Friday, April 19, 2024

Gregory Palamas's Definition of "Living Faith"

  

32. This is the living faith. ‘For faith without works is dead,’ says another of the heralds of the faith. And what is dead is not acceptable to them, whose faith is dead through not accomplishing goods works is himself dead, since he does not live in God and have his being in God, who along is the provider of true and undefeated life. He is dead until, like the returned prodigal, he becomes cognizant of the privation he has suffered through distancing himself from the works of life, he returns to God through the works of repentance and hears from him, as the returned prodigal did, ‘this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lot and is found!’ For thus he will also have true faith. Faith to which the works of salvation do not bear witness it not so much faith as unbelief and not so much profession as denial. And this is what is presented by him who says about such things: ‘They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions. They are detestable, unfit for any good work.’ And another of the fellow apostles says: ‘Show me your faith by your works.’ And who is faithful, Let him show his works by his good life. What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? By no means. You believe that Christ is one God with the Father and the Spirit. You do well. But even the demons believe and shudder says: ‘We know who you are, the Son of God most high.’ They are demons, however, and enemies of God, through their opposition to God by their works. (Gregory of Palamas, “Letter to his Church,” in Gregory Palamas: The Hesychast Controversy and the Debate with Islam Documents Relating to Gregory Palamas [trans. Normal Russell; Translated Texts for Byzantinists 8; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2022], 399-400)