Nicholas Cabasilas and His Sacramental Synthesis

Abstract

The article proposes a new approach to understanding the concept of theological-philosophical synthesis within the framework of Byzantine philosophy. On the example of a comparative analysis of the theology of two outstanding Christian writers of the rights. Nicholas Cabasilas and Gregory Palamas proves that synthesis cannot be presented only as a conceptual explication. The theological-philosophical system of Cabasilas's thought, rich in its depth and scope, is based on the same theological and philosophical ideas as Palamas' system of thought. However, if in the latter case the synthesis is presented in the form of a conceptual explication, i. e. formulated and expressed in a strict theological and philosophical language, then in the first case the conceptual explication itself is placed in the liturgical and spiritual-ascetic practice and actualized in it. If the activity of Palamas corresponds to the stage of «unfolding» of tradition, when tradition is forced to give new and precisely formulated answers to external challenges, then the activity of Cabasilas is characterized by the stage of its «devolution», in which all the richness of the conceptual apparatus developed at the stage of «unfolding» is introduced into sacramental practice. And although the exact formulations and terms (i.e. the entire conceptual apparatus) sink and dissolve in sacramental practice, however, they are undoubtedly present in it and, if necessary, can be again «explicated from it». It is the «devolution» of tradition that completes the next cycle of synthesis. And it was Cabasilas who became the one in whose theological and philosophical thought the palamite synthesis was completed.