Contents

INTRODUCTORY WORD

I. CHAPTER I: The life and activity of St. Gregory Palamas

I.1. The early life and education

I.2. Monastic Formation and Theological Education

I.3. Outline of Palamas later life

II. CHAPTER II: The uncreated Light

2.1. The Vision of the Divine Light

2.2. The between God’s essence and energy at St. Grigory Palamas

III. CHAPTER III: The Experience of the Uncreated Light

III.1. The divine Light in the theology of St. Gregory Palamas

III.2. Hesychasm and the Taboric Light

CONCLUSIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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INTRODUCTORY WORD

In presenting St. Gregory Palamas and his distinction between God’s Essence and

Energy, I hope to share the mystical notion of Ultimate Reality and Meaning of man. Many in

the more rational West are not familiar with the teaching of this Eastern saint. It is also true to

say that the Eastern mystical heritage does not seem to be widely understood even among the

Orthodox1. Because we are dealing here with a permanent mystical treasure of the universal

Church the discovery or rediscovery of Palamas would be to our benefit2.

Historical and Ideological Background

14th Century Europe was a place of political upheaval and dramatic ideological

change. Byzantium, which was in a state of progressive decline -particularly since the ill-fated

fourth crusade - had been culturally, intellectually, and, perhaps most significantly,

theologically separated from its Western contemporaries. The Latins, on the other hand, had

rediscovered the works of classical antiquity which had in turn facilitated a cultural and

intellectual revival in the Renaissance that, it could be said, was in many ways antithetical to

the so-called synthesis of philosophy and Christian theology promulgated by the scholastic

theologians of the previous century3.

It was in this atmosphere of formidable intellectual development that Barlaam, a

Greek from Calabria, went to Constantinople in 1338, where he quickly won fame as a

scholar and philosopher4.

Claiming to be a sincere advocate of Eastern theology, and especially inclined towards

the apophatic tradition, Barlaam nonetheless made the mistake of carrying his philosophical

convictions into the sphere of theology, where he quickly demonstrated his fundamental

misunderstanding of the theological tenets, traditions, and methods of the Orthodox Church5.

1 David Coffey, The Palamite Doctrine of God: A New Perspective, St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, vol. 32, 1988, p. 329;2 George Habra, The Source of the Doctrine of Gregory Palamas on the Divine Energies, Eastern Churches Quarterly, vol.XII, 1957, p. 244;3 James Fieser and Samuel Enoch Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre and Beyond: A History of Philosophy, USA: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 2008, p. 176;4 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1974, p. 86;5 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, trans. George Lawrence, Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1998, p. 42-43;

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This is pertinently exhibited in his novel ideas concerning the Filioque, where, in line

with the nominalism reflected in the writings of William of Ockham, he contested the West's

rationalistic attempts to prove the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son and instead

affirmed, quite emphatically, that the nature of the procession of the Holy Spirit ,,lay outside

human cognizance because God was beyond knowledge”6.

Moreover, he went on to claim that the doctrine concerning the procession - which had

been an issue of fervent dispute between East and West - could be relegated to the ,,domain of

private theological opinions which do not constitute an obstacle to the unity of the Church” .7

Barlaam's apophaticism was therefore tantamount to a theological agnosticism that led

to dogmatic relativism, isolating God from human experience. Indeed, it was this radical

apophaticism that compelled St Gregory Palamas - an erudite Athonite monk who became, by

force of circumstances, the principal representative of the Patristic tradition of the period - to

affirm that God, despite His indubitable incomprehensibility, has paradoxically chosen to

reveal Himself to humanity and can therefore be experienced7.

6 Normal Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 304;7 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, p. 87;

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CHAPTER I: The life and activity of St. Gregory Palamas

St. Gregory Palamas was born c. 1296, the first-born of a noble family in

Constantinople, and he died as the Archbishop of Thessalonica in 1359. Palamas was

recognized as a saintly monk and a mystical theologian by four local non-ecumenical

Councils held at Constantinople during his life time or shortly after his death in 1341, 1347,

1351, and 13688.

He became a major teacher of Byzantine Christianity. In our own day Palamas’ status

in Eastern Christianity has been rediscovered by Orthodox theologians, and he has rightly

been restored to a central position (Ibid.) Further, St. Gregory Palamas in the East can be

compared with St. Thomas Aquinas in the West9.

The early life and education

Gregory Palamas belonged to an aristocratic family of Asia Minor who emigrated to

Constantinople at the end of the 13th century. His father was Constantine Palamas, a pious

senator in the immediate entourage of Emperor Andronicus II who entrusted Constantine with

the education of his grandson, the future Emperor Andronicus III10.

