THE THREEFOLD DIVINE KNOWLEDGE IN THE DISCOURSES OF ST. ISAAC OF NINIVEH. GENERAL INTRODUCTION
THE THREEFOLD DIVINE KNOWLEDGE IN THE DISCOURSES OF ST. ISAAC OF NINIVEH. GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Summary/Abstract: One can assert without exaggeration that talking about “knowledge” at St Isaac of Niniveh means referring to his all theological system. His writings can be read as a gnoseological itinerary that begins from bodily asceticism (the knowledge rises above the material), continues with the asceticism of the mind/ soul and, finally, finds its fullness into the world of the spiritual beings, the area of the spirit (intellect), where one contemplates the Holy Trinity (spiritual knowledge or theoria). The process of knowledge we are speaking about observes three ages, corresponding to the two dimensions of the human person: physical (body) and spiritual with its two parts (soul and spirit) In this short paper we are going to deal with the doctrine of the divine knowledge at St. Isaac of Niniveh (the Syrian) and the forms this process shapes its development. The final conclusion will try to identify the relation St. Isaac establishes between the noetic knowledge and the knowledge of the heart, pointing to an interesting synthesis between the ascetic vision of Evagrius of Pontus and that of John the Solitary.

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