Natural theology in the prism of the hesychast vision

Natural theology is an old and influential doctrine stating the possibility of cognizing God via the cognition of Nature. We show that from the Orthodox and especially hesychast viewpoint, its foundations need to be radically corrected and reassessed since they do not take into account that the knowledge of God demands strong anthropological premises including profound changes of man, the cognizing subject. When these premises are taken into account, the knowledge of God becomes integrated into communion with God, i.e. transformed from purely intellectual cognitive paradigm into holistic paradigm of love and communion. The implications of this conclusion for modern discussions of theological problems of cosmology and other physical sciences are briefly pointed out.

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