reign over them as their king. Most Jewish
people expected the Messiah to have a worldly kingdom, while those followers of Jesus who
accepted Him as the Messiah came to regard Him as reigning over a spiritual kingdom. After
Christ's arrest, when the crowd was asked whether Jesus was their king, they replied We
have no king but Caesar, thereby rejecting Christ's spiritual kingship.
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D
- deification, also known as theosis:
- God incarnated himself as the Son of Man, so that men might become sons of God.
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E
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- F
-
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- G
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H
- Hebraic Law:
-
- This refers to the law that the Jewish people received from God through the person of
Moses. It provides moral guidance.
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I
- incensive power:
- The incensive power is said to be one of the soul's three powers. It is often manifested
as wrath or anger, but can be more generally defined as the force provoking vehement
feelings.
(The Philokalia, vol. 2, p. 380)
-
- intelligible realities or beings:
- The intelligible realities are the incorporeal forms which are imperfectly represented
by the corporeal forms of the objects which we see all about us. Intelligible realities
are something like archetypes or the exemplars of things which exist eternally and
potentially within God.
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J
- John, beloved of Christ:
- This is a reference to one of Christ's twelve disciples. During the Last Supper, John is
described as leaning his head against Christ's chest or breast. See John 13:23.
-
- Judas Iscariot:
- The disciple who betrayed Jesus for 30 silver pieces by identifying Jesus to his
would-be captors with a kiss. When Judas learned that as a consequence of this betrayal
Jesus had been condemned to death, Judas, full of remorse, returned the 30 silver pieces
and killed himself.
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K
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L
- The Last Supper:
- This refers to the last meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before being
arrested and crucified. Also known as
- the "Passover
Seder"
-
- Logos:
- Jesus Christ is the Logos, the Word spoken by the Father. In speaking this Word, the
unknowable God reveals Himself. He reveals Himself both in His human incarnation and
throughout all of creation, for everything that has come into being has done so through
the mediation of the Word (cf John 1:1-5). And Christ is all in all.
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M
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N
- noetic activity:
- This is the activity of the intellect, where the intellect is regarded as the eye
of the heart. The intellect is an organ of contemplation that's not involved in reasoning.
Through noetic activity, intelligible realities are said to "nourish" the
intellect, just sensations are said to "nourish" the senses through their
perceptual activity. For embodied individuals such as ourselves (as opposed to angels),
intelligible realities are only made accessible to us through the symbolism of material
forms and images.
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O
- Orthodoxy:
- Broadly speaking, the Christian religion consists of three distinct groups of believers:
- Orthodox,
- Roman Catholic, and
- Protestant.
The first schism occurred in 1054 when the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic church split
with each other over doctrinal issues. Later during the Reformation, Protestants broke off
from the Roman Catholic church.
As the name suggests, Orthodox Christians believe they have preserved the
Christian faith intact as it has been handed down since the days of the apostles.
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P
- passible aspect:
- Two of the soul's three powers are said to define the soul's passible aspect; these two
are its power to desire and its power to act incensively. These two powers are said to be
particularly vulnerable to passion.
(The Philokalia, vol. 2, p. 380)
-
- passion:
- A thing, a conceptual image and a passion are all quite different one from the other.
For example, a man, a woman, gold and so forth are things; a conceptual image is a
passion-free thought of one of these things; a passion is mindless affection or
indiscriminate hatred for one of these same things. The monk's battle is therefore against
passion.
(St. Maximos the Confessor, in Four Hundred Texts on Love, p. 89 of the
Philokalia, vol. 2)
-
- Peter:
- One of Christ's twelve disciples; the one whom Christ chose as the "rock" on
which he was going to build His church. After Christ was arrested, Peter followed Him to
an adjoining courtyard where he waited to see what was going to happen to Jesus. However
other people in the courtyard seemed to recognize Peter as being one of Christ's
disciples, and challenged him on this. Because he was afraid of being associated with
Christ, who was now in custody, he vehemently denied knowing Him. Just then a rooster
crowed bringing to mind Christ's prophesy that Peter would in fact deny Him three times
before the cock crowed. At the time of Christ's prophesy, Peter didn't believe that he
could ever do such a thing, but when the cock's crowing brought the prophesy back to mind,
Peter was overcome with bitter remorse.
-
- prepossession:
- The ingrained influence of habits running counter to virtue. When this is operative over
a long period, it exerts a pressure which drags the intellect down towards earthly things.
(St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic, in Theoretikon, p. 40 of the Philokalia,
vol. 2)
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Q
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R
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S
- Symeon the Pious:
- The personal, spiritual father of St. Symeon the New Theologian.
-
- sequent:
- God is the Cause of every created thing, so each thing is said to be sequent to God,
i.e. follows from God.
-
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T
- talent:
- A talent is a coin. This is a reference to the parable of Christ described in Matthew
25:14-30. A Lord who was about to go out of town gave each of his servants money that he
expected them to invest for him. When he returned all but one of his servants had
increased his holdings through their investments. However one servant merely gave him his
coin back, saying that he had buried it while his Lord was away to keep it
"safe." When the Lord found out that this servant didn't even try to do anything
with the coin, he took the coin away from him and gave it to one of his other servants who
had already demonstrated his ability to multiply his Lord's holdings.
-
- Three powers or aspects of the soul:
- The soul has three powers: the intelligence, the incensive power and desire. With our
intelligence we direct our search; with our desire we long for the supernal goodness which
is the object of our search; and with our incensive power we fight to attain our object.
(St. Maximos the Confessor, in Various Texts, p. 193 of the Philokaila,
vol. 2)
-
- The Transfiguration of Christ:
- Jesus led three of his disciples (Peter, James, and John) up into a mountain. At some
point they stopped, and Jesus' body began to give off an intense, white light. And while
his entire body was shining, two ancient Hebrew prophets appeared (Moses and Elias) and
began speaking with Christ. Then a radiant cloud appeared overhead, and a voice issued
from it stating, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him."
The
disciples were overwhelmed with fear and fell to their faces. Just then Christ came and
touched them; He told them to get up, and to fear not. And when they looked up, Jesus was
alone.
(For the biblical account of this story, see Matthew 17:1-9 off-site)
- Trinity:
- One God who is simultaneously three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. How are the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit different? My personal take on
this is that the Father engenders, the Son manifests, and the Holy Spirit permeates. For a
more elaborate description of the Trinity, see the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed.
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U
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V
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W
- The Word of God:
- Jesus Christ is said to be the Word of God. See Logos.
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