05 — The Theology
The distinctive theology of St. Sophrony of Essex: his autobiographical-theological masterwork We Shall See Him as He Is (Essex, 1988) and its first-person witness to the vision of the Uncreated Light — the Taboric, Palamite light; and the “hypostatic principle,” his teaching that person (hypostasis) is the highest ontological category and that the human person is fulfilled, in the image of the Trinity, by self-giving love. Both themes are presented with their visionary claims pinned to Sophrony’s own writings (per METHODOLOGY §3.5) and with the genuine debates — over the prudence of publishing one’s own mystical experience, and over the patristic grounding and philosophical kinship of his personalism — set out even-handedly.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (20th-c. elder; disciple of St Silouan)
This section gathers the two pillars of Sophrony’s mature theology. The first is the vision of the Uncreated Light — the uncreated glory of God seen on Mount Tabor, confessed by St. Gregory Palamas against Barlaam, and described by Sophrony, almost uniquely among modern saints, as his own experience, set down in the first person in We Shall See Him as He Is. The second is the hypostatic principle — the theology of the person that grew out of the crisis of his youth, when the impersonal Absolute he had sought gave way before the biblical “I AM” (Exodus 3:14), and that found its fullest expression in his teaching that to be a person is to love, in the image of the Triune God.
The two are not separate doctrines but one teaching seen from two sides: the seeing of God “as He is” (1 John 3:2) and the fulfilment of the human person in deifying love are, for Sophrony, the same theosis. This section accordingly treats them together, and treats them as the collection treats all of Sophrony’s deepest claims — as the testimony of a saint pinned to his own pen, honoured in its depth, and accompanied by the real questions his theology has raised. Those questions are not hidden: whether so open a written account of one’s own visions of the Light was spiritually prudent, and whether Sophrony’s theology of the person is fully grounded in the Fathers or shaped by the personalist and existentialist philosophy of his milieu, are presented here with their positions named, in keeping with the repository methodology (METHODOLOGY §3.5 and §4).
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| we-shall-see-him-as-he-is.md | Sophrony’s autobiographical masterwork (Essex, 1988; title from 1 John 3:2); the vision of the Uncreated Light (Taboric / Palamite); his first-person accounts of seeing the Light; the boldness and controversy of publishing such intimate mystical experience; the book’s depth, reception, and stature. |
| the-hypostatic-principle.md | The theology of the person: hypostasis as the highest ontological category; the human person in the image of the Trinity; the I–Thou; love as the mode of personal being (I Love, Therefore I Am); the kenosis of the person; the person as microcosm able to contain all; and the debate over its relation to existentialist/personalist philosophy and its patristic grounding. |
See Also
- The Search for the Absolute — the crisis of the “I AM” from which both the personalism and the vision of the Light proceed
- Bearing the Whole Adam — the person enlarged by love to pray for the whole Adam; the hypostatic principle in act
- Godforsakenness and the Uncreated Light — the descent into God-forsakenness that, in Sophrony, precedes the Light
- St. Gregory Palamas — the theologian of the Uncreated Light and the essence–energies distinction
- Theosis — deification and the vision of the Uncreated Light in Orthodox theology
References
- Sophrony (Sakharov), Archimandrite. We Shall See Him as He Is. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. Essex: Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, 1988.
- Sophrony (Sakharov), Archimandrite. His Life Is Mine. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. London: Mowbray; Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977.
- Sophrony (Sakharov), Archimandrite. On Prayer. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996.
- Sophrony (Sakharov), Archimandrite. Saint Silouan the Athonite. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991.
- Sakharov, Nicholas V. I Love, Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archimandrite Sophrony. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002.
- Louth, Andrew. Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Present. London: SPCK, 2015.
- Scripture: 1 John 3:2; Exodus 3:14; Matthew 17:1–8; John 17:21.