The Orthodox Understanding of the Nous (w/ Dr. Jeannie Constantinou) 

I always enjoy listening to Dr. Constantinou. She explains things so well 😍

Love Dr.Jeannie, she’s very thorough yet very easy to understand.

Great conversation. Glory to God!

Holy Illumination! Love ❤ it!

Simply we get to have a relationship with the living God it's through the spirit of man through the Holy Spirit! The soul of man aligns to God through the regenerated spirit of man. This is why we have to spend time in prayer and fasting.

I’ve also heard it described as the “eye of the soul” and if it’s like other massive concepts comparable to how we can understand Qi and other Far East concepts, this isn’t going to translate easily. There’s a book called Orthodox Psychotherapy, there’s a number of videos on RU-vid as well that speak the book, he talks about the nous in a very nuanced way.

Excellent stuff 👌

Thank you. Explains this concept in a way consistent (dare i sound presumptuous) with the way it seems i am learning (i stress, learning) to think. I find more and more that much western writing feels lacking in something which i don't know how to find the right word for, but when i hear or read Orthodox teachers that 'something' is present.. I know that sounds strange.. but the Orthodox teachers, (even Dr.J. as she expounds rather precisely on this subject) bring something that my heart (as she describes it and someone in the comments does), my heart, the center of my body, feels the difference and is blessed.. Which is why teachers like Abbot TRYPHON or Fr. SPYRIDON Bailey, and others, always leave me with my heart somehow touched, and not because they seek to stir emotions. Thank you. A blessing for me to have seen today.

I was thinking about this recently

A lot of translations translate the word νους nous from philocalia as ration and miss the actual meaning about the what is the word in orthodox spirituality.

Platonists do talk about the nous. Thank you for your lecture.

We have much to learn from the Greek church. The NT was written in Greek in a Greek world. The Latin is but a shadow.

🙏

I think she lays her hand well on the communication problems between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. In many of my conversations, as soon as I start putting 2 and 2 together, I get a handwave and the dismissal, "That's the western way of thinking." A frustrating experience. If we can't reason systematically, then all we have left is making assertions at one another and sharing our impressions. Although, in regard to the "nous" - the mind - I'd want to know the difference between that concept and the "heart". In Philippians 4:7 we're told that God will guard both. I've always thought of the "mind" as referring to our thinky-thinky part and the heart as our feely-feely part. Both can be a form of knowledge.

The first part where she’s explaining what the nous is seems reasonable, but all the stuff about “rationalistic” West vs “mystical” East (and all other overly simplistic comparisons of East and West) is so incredibly overblown. The council of Florence for instance wasn’t a case of the Latins rationally trying to understand the concepts the Greeks were mystically trying to communicate. St Mark of Ephesus wrote something called “The Syllogistic Chapters Against the Latins” and constantly made rational, logical arguments to support the Orthodox doctrine. St Gennadios Scholarius is another good example of an Orthodox Saint who debated the Latins utilizing scholastic methodology. All that said, I’d really take simplistic comparisons like this with a massive grain of salt.

If the nous was merely darkened or dimmed without going totally out, why was the incarnation necessary at all? Mysticism alone should be the answer. The nous is capable of finding its way back - as in all the mystical traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Sufism, etc.

Jesus continues to illuminate His church. Theology develops if you listen

Ephrem the Syrian (Eastern church father) - Only you Jesus and your mother are more beautiful than everything. For on you Oh Lord there is no mark; neither is there any stain in your mother (i.e. she is immaculate or without sin) St Augustine of Hippo (Western church father) -When it comes to sin we must except the holy virgin mother concerning whom I wish to raise no questions when it touches the concept of sins, out of honour for the Lord for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin Church fathers agree Mary is the new Eve who herself had preternatural grace and was created without the stain of original sin Therefore the new Adam (Jesus) and the new Eve (Mary) were also created without sin There is no discrepancy between nous and reason although the nous can perceive above reason

“The early church never taught in purgatory or the immaculate conception “ All I have to say is that she is deeply mistaken. The Orthodox Church truly does believe in purification after death of a Christian who has not been perfectly purified. Whether it be going to hades and making satisfaction (yes this is orthodox language) or through the Ariel Toll houses. This is a form of purgatory. Also no Orthodox believes that the Virgin Mary was EVER under the wrath of God and enslaves to the devil. But that she was always holy and always had the life of God in her from her existence. Even though she still experienced the effects of the fall, she never sinned but was always immaculate. This is the immaculate conception. Yes it’s a Latin and western terminology but the substance of what it teaches is what Orthodox hold too.

Pray he becomes Orthodox, the true faith

What does your nous say about gays having sex

...Not a good look. "We don't care if it's rational," is another way of saying, "We don't care if it's true," since the truth is rational. You, Job, might not understand what the reason is (yet), but that doesn't therefore mean that there is none, so don't call it irrational. This is not a false dichotomy, it's an excluded middle: if a thing is true, it is rational; if a thing is irrational, it is false. Looks to me (from this glimpse) that the [modern] Orthodox don't know how the nous is meant to operate, since they apparently cannot expound upon the meaning of the dogmas to the point of using new nomenclature(?) like in the West. Cor Jesu, ☦ 🔥 ❤ in Quo sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae, miserere nobis.

Uh the early church did speak on purgatory... she is lost