天使には知性とヌースがあるが、人間には理性、ロゴス(真理)とディアノイア(論理的認識)、ヌース(直感的認識)と感覚の両方がある。これは、人間は小宇宙であり、創造物全体または大宇宙の表現であるという考えに基づいている。人間のヌースは人類の堕落(Fall of Man)後(ヌースに対する理性の反逆の結果であった)暗くなった[13]が、ヌースの浄化(治癒または修正)(ヘシカズムなどの禁欲的な実践によって達成された)の後は、人間のヌース(「心の目」)は神の創造されなかった光を見て(そして神の創造されなかった愛と美しさを感じ、その時点でヌースは途切れることのない、心の祈りを開始する)、照らされ、その人が正統派の神学者となることを可能にする[6][14][15]。
^See, for example, the many references to nous and the necessity of its purification in the writings of the Philokalia
^Cross, Frank L.; Livingstone, Elizabeth, eds (2005). “Platonism”. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-280290-9
^"Before embarking on this study, the reader is asked to absorb a few Greek terms for which there is no English word that would not be imprecise or misleading. Chief among these is NOUS, which refers to the `eye of the heart' and is often translated as mind or intellect. Here we keep the Greek word NOUS throughout. The adjective related to it is NOETIC (noeros)." Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The Knowledge of God according to St. Gregory PalamasArchived 2010-12-10 at the Wayback Machine. by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Greece (January 1, 2005)
ISBN978-960-7070-27-2
^The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, SVS Press, 1997. (
ISBN0-913836-31-1) James Clarke & Co Ltd, 1991. (
ISBN0-227-67919-9) pgs 200-201
^G.E.H; Sherrard, Philip; Ware, Kallistos (Timothy). The Philokalia, Vol. 4 Pg432 Nous the highest facility in man, through which - provided it is purified - he knows God or the inner essences or principles (q.v.) of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception. Unlike the dianoia or reason (q.v.), from which it must be carefully distinguished, the intellect does not function by formulating abstract concepts and then arguing on this basis to a conclusion reached through deductive reasoning, but it understands divine truth by means of immediate experience, intuition or 'simple cognition' (the term used by St Isaac the Syrian in his The Ascetical Homilies). The intellect dwells in the 'depths of the soul'; it constitutes the innermost aspect of the heart (St Diadochos, 79, 88: in our translation, vol. i, pp.. 280, 287). The intellect is the organ of contemplation (q.v.), the 'eye of the heart' (Makarian Homilies).
^ abThe Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, by Vladimir Lossky SVS Press, 1997, pg 33 (
ISBN0-913836-31-1). James Clarke & Co Ltd, 1991, pg 71 (
ISBN0-227-67919-9).