Anyone who has been involved in Orthodoxy in America will likely have seen much discourse (often polemical in nature) about the “nous.” In fact, the nous plays a pivotal role in anti-western polemics since it has become a trope that “the West doesn’t have a concept of the nous.” Accordingly, the nous functions as a type of secret thing you can only access by being Orthodox, while inability to coherently explain what it means merely adds to its pseudo-mystical mystique.
But worse, there seems to be a troubling trend by which nous-related polemics have become increasingly aligned with atheism. Recently I wrote to a number of friends outlining this concern and asking for feedback on the theological issues it raised. Here is a copy of my letter.