For example, reading about theology just to know about it is a sin. If we read theology and we do not be joyful, pious, and full of life, then we are insulting God who came to us as life. God did not come to make our mind busy, but rather to warm our hearts. Life with God is not just information, but experience. God cannot be conceived and described by studies, but spoken about from experience.
Studies are positive when they add to our experience.
Barlaam represents the deceof religion as knowledge, and Saint Gregory Palamas reminds us of the experienceof religion as life. God entrusts us with His love, for He knows that we live only by His love. From the Orthodox point of view, man does not live except on the heavenly manna, that is the divine grace. He does not live by bread, but by grace and by every divine word coming from the mouth of God. Every serum, different than the divine grace, we give to today's paralytic man is a corrupt and deadly serum, because it does not bring true life.