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Discernment of spirits
Discernment of spirits is a term used in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Charismatic Christian theology to judge the influence of various spiritual agents on a person's morality. These agents are:
Discernment of spirits is considered necessary to discern the cause of a given impulse. Although some people are regarded as having a special gift to discern the causes of an impulse intuitively, most people are held to require study and reflection, and possibly the direction of others, in the discernment of spirits.
Judgment of discernment can be made in two ways. The first is by a charism or spiritual gift, held as divinely granted to certain individuals for the discerning of spirits by intuition (1 Corinthians 12:10). The second way to discern spirits is by reflection and theological study. This second method is by acquired human knowledge; however, it is always gained "with the assistance of grace, by the reading of the Holy Bible, of works on theology and asceticism, of autobiographies, and the correspondence of the most distinguished ascetics".
Paul the Apostle mentions the gift of discerning of spirits in 1 Corinthians 12:10. John Chrysostom, in his interpretation of this passage, says that these words mean the ability to tell who is spiritual and who is not, who is a prophet and who is not, as Paul wrote at the time of many false prophets. Ephrem the Syrian, in the interpretation of the same passage, stated that the gift of discerning of spirits is good management of the church.
In everyday life, the most often needed kind of discernment of spirits is discernment of thoughts (if the person analyzes their thoughts at all). Besides thoughts, discernment of spirits can be applied to the judgment of such phenomena as dreams, visions, miracles, prophecies, and other supernatural gifts.
In an ideal case, the main tool of discernment could be the person's conscience; however, in the Orthodox view, that relates only to the people of holy life. Hilarion of Optina writes: "To the question of yours, whether your conscience can accurately show you your errors, I will answer this way - you should not trust your conscience much, because it has not yet been cleansed as it should". Because of this perversion of the conscience, basic discernment of good and evil is helped through reading of the Bible and its interpretation from the Holy Fathers. Further discernment is described in such books as Philokalia (a collection of writings of Holy Fathers), The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus, and "Letters" by Barsanuphius and John the Prophet. Theophan the Recluse writes: "whoever wants to know more precisely what the discernment of thoughts is, let him read the book of answers of Barsanuphius and John, the clairvoyant recluses. Concerning every deed, the thoughts can double and triple - what should be done? If a passionate thought appeared as it is in comparison with a passionless one, then it would be easy to determine; but usually with someone who has begun to pay attention to himself, passionate thoughts are not in their form, but always under specious cover. Therefore, there is always a danger of acting as if for good, and yet it will be out of passion. In the mentioned book all sorts of cases are discussed by the enlightened mind of the clairvoyant elders; it presents a detailed science of how to guess the fate of God's truth in this regard". In another place: "read [the writings of] Macarius the Great and especially the Ladder where it is said a lot about discernment of thoughts."
According to John of Damascus, the virtue of discernment "is greater than any other virtue; and is the queen and crown of all the virtues".
The key to discernment is humility, as well as its two manifestations: consulting with others and praying about every decision a person could take: "Discrimination is born of humility. On its possessor it confers spiritual insight, as both Moses and St John Climacus say: such a man foresees the hidden designs of the enemy and foils them before they are put into operation. It is as David states: 'And my eyes looked down upon my enemies' (Ps. 14:7. LXX).[...] If you have not received this gift you should not think, say or do anything without consulting others about it, and without a basis of firm faith and pure prayer. Without such faith and such prayer you will never truly achieve discrimination".
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Discernment of spirits
Discernment of spirits is a term used in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Charismatic Christian theology to judge the influence of various spiritual agents on a person's morality. These agents are:
Discernment of spirits is considered necessary to discern the cause of a given impulse. Although some people are regarded as having a special gift to discern the causes of an impulse intuitively, most people are held to require study and reflection, and possibly the direction of others, in the discernment of spirits.
Judgment of discernment can be made in two ways. The first is by a charism or spiritual gift, held as divinely granted to certain individuals for the discerning of spirits by intuition (1 Corinthians 12:10). The second way to discern spirits is by reflection and theological study. This second method is by acquired human knowledge; however, it is always gained "with the assistance of grace, by the reading of the Holy Bible, of works on theology and asceticism, of autobiographies, and the correspondence of the most distinguished ascetics".
Paul the Apostle mentions the gift of discerning of spirits in 1 Corinthians 12:10. John Chrysostom, in his interpretation of this passage, says that these words mean the ability to tell who is spiritual and who is not, who is a prophet and who is not, as Paul wrote at the time of many false prophets. Ephrem the Syrian, in the interpretation of the same passage, stated that the gift of discerning of spirits is good management of the church.
In everyday life, the most often needed kind of discernment of spirits is discernment of thoughts (if the person analyzes their thoughts at all). Besides thoughts, discernment of spirits can be applied to the judgment of such phenomena as dreams, visions, miracles, prophecies, and other supernatural gifts.
In an ideal case, the main tool of discernment could be the person's conscience; however, in the Orthodox view, that relates only to the people of holy life. Hilarion of Optina writes: "To the question of yours, whether your conscience can accurately show you your errors, I will answer this way - you should not trust your conscience much, because it has not yet been cleansed as it should". Because of this perversion of the conscience, basic discernment of good and evil is helped through reading of the Bible and its interpretation from the Holy Fathers. Further discernment is described in such books as Philokalia (a collection of writings of Holy Fathers), The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus, and "Letters" by Barsanuphius and John the Prophet. Theophan the Recluse writes: "whoever wants to know more precisely what the discernment of thoughts is, let him read the book of answers of Barsanuphius and John, the clairvoyant recluses. Concerning every deed, the thoughts can double and triple - what should be done? If a passionate thought appeared as it is in comparison with a passionless one, then it would be easy to determine; but usually with someone who has begun to pay attention to himself, passionate thoughts are not in their form, but always under specious cover. Therefore, there is always a danger of acting as if for good, and yet it will be out of passion. In the mentioned book all sorts of cases are discussed by the enlightened mind of the clairvoyant elders; it presents a detailed science of how to guess the fate of God's truth in this regard". In another place: "read [the writings of] Macarius the Great and especially the Ladder where it is said a lot about discernment of thoughts."
According to John of Damascus, the virtue of discernment "is greater than any other virtue; and is the queen and crown of all the virtues".
The key to discernment is humility, as well as its two manifestations: consulting with others and praying about every decision a person could take: "Discrimination is born of humility. On its possessor it confers spiritual insight, as both Moses and St John Climacus say: such a man foresees the hidden designs of the enemy and foils them before they are put into operation. It is as David states: 'And my eyes looked down upon my enemies' (Ps. 14:7. LXX).[...] If you have not received this gift you should not think, say or do anything without consulting others about it, and without a basis of firm faith and pure prayer. Without such faith and such prayer you will never truly achieve discrimination".