Mystical Theology of St. Simeon New Theologian

The article deals with the problem of the divine light in the mystical works of St Symeon the New Theologian in the context of the Eastern Christian ascetical tradition. The author focuses on the passages referring to the divine light in the works of Evagrios Pontikos, St Isaac the Syrian, St Maximus the Confessor, and in the Makarian corpus. As is shown in the present contribution, none of these authors created a fully-developed theory of the vision of the divine light. Being close to these writers in many ideas, St Symeon was generally independent of any of them in his treatment of the theme of vision of light, always basing himself primarily upon his own experience

To the Question of Demythologizing of the New Testament Science

Over the centuries no historical figure attracted so much attention, none has caused so much heated debate and conflicting opinions about Himself as a person of Jesus Christ. Debates began in His lifetime, and they are clearly refl ected in the pages of the Gospels and other New Testament Books. At present the scientific community is the urgent task of demythologizing the New Testament science, because the New Testament science developed under the influence of myths, created by scientists for over two hundred years. One or the other myth first arose in the mind of the researcher or research team, then other scientists picked it up, began analyzing, supplement, develop, challenge. As a result, a myth became the subject of scientific research, not the Gospel text, which was used only as an aid to prove the correctness of the creators of the myth. From the successful solution of this problem depends largely the future direction of New Testament studies. The author refers to some of the main myths of the New Testament science, the release of which will open the prospects for further development of biblical studies