What is Knowledge?

There can be countless quotes on this topic, what is knowledge. However, it seems that the Church Fathers had a belief, i.e. that true knowledge can only be achieved via the personal experience of divine grace. Saint Isaac of Nineveh stated, in the dessert of Syria, 7^th century AD:

“Knowledge that precedes faith is natural knowledge; knowledge that is born of faith is spiritual knowledge…Natural knowledge leads to God, as we learn to distinguish good from evil and to receive faith. The power of such knowledge is that we believe in the One, who has created all things. From this faith is born a sense of awe toward God. Thus, gradually, one comes to a spiritual knowledge, which is the sense of things hidden and transcendent. It does not contradict faith, but rather it confirms it. It is called faith through contemplation”[1].

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[1] Ascetic Treatises, 18