Gregory was brought up in a family atmosphere of imperial loyalty, and received an

excellent education in Christian piety centred on monastic prayer. When his father died in

1303, Gregory was seven and Andronicus II took over the care of the youngster’s education.

At home in the palace Gregory seemed to have established a solid friendship with the future

Andronicus III who was exactly his age and later gave Palamas much needed support11.

Under the Emperor’s patronage, Gregory attained great success both in grammar and

in rhetoric. Pursuing the studies of physics, logic, and the science of Aristotle, he was admired

by his teachers. Andronicus II intended that Palamas should become a high officer in the

State12.

8 K. Ware, Tradition and personal experience in later Byzantine theology, Eastern Churches Review, vol. 3, 1970, p. 129;9 C. M. LaCugna, God for Us: The Trinity and Christian life, NY: Harper Collins, 1992, p. 181;10 Edward G. Farrugia, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Christian East, Published House: Galaxia Gutenberg, Targu Lapus, 2005, p. 190;11 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 44;12 Ibidem, p. 44;

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At the same time, Palamas came under the influence of certain monks with whom the

family was acquainted, especially with the mystically-minded metropolitan Theoleptus of

Philadelphia. He gave Palamas instruction in holy sobriety and revealed the mysteries of

mental prayer even while the latter was still occupied with worldly affairs13.

Finally, at about the age of 20, Palamas decided to enter formal monastic life. He also

persuaded all the other members of his family who were still alive, his mother, two sisters,

and two brothers, to do likewise14.

Monastic Formation and Theological Education

The second stage of Palamas’ life lasted about 18 years. It began when he entered

Mount Athos in 1316 as a novice and lasted until 1334 when he started to promote the

traditional monastic hesychasm or practice of sacred quietude. In Greek, hesychia means

quietude15.

Theoleptus of Philadelphia continued to influence him as a spiritual master. It seems

that there were five other persons who helped shape his life and thought. The first was a

hesychast monk called Nicodemus who directed Palamas as his spiritual father for his first

three years at Mt. Athos in fasting, sleeplessness, spiritual vigilance and uninterrupted

prayer16.

Palamas’ second spiritual father was also a hesychast monk called Gregory the Great

(not the Sinaite of the same name) who directed Gregory for two years at Glossia, on the

north-western slope of Athos17. The third person of great influence on Palamas seemed to be

Isidore, a friend and a young layman, the future Patriarch. Apparently, Isidore’s spiritual

father, Gregory the Sinaite, passed on to him the great monastic virtues and insights18.

Two other influential forerunners to Palamas, apart from Theoleptus, were Gregory of

Cyprus, Patriarch of Constantinople, from 1283 to 1289, and Anthonasius I, Patriarch of

Constantinople from 1289-1293 and from 1303-1309. The former was noted for his

theological Orthodoxy and the latter for his monastic spirituality and diplomacy in practical

affairs In 1326, at the age of 30, Palamas was ordained a priest at Thessalonica at his friends’

insistence19.

13 Art. published on the website: http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=2538.10;wap214Priest Professor Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, The life and teaching of St. Gregory Palamas, Published House: Scripta, Bucharest, 1993, p. 15;15 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 45;16 Hierotheos Vlachos, St. Gregory Palamas - Hagiorite, Published House: Annunciation, Bacau, 2000, p. 382;17 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 45;18 Ibidem, p. 45-46;19 Priest Professor Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, op. cit., p. 17;

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Outline of Palamas later life

Palamas’ later life lasted about 25 years, from 1334 when he began writing at the age

of 38, until 1359 when he died of an intestine paralysis at the age of 63. He was named

Archbishop of Thessalonica in 134720.

This was a period of great external crises threatened by the invading Turks and Serbs,

severe internal conflicts caused by top imperial and ecclesiastic figures, and ferocious

intellectual debates conducted between the rational humanist and mystical hesychasts.

Palamas had to employ every bit of his earlier education in diplomacy and in hesychastic

prayer through it all, in order to achieve the results he did21.

For Palamas this later period of his life was above all marked by his battles with the

anti-hesychastic humanists, in particular with Barlaam, the Calabrian philosopher, as well as

with Gregory Akindynos and Nicephorus Gregoras, two Byzantine humanists22. In 1341 a

council in Constantinople rebuked Barlaam, upon which he left Byzantium23. In 1347 and

particularly in 1351, two more councils endorsed the theology of Palamas. They refuted the

anti- hesychastic arguments of Akindynos and Gregoras whose general position more or less

coincided with that of Barlaam24.

