Reason illuminated by faith in Byzantine theology of the thirteenth century

This article examines the relationship between faith and reason in thirteenth-century Byzantine theology, with particular attention to the thought of Nikephoros Blemmydes. The study adopts a historical and doctrinal approach, situating this reflection within the broader context of Western medieval scholasticism and its Byzantine parallels. The central idea is that Byzantine theology does not conceive of reason as an autonomous faculty placed at the service of faith, but as a human reality called to be transfigured and illuminated by the action of the Holy Spirit. The contribution of the article is to identify a specificity of Orthodox theological epistemology in relation to the Latin model, by showing that the distinction between the two traditions bears not only on specific dogmatic questions, but on a fundamentally different conception of knowledge and rationality in theology.