Diadochos And the Centrality Of Love

Last updated on: May 18, 2020 at 10:22 am by Henry Karlson

Diadochos And the Centrality Of Love 2020-05-18T10:22:37-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Anonymous: St Diadochos of Photiki /Wikimedia Commons

St. Diadochos of Photiki, a bishop-ascetic who participated in the Council of Chalcedon, began his major theological work, “On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: One Hundred Texts,” by telling his readers not only to focus on the three theological virtues, but to center upon the virtue of love:

All spiritual contemplation should be governed by faith, hope and love, but most of all by love. The first two teach us to be detached from visible delights, but love unites the soul with the excellence of God, searching out the Invisible by means of intellectual perception.[1]

The three theological virtues of faith, hope and love should serve as the foundation of our spirituality. Of the three, love is the greatest and most important. Indeed, we can say that faith and hope flow out of love. For through our love for God, we grow closer to God, getting to know him better. As we know him better, we trust him more and, for we will realize that he constantly works for our own good. And if God is for us, we have reason to hope that, as Julian of Norwich says, all things will be well.

It is our love for God which allows us to see and experience God for who he is: the God who is love. Love opens up to love and sees all things in that love. If we want to understand the world around us, if we want to understand the metaphysical truths which lie behind the physical reality which we experience, we must examine all things in and through the lens of love. God reveals himself in creation, but to discern the fullness of his revelation, to see him in all things, we must look at and contemplate all things with the right hermeneutic. There are many which are available, each which will provide us some insight into God. But the greatest of all is love. It encompasses all that the other hermeneutics can provide but it also takes us closer to love, because it uses God’s very own love to perceive and come to know him.

While detaching ourselves from visible delights, we must not deny the physical world and its value. The incarnation serves to verify the goodness of all creation, including and especially, the material world. Jesus, the God-man, took on the whole of humanity, and with humanity, the whole of the physical creation unto himself. The eschaton became immanent. However, he shows us that we are not to be limited to a materialistic view of the world, to a materialistic way of life. We must join heaven and earth, the visible and the invisible, letting them become one.

Just as we should not become too attached to a materiality without spirituality, we must not become overly attached to things of the spirit that we ignore or deny our physicality. For if we deny the material side of our personal existence, we deny the value of matter and with it, the purpose of the incarnation itself. Chalcedon shows us that Jesus is both man and God, so that in his humanity, he is completely man. If had undermined his physical nature and denied its value, he would have undermined his humanity. Thus, though it is important to remember the greatness of our spirit, and its potentiality, to attach ourselves to it in such a way as to deny our material needs (or the material needs of others) is to undermine the Christian faith (which is why when various Gnostic groups suggested such an end, Christian leaders consistently denounced them, focusing on the incarnation as the proof of their error).

Thus, Diadochos writes, “Evil does not exist by nature, nor is any man naturally evil, for God made nothing that was not good.”[2] Nothing in nature is, in itself, evil. Rather, evil is found in the corruption of nature. It leads us to have an imbalanced attachment to some element of creation over and apart of the rest.

Denying the common good leads to evil because it promotes individualized private goods over the good itself. But we can talk about the common good, both within society, but within the person as well. Personal sin is the denial of the holistic good of the human person. Asceticism is meant to teach us ways we can overcome that imbalance; where we have become addicted to some private, separated good, so that we neglect the fullness of the good, we have to exercise ourselves and our actions in such a way as to overcome that addiction. If we are gluttons, we must learn how to fast, so that the good of eating is once again normalized.

This means that if we are overly attached to spiritual goods, we neglect the fullness of the good itself. We must detach ourselves from our unhealthy spirituality and perform works which help us properly reorient ourselves to the fullness of the good. Christianity, when it neglects the value of the material world. Then overly spiritualized piety lead people into living out terrible lives, where earthly suffering is not only ignored, but openly promoted. The end result is that outright abuses are ignored because they are seen to hold no spiritual significance. Without a proper, and healthy, promotion of corporeal works of mercy and justice, Christians can become too attached to their own private spiritual pleasure that they end up destroying not only themselves through their prelest, but many others because they end up believing this is what Christianity is all about and reject it. Thus, “Faith without works and works without faith will both alike be condemned, for he who has faith must offer to the Lord the faith which shows itself in actions.” [3]

We should live out our faith by founding it and grounding it upon love. Love for God leads us to union with God, but that union should bear spiritual fruit. It should lead us to follow after Christ himself, who, being the nature of God, emptied himself of all his divine glory to become man, so that he can restore fallen creation. His love for the world shows God did not reject the world, and neither should we. We must always bear all things for the glory of God in the world in the light of love. We should not seek out suffering: those who seek to be martyrs are not true martyrs, but prideful zealots. Nonetheless, we should likewise bear with burdens when it is necessary, especially when we do so for the benefit of others. Through an authentic spiritual vision, one generated by love, we are open to the grace of God which makes it possible for us to achieve this. And so, we must realize, through love, we are capable of creating the harmony within ourselves and within society at large which is necessary if we want to overcome the harm caused by sin.

[1] St. Diadochos of Photiki, “On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: One Hundred Texts” in The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Volume One. trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1983), 253 [#1].

[2] St. Diadochos of Photiki, “On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: One Hundred Texts,” 253 [#3].

[3] St. Diadochos of Photiki, “On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination: One Hundred Texts,” 258 [#20].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Previous Post

May 17, 2020

Christians Must Not Excuse Themselves From Helping Others

Next Post

May 21, 2020 The Ascension

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz