Father, you’ve used the term Nous (rhymes with “juice”) many times. I’ve never heard this before, and I don’t know what that means. Could you please tell me? The answer to this question comes from Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Ph.D., and is found in her book, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Mind. How does one acquire an Orthodox phronema [mindset], and what does it mean to have it? It is to have the “mind of Christ,” which is also the mind of the Church, since the Church is the Body of Christ. This means that one is essentially living a spiritual life. The opposite of a spiritual life is a life of the flesh, of the world, a secular life, in which one adopts the manner of thought of “the world.” Saint Paul encouraged Christians to have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2: 16), for which he used the Greek word nous [νοῦς]. In Orthodox theology, nous refers not to the rational operation of the mind but to that part of the soul that allows the human person to know God, “the purest part of the soul, the eye of the soul.” True knowledge of God is gained through purification of the intellect (nous), and this comes about only with prayer. A purified intellect grows in its knowledge of God through spiritual experience. Addendum to Dr. Constantinou: put in other words, the nous is the Orthodox version of “knowing better .” Individuals learn this skill through practice, so it is very reasonable (very Orthodox) to say that those who do not practice their faith never truly understand how to be an Orthodox Christian. Our theology teaches us that God reveals himself to the human heart. The heart must first learn how to receive him, then, the whole person behaves in a way that reflects God with us. As usual, it’s not enough just to “know better,” but be willing to “do better.” Think about the following verses from St. Matthew: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them” (7: 18-20). A well formed nous knows how to bring forth good fruits!