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What is the nous?
By James Kelley | September 29, 2008
It has been pointed out to me that many may not understand the term “nous,” from whence the term “noetic” comes. Here are some quotations to begin the discussion.
Met. Hierotheos
“all who pray with the nous have communion with God, and this communion is man’s spiritual knowledge of God”
“St. Maximus goes on to say that man is ‘granted the grace of theology when, carried on wings of love’ in theoria and ‘with the help of the Holy Spirit, he discerns - as far as this is possible for the human nous - the qualities of God’.”
“St. Thalassios, who had the same perspective, wrote that when man’s nous begins with simple faith, it ‘will eventually attain a theology that transcends the nous and that is characterised by unremitting faith of the highest type and the vision of the invisible’ (15). Theology is beyond logic, it is a revelation of God to man, and the Fathers define it as theoria. Here too theology is chiefly vision of God. In another place the same saint wrote that genuine love gives birth to spiritual knowledge, and ‘this is succeeded by the desire of all desires: the grace of theology’ (16).”
Fr. John explains it best in his new book, Patristic Theology. Aaron and the boys need to jump in here with patristic references to back this up. It is non-negotiable Orthodoxy. God bless,
“The chief concern of the Orthodox Church is the healing of the human soul. The Church has always considered the soul as the part of the human being that needs healing because She has seen from Hebrew tradition, from Christ Himself, and from the Apostles that in the region of the physical heart there functions something that the Fathers called the nous. In other words, the Fathers took the traditional term nous, which means both intellect (dianoia) and speech or reason (logos), and gave it a different meaning. They used nous to refer to this noetic energy that functions in the heart of every spiritually healthy person. We do not know when this change in meaning took place, because we know that some Fathers used the same word nous to refer to reason as well as to this noetic energy that descends and functions in the region of the heart.
So from this perspective, noetic activity is an activity essential to the soul. It functions in the brain as the reason; it simultaneously functions in the heart as the nous. In other words, the same organ, the nous, prays ceaselessly in the heart and simultaneously thinks about mathematical problems, for example, or anything else in the brain.
We should point out that there is a difference in terminology between St. Paul and the Fathers. What St. Paul calls the nous is the same as what the Fathers call dianoia. When the Apostle Paul says, I will pray with the spirit,[1] he means what the Fathers mean when they say, I will pray with the nous. And when he says, I will pray with the nous, he means I will pray with the intellect (dianoia). When the Fathers use the word nous, the Apostle Paul uses the word spirit. When he says I will pray with the nous, I will pray with the spirit or when he says I will chant with the nous, I will chant with the spirit, and when he says the Spirit of God bears witness to our spirit,[2] he uses the word spirit to mean what the Fathers refer to as the nous. And by the word nous, he means the intellect or reason.
In his phrase, the Spirit of God bears witness to our spirit, St. Paul speaks about two spirits: the Spirit of God and the human spirit. By some strange turn of events, what St. Paul meant by the human spirit later reappeared during the time of St. Makarios the Egyptian with the name nous, and only the words logos and dianoia continued to refer to mans rational ability. This is how the nous came to be identified with spirit, that is, with the heart, since according to St. Paul, the heart is the place of mans spirit.[3]
Thus, for the Apostle Paul reasonable or logical worship takes place by means of the nous (i.e., the reason or the intellect) while noetic prayer occurs through the spirit and is spiritual prayer or prayer of the heart.[4] So when the Apostle Paul says, I prefer to say five words with my nous in order to instruct others rather than a thousand with my tongue,[5] he means that he prefers to say five words, in other words to speak a bit, for the instruction of others rather than pray noetically. Some monks interpret what St. Paul says here as a reference to the Prayer of Jesus, which consists of five words,[6] but at this point the Apostle is speaking here about the words he used in instructing others.[7] For how can catechism take place with noetic prayer, since noetic prayer is a persons inward prayer, and others around him do not hear anything? Catechism, however, takes place with teaching and worship that are cogent and reasonable. We teach and speak by using the reason, which is the usual way that people communicate with each other.[8]
Those who have noetic prayer in their hearts do, however, communicate with one another. In other words, they have the ability to sit together, and communicate with each other noetically, without speaking. That is, they are able to communicate spiritually. Of course, this also occurs even when such people are far apart. They also have the gifts of clairvoyance and foreknowledge. Through clairvoyance, they can sense both other peoples sins and thoughts (logismoi), while foreknowledge enables them to see and talk about subjects, deeds, and events in the future. Such charismatic people really do exist. If you go to them for confession, they know everything that you have done in your life before you open your mouth to tell them.”
Endnotes
- 1 Corinthians 14:5.
- Romans 8:16.
