About the Light in the Light of Orthodoxy

Abstract

The article presents the concept of created and uncreated light, based on the modern understanding of physics, the facts of the Holy Scripture, and the interpretations of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church on this topic. The main research method used is the analysis of selected natural science and Orthodox sources, the study and generalization of the experience of the spiritual life of mankind, described in the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition regarding the perception of light. The following main conclusions were drawn. Material light is the light created by God on the first day of the creation of the world. It is possible that he changed due to the Fall of man, just as all creation changed. Now its material nature is as we know it today from physics. Natural material light sources are stars (luminaries in the firmament of heaven). Immaterial light, as many saints have come to know it from their experience of spiritual life, is uncreated Divine light, Divine energy, the glory of God. Before Christ sacrificed Himself, reconciling God with man, God revealed Himself as light only to His chosen ones, according to His well-known providence, and not through the prayers of believers. Uncreated light has the following sources: God in His three Persons, holy Angels, and saints. God is the primary source of uncreated light, and Angels and saints are sources of uncreated light borrowed from God.