The Gnose Knows: St. Isaac of Nineveh’s Three Degrees of Knowledge

“For the man in Christ, the antinomies of the mind are not irreconcilable opposites; they are simply ruptures caused by the upheaval of original sin in man.

Uniting himself to Christ, man feels in himself a coming-together of fragmented parts, a healing of the intellect, a wholeness and integration that make him capable of integrated understanding.”

-from The Theory of Knowledge According to St. Isaac the Syrian

St. Isaac’s gnoseology held that there were three degrees of knowledge in ascending order of importance.

The First Degree ranges from our animal appetites up to our rational skills in the arts and sciences and is concerned solely… Continue reading →