Palamas was canonized by the synod of Constantinople in 1268. To this day his relics

have been venerated at the cathedral of Thessalonica. In the following hymn, the Orthodox

Church chants to St. Gregory Palamas in the liturgy of the second Sunday of Lent, in

veneration of the saint who, several decades before the fall of Byzantium, integrated

hesychasm — Eastern Christianity’s ancient tradition of contemplative monasticism — into a

doctrinal synthesis25.

CHAPTER II: The uncreated Light

20 H. D. Hunter, Palamas, Gregory. New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 10, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1967, p. 872;21 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 45;22 Priest Eugene Dragoi, History of Christianity in dates, Published House: The Diocese Lower Danube, Galati, 2004, p. 53;23 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 45;24John Meyendorff, Byzantine Hesychasm: Historical, Theological and Social Problems: Collected Studies, London, Variorum Reprints, 1974, p. 52;25 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 46;

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The Vision of the Divine Light

In theology, divine light (also called divine radiance or divine refulgence) is an aspect

of divine presence, specifically an unknown and mysterious ability of God, angels, or human

beings to express themselves communicatively through spiritual means, rather than through

physical capacities.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Divine Light illuminates the intellectof man

through ,,theoria” or contemplation. In the Gospel of John, the first few 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). Christ also professes to bring

the Divine Light to mankind: ,,I am the light of the world” (John 8, 12). The Divine Light is

also called the Tabor Light which the apostles witnessed at the Transfiguration26.

Saint Gregory Palamas emphasizes with all the energy and everywhere that only a

pure heart, which come after a long and difficult moral efforts only very few people can stand

up to the union with God. Through holiness so we can get closer to God, we can see

supernatural light, not syllogisms and sharings, and analysis of profane wisdom! The

contemplation of truth is not the end of science, but to (the) of holiness, and this is still not

obtained by scientific means, but through deeds and life. Syllogistic and analytical methods

can not be known any man himself, but by repentance painful and intense asceticism, making

the mind without vanity and without malice27.

In opposition to Barlaam's accusations, Palamas maintained that the divine light was

neither of the essence of God nor a created effect. Rather, he affirmed that it consisted of

Christ's transfiguring glory, a glory that He clearly desired to be bestowed on His disciples,

and through them, on all who believe in Him: ,,Thus to our human nature He has given the

glory of the Godhead, but not the divine nature; for the nature of God is one thing, His glory

another, even though they are inseparable from one another”28.

What is this glory that we experience; that is not the divine nature (or essence) but is

nonetheless inseparable from it? It is obvious that Palamas is here referring to the distinction

26 St. Gregory Palamas, Philokalia, vol. VII, introduction, notes and translation by Priest Professor Dr. Dumitru Staniloaie, Published House: Bible and Mission Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1977, p. 214;27Priest Professor Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, The road to the divine light at St. Gregory Palamas, article published in ,,The Romanian Orthodox Theological Academy Magazine”, Sibiu, 1940, p. 64;28 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads in The Classics of Western Spirituality, translate by Nicholas Gendle, USA: Paulis Press, 1983, p. 32;

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between essence and energies in God, which is a formal or conceptual distinction that

paradoxically illustrates how God can remain both at the same time transcendent and

immanent, incomprehensible yet experiential. It must be emphasised that Palamas is not the

originator of this distinction. It is found, though with less doctrinal precision, in most of the

Greek Fathers, many of whom Palamas repeatedly quotes and refers to throughout his Triads,

including Sts Gregory the Theologian, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the

Confessor, etc.29

This distinction, however important, remains incomplete if we do consider that God is

first and foremost three persons whose inner life is expressed as an absolute interpenetration

or intercommunion of love known as perichoresis which maintains both the diversity of the

three persons and their essential unity30. Personhood in God is thus logically anterior to His

essence and energies, and it is to Palamas' demonstration of this fact and its relationship to the

divine light that we now turn.

In his third Triad, Palamas affirmed that God's essence, or His life ad intra,

,,transcends the fact of being accessible to the senses, since God is not only above all created

things, but is even beyond Godhead”31, and from this we can infer that Palamas presupposed

the Patristic doctrine of an ontological distinction between the uncreated Creator and His

creation. Yet despite God's innate transcendence, Palamas insisted that the created order can

still participate in Him.

