Archmandrite Sophrony Sakharov’s Anthropology and Theology of Light

Abstract

In this article we analyze some aspects of the teachings of the prominent hesychast and theologian, disciple of St. Siluan of Athos,’ archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) in regards to the human personality and the perception of the human hypostasis in the Uncreated Light. Fr. Sophrony’s personalistic theology is based on the Sinai Revelation ‘I AM THAT I AM’ (Exodus 3:14), which indicates that personality is a universal, full-scale principle of the actualization of the image of God in man. Considering the human person as the image and likeness of the Hypostatic God, the elder Sophrony endows him with a dynamic component that can take both a positive and a negative direction. He is sure that man’s existential development should strive for the infinite completeness of deification — the maximal actualization of the personal principle in unity with God via hypostasization of the Creator’s uncreated energies. The human person is seen by Fr. Sophrony as having ‘two natures’ through perichoresis of the Divine and human natures. The dynamic quality of personal being is intertwined with its other characteristics — unity with other persons and apophaticity. In addition, the theologian, emphasizing the existence of the irreducible ontological distance between God and man, puts a bold sign of equality between God and man in terms of the mode of being as a result of assimilation of uncreated energies by the latter one.