St Justin Popovich | To explain yet more clearly the mystery of knowledge...

To explain yet more clearly the mystery of knowledge, St. Isaac presents further definitions of both knowledge and faith.

“The knowledge that is concerned with the visible and sensual is called natural; the knowledge that is concerned with the spiritual and incorporeal is called spiritual, for it receives its perception through the spirit, and not through the senses. The knowledge that comes by divine power, however, is known as supernatural. It is unknowable and is higher than knowledge.”

“The soul does not receive this contemplation from the matter that is outside it,” as is the case with the first two kinds of knowledge, “but it comes unexpectedly by itself as an immaterial gift contained within itself, according to the words of Christ: ‘The kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17:21).

There is no point awaiting its appearance in some outward form, for it does not come ‘with observation’ (Luke 17:20).”

St Justin Popovich