Giving an analogy which compared God to the sun, Palamas asserted that although the

essence, which he likens to the disc of the sun, is superessential, the ,,rays [of the sun] are

energies or energy, and that one can participate in them, even though the essence remains

beyond participation”32.

However, if God is first and foremost three persons whose inner life is expressed as a

single essence and the energies are the full manifestation of God in the world, then the

energies do not pertain to the incommunicable essence of God33. Rather, the energies are

exterior manifestations of the three persons or hypostases of the Holy Trinity, and it is for this

reason that Palamas in his second Triad called this light hypostatic34.

29 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, p. 90;30 Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, SVS Press, James Clarke & Co Ltd, 1997, p. 71;31 St. Gregory Palamas, Philokalia, vol. VII, p. 216;32 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 57;33 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, p. 92;34 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 104;

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Whilst remaining inscrutable because of the ontological gap between God and the

universe, the Holy Trinity paradoxically engages with the created order through these

energies, which, consisting of God's life ad extra, remain uncreated precisely because of their

source in God's personhood35.

The distinction between God's essence and energy at St. Grigory Palamas

The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of the Palamite theology consists of the distinction

between God’s Essence and Energy. ,,This is a way of expressing the idea that the

transcendent God remains eternally hidden in His Essence, but at the same time the God also

seeks to communicate and unite Himself with us personally through His Energy”36.

One may say that the very focus of hesychasm, the practice of sacred quietude, is a

sacred experience of God’s personal union with us through His Divine Energy as He seeks to

reach out to us in this prayerful quietude. Palamas’s defence of hesychasm is also the defence

of his distinction between God’s Essence and His Energy37.

The 1351 Council in Constantinople

The 1351 Constantinople Council was the most important doctrinally of all the

Councils related to Palamas and his teaching and summed up succinctly the Palamite

distinction in eight main points38:

(1) There is in God a distinction (diadrisis) between the essence and the energies or

energy. (It is equally legitimate to refer to the latter either in the singular or in the plural).

(2) The energy of God is not created but uncreated (akistos).

(3) This distinction between the uncreated essence and the uncreated energies does not in

any way impair the divine simplicity; there is no ‘compositeness’ (synthesis) in God.

(4) The term ‘deity’ (theotis) may be applied not only to the essence of God but to the

energies.

(5) The essence enjoys a certain priority or superiority in relation to the energies, in the

sense that the energies proceed from the essence.

(6) Man can participate in God’s energies but not in his essence.

35 Priest Professor Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, The road to the divine light at St. Gregory Palamas, p. 66;36 Vladimir Lossky, op. cit., p. 79;37 G. Maloney, A Theology of Uncreated Energies, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University,1978, p. 72;38 http://frgregory.blogspot.gr/2009/03/st-gregory-palamas-on-divine-energies.html, article published on website by Fr. Gregory Hogg

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(7) The divine energies may be experienced by men in the form of light — a light which,

though beheld through men’s bodily eyes, is in itself non-material, ,,intelligible” (noeron) and

uncreated. This is the uncreated light that was manifested to the apostles at the

Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, that is seen during prayer by the saints in our own time, and

that will shine upon and from the righteous at their resurrection on the Last Day. It thus

possesses an eschatological character: it is ,,the light of the Age to Come”.

(8) No energy is to be associated with one divine person to the exclusion of the other two,

but the energies are shared in common by all three persons of the Trinity39.

The 1351 Council also formally endorsed Palamas’ Confession of Faith submitted by

him. What is particularly significant in this Confession is Palamas’ linking as synonymous

God’s energeia with God’s grace and power through which God enters into intimate union

with us40. His Confession shows that his teaching on God’s Divine Energy is substantially a

theology of grace:

,,...He [God] is not revealed is his essence (ousia), for no one has ever seen or

described God’s nature (physis); but he is revealed in the grace (charis), power (dynamis)

and energy (energeia) which is common to the Father, Son and Spirit. Distinctive to each of

the three is the person (hypostasis) of each, and whatever belongs to the person. Shared in

common by all three are not only the transcendent essence — what is altogether nameless,

unmanifested and imparticipable, since it is beyond all names, manifestations and

participation — but also the divine grace, power, energy, radiance, kingdom and incorruption

whereby God enters through grace into communion and union with the holy angels and the

saints”41.

Through His Energy God is reaching out and seeking a personal union with everyone

everywhere. This awareness enables us to add God’s immanent, participable dimension to the

transcendent, imparticipable concept of God which views God largely as a divine essence.

