But How Do We Come to Know God? Works.

In reading all these responses to specific theological problems, we all too easily lose our way trying to understand how much of God we will know and how the whole process works. St. Gregory the Theologian brings us back to the right path: “What God is in nature and essence, ... In my opinion it will be discovered when that within us which is godlike and divine, I mean our mind (νοῦν) and reason (λόγον), shall have mingled with its Like, and the image shall have ascended to the Archetype, of which it has now the desire.” In other words, he is saying, ‘I think we will find that out some day’. However, immediately following those words, he warns that this way of thinking, “as it seems to me, is altogether philosophical speculation” (Καὶ τοῦτο εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ τὸ πάνυ φιλοσοφούμενον, ἐπιγνώσεσθαί ποτε ἡμᾶς, ὅςον ἐγνώσμευα).

The Cappadocians, when speaking affirmatively of the life in Christ and knowing him, see no disconnection in their teaching from that of the Gospels, the Apostles, or any fathers who came before them. There is a continuation of thought from Christ, to Paul, to Peter, up to Athanasius, all the Cappadocians, and beyond, even though the employed wording necessitated a refining of terminology. To understand their understanding of the knowledge of God, in the affirmative sense, that is, how we are to live, we should look to the parts of the Gospels and Apostles to which they refer.

Christ himself spoke of these things in a much more lived-out and practical way, for in Christ, we see the perfect example of knowledge of God in looking at the relationship between Father and Son. When he said, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working, it was clearly understood to the Jews that he was making Himself equal with God. Later in the same chapter, Christ further explains, You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. Believe what? His works. I have been working.

Then, much later, St. Athanasius picks up much the same idea of knowing him through his works, and as you will see in this quote from St. Athanasius, this is more than merely knowing that Christ is God. He says, “Therefore, just as if someone wishes to see God, who is invisible by nature and not seen at all, understands (καταλαμβάνει) and knows (γινώσκει) him from his works, so let one who does not see Christ with his mind (οὕτως ὁ μή ὁρῶν τῇ διανοίᾳ τὸν Χριστόν) learn of him from the works of his body, and test whether they be human or of God. … and through the incarnation of the Word the universal providence (καὶ διὰ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως τοῦ Λόγου ἡ τῶν πάντων ἑγνώσθη πρόνοια)...For he was incarnate that we might be made god; and he manifested himself through a body that we might receive an idea (or 'be given the mind') of the invisible Father (ἵνα ἡμεῖς τοῦ ἀοράτου Πατρὸς ἔννοιαν λάβωμεν).”

We will continue next time with knowing God by our own works.