Peace, Passion and Virtue: Basic Concepts Present in the Theology of Saint Gregory Palamas and Elements for a Catechetical Philosophy
Peace, Passion and Virtue: Basic Concepts Present in the Theology of Saint Gregory Palamas and Elements for a Catechetical Philosophy

Summary/Abstract: In the context of the proper understanding of the role of modern catechesis in the progress of the modern world, we cannot dispense from the analysis of the line of thinking and doing that the Holy Fathers have imposed over time. This study analyses the three fundamental concepts that are found in the sermons of Saint Gregory Palamas and which prove the close connection between the theology of the hesychast teacher and his pastoral activity. This close connection is a model for the contemporary catechetical philosophy. The reality of the current catechesis is not fundamentally different than the one which has been configuring throughout various historical periods. The form has probably evolved or regressed. The more or less emphasis on the human intervention in deciphering godlike realities has made the regress or evolution of the report to patristic theology to oscillate. I have chosen three concepts - peace, passion and virtue - because they represent the communicating bridge between the theoretical conceptualization and classification of living and the daily reality of this living. We shall not analyse them from the point of view of their moral definition, but we shall connect them to a larger framework of a patristic catechetical philosophy. It is much spoken, and has always been spoken, of the spiritual life developing within these three concepts transposed into reality, and it is very important to see the manner in which Saint Gregory Palamas manages to prove that they cannot remain only at the stage of mere theoretical display, but they are vital for an authentic Christian living, living with the purpose of revealing what we could call the non-shielded reality, lacking the distortion of the surreal, phantasm, the lack of the concrete.

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