- This means that the Spirit of God speaks to our spirit. In other words, God speaks within our heart by the grace of the Holy Spirit. St. Gregory Palamas in his second discourse from In Behalf of the Sacred Hesychasts notes that the heart rules over the whole human organism. For the nous and all the thoughts (logismoi) of the soul are located there. From the context of grace-filled prayer, it is clear that the term heart does not refer to the physical heart, but to the deep heart, while the term nous does not refer to the intellect (dianoia), but to the energy/activity of the heart, the noetic activity which wells forth from the essence of the nous (i.e., the heart). For this reason, St. Gregory adds that it is necessary for the hesychasts to bring their nous back and enclose it within their body and particularly within that innermost body, within the body that we call the heart. The term spirit is also identical with the terms nous and heart. Philokalia, vol. IV (London: Faber and Faber, 1995), p, 334.
- Cf. Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, who notes: Man has two centers of knowing: the nous which is the appropriate organ for receiving the revelation of God that is later put into words through the reason and the reason which knows the sensible world around us. The Person in Orthodox Tradition, trans. Effie Mavromichali (Levadia: Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos, 1994), p. 24.
- 1 Corinthians 14:19.
- In Greek, the Prayer of Jesus consists of exactly five words in its simplest form, which in English is translated as Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me TRANS.
- Thus as Saint John of Damascus puts it, we are led as though up a ladder to the thinking of good thoughts. Saint Paul also indicates this when he says: I had rather speak five words with my nous. St. Peter of Damascus, The Third Stage of Contemplation, in Philokalia, 3, page 42 [my translation: cf. also English Philokalia, vol. XXX, p. 120] and St. Nikitas Stithatos, as cited below.
- With respect to this, Venerable Nikitas Stithatos writes, If when you pray and psalmodize you speak in a tongue to God in private you edify yourself, as Saint Paul says. If it is not in order to edify his flock that the shepherd seeks to be richly endowed with the grace of teaching and the knowledge of the Spirit, he lacks fervor in his quest for Gods gifts. By merely praying and psalmodizing inwardly with your tongue, that is, by praying in the soul you edify yourself, but your nous is unproductive [cf. I Corinthians 14:14], for you do not prophesy with the language of sacred teaching or edify Gods Church. If Paul, who of all men was the most closely united with God through prayer, would have rather spoken from his fertile nous five words in the church for the instruction of others than ten thousand words of psalmody in private with a tongue [cf., I Corinthians 14:19], surely those who have responsibility for others have strayed from the path of love if they limit the shepherds ministry solely to psalmody and reading. St. Nikitas Stithatos, On Spiritual Knowledge, in The Philokalia, vol. 4, pp. 169-170.
Topics: General, Hesychia, Patristics, Prayer, Romanides, Theology, Theosis, Truth |
September 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
to start …
Fr. John Romanides:
WHO IS MENTALLY ILL ACCORDING TO THE CHURCH FATHERS?
Everyone is mentally ill according to the Patristic meaning of mental illness. You do not have to be schizophrenic in order to be mentally ill. The definition of mental illness from a Patristic point of view is that people are mentally ill when the noetic energy they have inside them is not functioning properly. In other words, being mentally ill means your nous is full of thoughts9, not only bad thoughts, but good thoughts as well.10
In all of the Church services as well as the ascetic tradition of the Church, mainly three spiritual states are mentioned: the state in which the soul and body have been purified from the passions, the state in which the human nous has been illumined by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the state in which the human soul and body experience theosis.11 For the most part, however, they speak about purification and illumination, since the Church services are expressions of reasonable worship.12 So, who is the normal Orthodox Christian? Can someone who has been baptized but not purified be considered normal? What about someone who has not yet been illumined? Or is it someone who has been purified and illumined? Naturally, someone in the last category is a normal Orthodox Christian.
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NOTES:
10 “In its physiological prayerful state, noetic energy moves cyclically like an axle turning within the heart. In its ailing state, noetic energy does not turn like an axle cyclically, but while being rooted in the heart, it unfolds and cleaves to the brain and creates a short-circuit between the brain and the heart. So, the concepts of the brain that are all from the environment become concepts of noetic energy always rooted in the heart. So, the sufferer becomes a slave of his environment …. The undefeatable weapon against the devil is the healing of this short circuit between the heart’s noetic energy and the brain’s reason. The healing consists of the limitation of all concepts in the brain, whether they be good or bad, which is achieved only when the noetic energy of the heart returns to its physiological cyclical movement by means of unceasing noetic prayer. Those who maintain that it is possible to cast out bad concepts and keep only good ones in the brain are naive. One must know the concepts of the devil with precision to defeat him. This is achieved by means of the cyclical movement of prayer in the heart. … ” Father John Romanides, “Religion is a Neurobiological Illness, Orthodoxy its Healing,” Orthodox Hellenism: Way in the Third Millennium (Agion Oros: 1. M .. Koutloumousiou, 1995), vol. 2, pp. 67-76 (in Greek).
