George Christopher
Michigan, United States

Saint John Climacus (St. John of the Ladder) was the abbot of Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai during the early seventh century. He was a student of St. Gregory Nazarian, joined a monastic community at age sixteen, and was known for the depth of his spiritual insights. His book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, describes thirty steps towards salvation, beginning with self-renunciation and leading to the integration of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love into earthly life.^1-3

A twelfth-century icon portrays the message of St. John’s book. Monks climb a ladder between the mundane (earth) and the celestial (heaven), some ascending successfully, while others are snared by Satan and his minions. Interpretations of the icon emphasize the lengthy, arduous, and incremental aspects of spiritual growth—a life-long process moving towards theosis, or union with God.

The icon may evoke additional interpretations. The depiction of Christ at the top of the ladder may serve as a reminder that the essence of information is non-random arrangement⁴ or relationship; that the epitome of relationship is love; and that God is love (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16). Information in genetic codes (at the top of the ladder) organizes matter and energy (at the bottom of the ladder) into life^4-7 (signified by people climbing the ladder). A medically relevant point is that increased intracellular entropy (disorder, randomness; the opposite of information) is associated with senescence and diseases of aging, cellular dysfunction, malignant transformation, and death.^7-11

The exertion of the climbers conveys that life is an activity, recalling that living cells are open thermodynamic systems that must perform work (e.g., the active transport of essential molecules, the synthesis of macromolecules, contraction, secretion, motility, and other vital processes) to survive,^4-7,11 underscoring Aristotelian and Thomistic concepts of the value of directed action in the good life.⁷ A particularly thought-provoking detail from the standpoint of symbolic representation is the structure of the ladder—two backbones connected by cross-linkages, essentially a schematic diagram of DNA (two deoxyribose backbones linked by hydrogen bonds between paired nucleotides). The sole missing aspect of DNA is its helical structure.

References

1. St. John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Translated by Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press; 1982.
2. FaithND. St. John Climacus. University of Notre Dame. Available at https://faith.nd.edu/saint/st-john-climacus/. Accessed April 8, 2026.
3. St. John the Evangelist Orthodox Church, Beaver Falls, PA. Fourth Sunday of Great Lent: St. John Climacus. April 12, 2024. Available at: https://www.saintjohnchurch.org/sunday-of-st-john-climacus/. Accessed April 9, 2026.
4. Fong P. Thermodynamic and statistical theory of life: An outline. In: Biogenesis Evolution Homeostasis, ed. A. Locker. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag; 1973;93-106.
5. Macklem PT, Seely AJE. Towards a definition of life. Perspect Biol Med. 2010;53:330-340.
6. Davies PW, Rieper E, Tuszynski JA. Self-organization and entropy reduction in a living cell. Biosystems. 2013;111:1-10.
7. Christopher G. Countercurrent of life. Theol Sci. 2022;20:493-503.
8. Blokh D, Stambler I. The application of information theory for the research of aging and aging-related diseases. Prog Neurobiol. 2017;157:158-173.
9. Lecarpentier Y, Krokides X, Martin P, Pineau T, Hebert JL, Quillard J, Cortes-Morichetti M, Coirault C. Increased entropy production in diaphragm muscle of PPAR alpha knockout mice.J Theoret Biol. 2008;250:92-102.
10. Sato M, Kawana K, Adachi K, Fujimoto A, Yoshida M, Nakamura H, Nichida H et al. Intracellular signaling entropy can be a biomarker for predicting the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. PLoS One. 2017;24:e0176353.
11. Frieden BR, Gatenby RA. Information in living systems: Prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and cancer. PLoS One. 2011;6:e22085.