Bible commentators such as John W. Ritenbaugh see the presence of light as a metaphor of
truth,
good and evil,
knowledge, and
ignorance. In the
first Chapter of the Bible, Elohim is described as creating light by
fiat and seeing the light to be good. John 1:5 also says that "God is light".
Eastern Orthodoxy In the
Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Divine Light illuminates the intellect of man through "
theoria" or
contemplation. In the
Gospel of John, the
opening verses describe God as Light: "In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:5). In John 8:12, Christ proclaims "I am the
light of the world", bringing the Divine Light to mankind. The
Tabor Light, also called the Uncreated Light, was revealed to the three apostles present at the
Transfiguration.
Quakers Quakers, known formally as the
Religious Society of Friends, are generally united by a belief in each human's ability to experience
the light within or see "that of God in every one". Most Quakers believe in
continuing revelation: that God continuously reveals truth directly to individuals.
George Fox said, "Christ has come to teach His people Himself." Veronika Koller explains liberal Quakers also see light as a revelation: "Quakers need to be open to 'a new light', i.e. continuing revelation". Friends often focus on feeling the presence of God. As
Isaac Penington wrote in 1670, "It is not enough to hear of Christ, or read of Christ, but this is the thing – to feel him to be my root, my life, and my foundation..." Quakers reject the idea of
priests, believing in the
priesthood of all believers. Quakers first gathered around George Fox in the mid-17th century and belong to a historically
Protestant Christian set of
denominations.
Mystical Christianity St. Augustine describes his experience of the divine light in
Confessions as "...the immutable light higher than my mind—not the light of every day, obvious to anyone, nor a larger version of the same kind which would, as it were, have given out a much brighter light and filled everything with its magnitude. It was not that light, but a different thing, utterly different from all our kinds of light. It transcended my mind, not in the way that oil floats on water, nor as heaven is above earth. It was superior because it made me, and I was inferior because I was made by it. The person who knows the truth knows it, and he who knows it knows eternity. Love knows it. Eternal truth and true love and beloved eternity: you are my God." Several Christian mystics throughout the Middle Ages have also expressed God in terms of light, and no one more famously than
San Juan de la Cruz (
St. John of the Cross). His poems
Noche Oscura and
Llama de Amor Viva (
The Dark Night and
The Living Flame of Love, respectively), as well as his discourses
The Ascent of Mount Carmel and
The Dark Night, both heavily employ metaphors of light and darkness in order to express San Juan's mystical theology. In "The Flowing Light of the Godhead,"
Mechthild of Magdeburg describes her mystical experiences. == Hinduism ==