Ancient Greek terms

alētheiaἀλήθεια

• Truth. What is so; the agreement of thought with reality, and in some traditions reality itself.

apatheiaἀπάθεια

• Apatheia (Stoicism). Freedom from the passions: for the Stoics the calm of the sage, for the desert monks the health of soul that opens into love and prayer.

apophasisἀπόφασις

• Apophatic theology (Christian Mysticism). Speaking of God by negation: saying what God is not.

eidosεἶδος

• Forms (Platonism). Plato’s eternal, unchanging realities, such as Beauty itself and the Good, of which the things of the senses are images.

energeiaiἐνέργειαι

• Divine energies (Hesychasm). In Orthodox theology, God’s uncreated activities, as distinct from God’s essence.

epistēmēἐπιστήμη

• Epistemology. The study of knowledge and its limits.

erōsἔρως

• Eros (Platonism). Love as longing for the beautiful and the good, which in Plato draws the soul upward to the divine.

gnōsisγνῶσις

• Jñāna. Knowledge; in Vedānta, the liberating knowledge of the self.
• Knowledge. Justified understanding; in contemplative traditions, also knowledge by identity.

henἕν

• Unity. Oneness, in the sense of wholeness, identity or union.

henōsisἕνωσις

• Henōsis (Neoplatonism). Union with the One: the goal of the soul’s return in Neoplatonism.

hēsychiaἡσυχία

• The Jesus Prayer (Hesychasm). The short, repeated prayer at the heart of hesychast practice.

ideaἰδέα

• Forms (Platonism). Plato’s eternal, unchanging realities, such as Beauty itself and the Good, of which the things of the senses are images.

kathara proseuchēκαθαρὰ προσευχή

• Pure prayer (Desert Monasticism). Prayer free of images and thoughts, in which the mind stands before God: the summit of the desert monks’ way.

logosλόγος

• Logos (Stoicism). Word, reason or account: for the Stoics the divine reason that orders the cosmos, and for Christians the Word of God.

mystikosμυστικός

• Mystical experience. Experience reported as direct contact with, or union with, ultimate reality.

nēpsisνῆψις

• Attention (Hesychasm). The undivided, receptive presence of mind that many traditions treat as the heart of prayer and contemplation.

nousνοῦς

• Nous. Intellect: for Plato, the highest part of the soul; for Plotinus, the second principle.

ousiaοὐσία

• Divine energies (Hesychasm). In Orthodox theology, God’s uncreated activities, as distinct from God’s essence.

proodosπρόοδος

• Emanation (Neoplatonism). The procession of all things from a first principle, as light from a source.

psychēψυχή

• Soul. The life and inner self of a person, in Greek philosophy and Christian thought.
• Philosophy of mind. Philosophical study of mind, consciousness and their place in nature.

sophiaσοφία

• Wisdom. Understanding joined to right living.

ta meta ta physikaτὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά

• Metaphysics. The study of what is fundamentally real.

theōriaθεωρία

• Contemplation. Loving, attentive gazing on what is most real; in Christian use, a gift of prayer.

theosθεός

• God. The supreme being of theistic traditions: creator, sustainer and object of worship.

theōsisθέωσις

• Theōsis (Hesychasm). Deification: in Eastern Christianity, the human being’s participation in God.

to agathonτὸ ἀγαθόν

• The One (Neoplatonism). In Neoplatonism, the first principle, beyond being and thought.

to henτὸ ἕν

• The One (Neoplatonism). In Neoplatonism, the first principle, beyond being and thought.

to onτὸ ὄν

• Being. The fact or act of existing; the subject of ontology.

The whole glossary