Email
Text/SMSAnswer
Symeon the New Theologian (AD 949—1022) was born in Galatai, Paphlagonia, in Asia Minor into a provincial noble family. In his youth, he moved to Constantinople to complete his education and enter the Emperor’s service. Symeon became one of the most distinguished mystical and liturgical writers in the Byzantine tradition and a bishop in Thessalonica.
Ironically coined “The New Theologian,” Symeon built on the mystic writings of Eastern Church Fathers but was the first to emphasize the central place of the Eucharist in a person’s spiritual journey toward perfect union with God. Symeon’s theology emphasized an emotional Christlikeness in experiential terms and the theme of light as the main goal of one’s spiritual practices and pursuit.
Symeon the New Theologian believed the Chrisitan life “is an intimate, personal communion with God, divine grace illumining the believer’s heart and leading him to a mystical vision of the Lord” (www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090916.html). He downplayed books and learning as the place for gaining spiritual knowledge and emphasized visions “from within” as being superior. He explained that “uncreated light” from the illumination of the Holy Spirit was far greater than “intellectual light”:
We practice all this asceticism and all these actions only in order to partake of the divine light, like a lamp, so that we may bring our souls as a single candle to the inaccessible light. (Hymn XXXIII, l.130–133)
The apostle John, like Symeon, had some things to say about the concept of illumination and the light of Holy Spirit (1 John 1:26–27). He speaks of the Spirit’s role in bringing Scripture to life in us by communicating its meaning to our hearts. John further taught that the Light is someone we can commune with personally (John 1:9).Where John and Symeon disagree is in the matter of the personal nature of the Light. Symeon divorces light from intellect and personhood, making it a subjective “force” of some kind. Symeon narrows “light” down to an experience, rather than growth in wisdom and action. Listen to what the apostle says in 1 John 4:3–11:
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
We conclude that true light is personal because the Light is a Person, and He has been “already shining.” Light is not a force or mystical experience we discover. The Holy Spirit is a person who discovers us, and He is known through Scripture. He is only experienced as we love our brothers and sisters and obey His Word.Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
As Christians we do not seek some new experience or truth outside the person of God; rather, we “know him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2:14).
Better than seeking new mystical experiences that somehow enlighten you is letting the ancient Scriptures seep deep into your mind and allowing the Word to transform you by the revealed truth of God our Creator.
