Literally: that which stands beneath I tried asking Fr. John today why hypostasis is so important in Orthodox theology. He got kind of excited, and said that way long ago it meant nature, but St. Basil the Great, in an extremely important act of theological genius (those weren’t his words, but he was very excited [...]
All posts in category Greek
Enigmatic Word of the Day: Hypostasis
Posted by Molly on October 24, 2009
http://mollydodd.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/enigmatic-word-of-the-day-hypostasis/
Neglected word of the day: Hesychia
This is the root of hesychism: keeping silence. Usually quite a lot. Not just externally, but also in mind. It usually goes with nepsis: watchfulness. Hesychia, then, is attentive listening: usually listening to silence, in silence. A hesychist might go out into the wilderness and begin by saying a short prayer more or less continually, [...]
Posted by Molly on October 21, 2009
http://mollydodd.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/neglected-word-of-the-day-hesychia/
Neglected word of the day: Theosis
Another word that has been so thoroughly neglected these past few centuries there isn’t even an exact equivalent for it. Theosis is “the process of being engodened.” There’s no such word as engodened, you say? Exactly the difficulty! Theosis is pretty easy to remember, though: Theo- being God, and -osis being a kind of process, [...]
Posted by Molly on October 19, 2009
http://mollydodd.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/neglected-word-of-the-day-theosis/
Neglected word of the day: Apaphatic
This is the flip side of cataphatic, with which we are generally a good deal more familiar. Cataphatic is the same root as catechism, catechesis, and catechumen – it’s about teaching and what’s teachable, and can be grasped by the intellect… cataphatically. On the other hand, things that don’t necessarily make much sense to the [...]
Posted by Molly on October 7, 2009
http://mollydodd.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/neglected-word-of-the-day-apaphatic/
Neglected word of the day: Logismoi
Blessed is he who seizes and dashes your little ones against the stones. In Orthodox theology those little ones are the Logismoi (log like in logos -IS-mee), those excitable, irritating thoughts fluttering around our minds. It’s important to smash them before they become full-blown passions. They flatter, demean, gossip, complain, and generally make nuisances of [...]
Posted by Molly on October 6, 2009
http://mollydodd.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/neglected-word-of-the-day-logismoi/
Neglected Word of the Day: νοῦς
There are those words that we have in English, but are shy about using, because people are not very well educated, like teleological. Then there are those words that aren’t English, and have no viable English equivalent, but are really useful. νοῦς (nous, said like noose) is one of those. It gets translated heart, intelligence, intuition, [...]
Posted by Molly on October 5, 2009
http://mollydodd.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/neglected-word-of-the-day-%ce%bd%ce%bf%e1%bf%a6%cf%82/
About
I’m a young Orthodox woman living and teaching in the Republic of Georgia. I write about places I’ve been, books I’ve read, and thoughts on whatever seems interesting at the time. The password is my saint name.
