Anthropological and Ecclesiological Oroi of Mystical Knowledge of God in St Symeon the New Theologian

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It is found in the experiential mystical theology of St. Symeon the New Theologian an ascetical gnoseology in which the knowledge of God and the vision of God are the charismatical fruit of the participation of man in the life of Christ. The mystical experience of the knowledge of God, however, is often interpreted according to the hermeneutical premises of an introverted contemplative mysticism whose roots are found in Origen and Augustine. The deconstruction of this model of thinking reveals the ascetical gnoseology of St. Symeon on the horizon of a holistic anthropology of participation, of theology of will, and of the understanding of the human person in the context of the overall dialogical relation with God. For St. Symeon, however, this existential holistic knowledge of God has its clear ecclesiological and sacramental (= mysteriological) premises, and is only possible in the Church experience of man‘s transformation and theosis in Christ in a sacramental (= Eucharistic) way. Because of the experiential and contemplative character of St. Symeon’s gnoseology, the mystical knowledge of God must be understood as Eucharistic Christophania where the vision of God is always the charismatic fruit of the Eucharistic participation in Christ‘s theanthropia (divine humanity).

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