Mysticism and Rationalism in the Middle Ages: The Views of St. Gregory Palamas

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Lecture Delivered at the University of Seattle in 1999)

SUMMARY

In man’s effort to obtain the knowledge of God and attain union with Him, various theological movements have appeared in the West and in the East. The West developed so-called scholasticism, while the East developed mysticism.

Scholasticism (11th-13th century AD), which originated from the Schools of the 9th century, is based mostly on reason (“ratio”) and this is why it is called rationalism. Its central position is that there is a single knowledge for the creation and for God, and a single methodology for the acquisition of this knowledge of the created world and the uncreated God. This means that the investigation of the created world and the acquisition of the knowledge of God are both achieved through reason.

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