Orthodox Contemplation
Abridged excerpts from Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s The Orthodox Way (with commentary questions on using images in prayer by Brad Jersak)
The following is an abridged excerpt from Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s classic
work, The Orthodox Way (1979). Kallistos (Timothy) Ware is an English bishop within the Eastern Orthodox
Church and one of the best-known contemporary Orthodox theologians.
His book includes an outstanding and accessible summary of Orthodox theology and
practice, including a clear presentation on Orthodox contemplation. This excerpt is
abridged from portions of chapter six.
Following the excerpt, Brad Jersak responds with some commentary / questions
regarding the use of the imagination in Orthodox contemplation.
Excerpt from chapter 6
“God as Prayer”
It is customary to divide the spiritual Way into three stages. For St Dionysius the
Areopagite these are purification, illumination and union—a scheme adopted in the West.
St Gregory of Nyssa, taking as his model the life of Moses, speaks of light, cloud and
darkness. But in this chapter (The Orthodox Way, ch. 6) we shall follow the somewhat
different threefold scheme devised by Origen, rendered more precise by Evagrius, and
fully developed by St Maximus the Confessor. The first stage here is praktiki or the
practice of the virtues; the second stage is physiki or the contemplation of nature; the
third and final stage, our journey’s end, is theologia or “theology” in the strict sense of
the word, that is, the contemplation of God himself.
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