11. Although many Orthodox theologians who write in English translate the Patristic term theosis as deification, that translation is problematic, because the wider public associates deification with the imperial cult of Rome. Toward the end of the republic, the Senate would formally deify certain emperors. Although this practice began in Rome with the deification of Romulus as the god Quirinus, it was common to ancient and oriental monarchies as a form of ancestor worship, reverence, or even flattery. The Classical Greek term for this kind of deification was apotheosis (the term theosis was seldom used prior to the Patristic period). It implies polytheism and the notion that some individuals can cross the line separating the created and the uncreated. This deification was condemned and mocked by early Christian apologists such as St. Justin Martyr and Tertullian.
In his English writings, Fr. John consistently avoids the term ‘deification,’ sparingly uses the term theosis as it is (although he uses it frequently in Greek), and prefers the term ‘glorification.’ The value of a term such as glorification is that it reflects both the Biblical continuity and the nature of the experience. According to the will of God, the prophets could see God’s glory, the Apostles could see Christ’s glory at the Transfiguration, and the saints still can see the glory of the Resurrected and Ascended Lord.
To avoid the pagan notions associated with the term ‘deification; and in keeping with Fr. John’s own practice, we will leave the term theosis un-translated. For verbal and adjectival forms, we will use the words “to glorify’ and “glorifying” where possible. - TRANS.
12 Worship associated with texts formulated by the reason that is illumined by the Holy Spirit. - TRANS.
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What is the Human Nous?
http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/patristic-theology-romanides-chapter-1-what-is-the-human-nous.aspx
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September 30th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Orthodox Christian Glossary:
Nous: The word has various uses in Patristic teaching. It indicates either the soul or the heart or even an energy of the soul. Yet, the nous is mainly the eye of the soul; the purest part of the soul; the highest attention. It is also called noetic energy and it is not identified with reason.
https://diakrisislogismon.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/orthodox-glossary/
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September 30th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
James> I wasn’t entirely certain which part you wanted backed up, but on the definition of ‘nous’, I think one can do no better than St John of Damascus in the ‘Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith’: ‘The soul does not have the nous as something distinct from itself, but as its purest part, for, as the eye is to the body, so is the nous to the soul’ (Book 2, Chap. 12)
Unfortunately, I’m afraid I’m going to have to excuse myself from the blog for a little bit. For one thing, I get too drawn into these controversies for my own good and for that of my interlocutors. For another, I’m neglecting the writing of my thesis! I hope the other posters will forgive me for my mistakes.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
forgive me … Metropolitan Hierotheos speaks of the nous here:
CHAPTER III
1. Orthodox psychotherapy
1. The Soul (`Psyche’)
1. What the soul is
2. Sickness and dying of the soul
3. Therapy of the soul
2. Interrelations of soul, nous, heart and mind
1. Nous and soul
2. Nous and heart
3. Nous and reason
4. Nous and attention
3. Nous, heart and thoughts
1. The nous
The natural life of the nous
Sickness of the nous
Curing the nous
2. The heart
What the heart is
Characterisations of the heart
Sickness of the heart
Curing the heart
3.
Intelligence (logiki) and thoughts (logismoi)
1. Intelligence
2. Thoughts - Logismoi
1. What logismoi are
2. The cause of evil thoughts
3. Consequences of evil thoughts
4. Curing of evil thoughts
http://www.pelagia.org/htm/b02.en.orthodox_psychotherapy.03.htm
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October 4th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Bless you, Aaron,
No one could blame you for bowing out of the blogosphere. Your comments were always insightful, and never did you seem heavy-handed or unkind, as I often did.
I remain in the blog-world because I feel that there are Orthodox people out there (and others who want to be Orthodox) who are tired of the watered-down version of Orthodoxy (Baptodoxy, etc.) and who want to discuss or at least hear about traditional (not conservative) patristic teachings. What has happened so far is either 1) people love it, and we have a nice exchange, 3) people outside the Church criticise Orthodoxy, which is expected, and lastly, 3) Orthodox people blast me for supposedly being one-sided in my theology. I admit, at first I was shocked at the last category, since my posts are mainly paraphrasings from the philokalia.
I never dreamed any Orthodox person would be offended at words paraphrased from the Philokalia, but now that I’ve created this site, it happens on a weekly basis. Now, after the dust has cleared, it does not bother me as much, since, as a former mentor was fond of saying, “Truth is its own justification.”
I tend not to speak out until I’ve “cleared” my theology through reliable sources. I just think most people misunderstand Orthodox patristic terminology and Orthodox patristic dogmas. I promise to try to be clear and simple in my future posts, and I will try to listen better to people’s objections, though it is difficult to hear someone say that glorification theology de-emphasizes the Cross and Holy Sacraments. St. John of Damascus did not know about the Beatles when he exclaimed: “Let it not be!”
Bless you all,
James