02 — The Theology of the Name

Why the Name? The biblical theology of the Name of God from Exodus to Philippians, its transfer to Jesus in the apostolic Church, the Fathers on the Name’s power — and the sober, decisive distinction between the invocation of a person and the repetition of a sound, stated without polemic against the technique-religions with which the prayer is often compared.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

This section supplies the dogmatic substructure of the whole practice. The first file traces the theology of the Name through Scripture and the Fathers and states carefully — distinguishing theologoumenon from dogma — in what sense the tradition calls the invocation a “sacrament” of the divine presence. The second answers, per METHODOLOGY §4.1, the standing question “is this not a Christian mantra?”: the similarities are acknowledged honestly, the difference — personal address, faith, repentance, communion — is named as decisive.

Files in This Section

File Description
the-invocation-of-the-name.md The Name in the Old Testament and the New; Hermas, Justin, and Origen on the Name’s power; the Palamite frame; “sacrament of presence” as theologoumenon, with the imiaslavie question flagged as formally unresolved.
not-a-mantra.md The mantra comparison examined soberly: what is genuinely similar (repetition, cord, breath, stillness) and what is decisive — address to a person, the condition of repentance, communion rather than a state as the end.

See Also