The Orthodox concept that God’s Divine Energies are within everything and outside

everything helps us grasp God’s real personal immanence to us everywhere42. Palamas adds

concisely: ,,God is entirely present in each of the divine energies, we name Him from each of

them, although it is clear that He transcends all of them”43.

39 David Coffey, op. cit., p. 330;40 K. Ware, op. cit., . 133;41 St. Gregory Palamas, Complete Operas, vol II, translation, notes and bibliography by Priest Cristian Chivu, Adrian Tanasescu, Deacon Cornel Coman, Published House: The Burning Bush, Bucharest, 2013, p. 104;42 Vladimir Lossky, op. cit., p. 96;43 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 24;

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As partakers of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1, 4), we should be aware of the two

dimensions of God in Palamism. God, in all His divine simplicity, is at the same time both

personally imparticipable and personally participable to us. Moreover, this God is constantly

seeking a personal union with each of us everywhere through His omnipresent Divine

Energies which can be regarded as God-for-us in His participable nature, life or constitution.

God’s accessible Energies are not God’s inaccessible Personal Being. God’s imparticipable

being, nature, life or constitution remains eternally transcendent and unapproachable in His

Divine Essence44.

CHAPTER III: The Experience of the Uncreated Light

44 G. Maloney, op. cit., p. 80;

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We have stated above that the hesychasts' experience this light by undertaking certain

psychosomatic techniques which can only be learnt from experienced teachers, who were able

to give expert guidance. This is not only consistent with monastic tradition45, but also with the

patristic paradigm of the relationship between the spiritual Father and his disciple; the Father

must assimilate to Christ as much as possible and, having seen the vision of the divine light,

only then can he teach his student the proper attitude of hesychasm and thus prepare the

disciple to receive the same blessing46.

Palamas gives us a deep insight into the nature of this attitude when he once again

opposed Barlaam, expressing the latter's views when he wrote in his first Triad that he had

heard it stated by certain people that ,,education not only dispels all other evils from the soul -

since every passion has its root and foundation in ignorance - but it also leads men to the

knowledge of God, for God is knowable only through mediation of his creatures”47.

Barlaam was here exhibiting his apophatic and naturalistic proclivities. A direct

knowledge or experience of God is impossible. The only direct knowledge one can have of

Him is to acknowledge his unknowability, and therefore all that can legitimately be said

concerning Him is based on inferences derived from His creation. Palamas refuted these

views in two ways. Firstly, by stating that the saints make no mention of the alleviation of

ignorance and the cultivation of knowledge as a prerequisite to knowing God, and secondly,

by referring an analogy employed by St Isaac the Syrian who contrasted natural knowledge

with the contemplation of God by stating that the soul has two eyes, one with which to

ascertain knowledge of God through His creation and the other with which we contemplate

God's glory48.

The former eye, though legitimate, does not see what the latter eye sees, for they each

see a different light. But it is this latter eye which contemplates God's glory, a glory that we

identified above with His energies and thus the hypostatic or Taboric light49.

The vision of this light is first and foremost a gift of grace which exhibits God's desire

to reshape humanity into his likeness. But the human will is not altogether precluded in such

an endeavour. This grace can be received by those who fulfil the commandments, purify

45 Normal Russell, op. cit., p. 310;46 Article published on website: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.gr/2010/02/truth-of-uncreated-light-of-god.html47 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 25;48 Ibidem, p. 59;49 G. Maloney, op. cit., p. 83;

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themselves of the evil passions and who practice ,,uninterrupted and immaterial prayer”50,

because it is only by attaining stability in virtue and emancipation from the passions that one

can become impassive. Impassibility, far from denoting an ostensible insensitivity, comes

from the Greek word and in this context means a separation from created things so that one

can completely orientate oneself towards God51.

The impassive person become not only marked by virtue, prayer and the proper

disposition towards life in general, but more importantly becomes receptive to the divine

light, which one cannot ascertain according to one's own devices because of the fact that the

initiative lay entirely with God52.

It is God who accomplishes the unification between Himself and the impassive

person, a union which is expressed in the vision of the Taboric light and which transforms its

recipient into light by grace, thereby deifying them. Indeed, the person is not abolished in the

union but rather completely transfigured, ,,for such is the character of the union, that all is

one, so that he who sees can distinguish neither the means nor the object nor its nature, but

simply the awareness of being light and of seeing a light distinct from every creature”53.

The divine Light in the theology of St. Gregory Palamas

St. Gregory Palamas speaks about three lights:

1. The light sensitive

2. The light of intelligence

3. The uncreated light that exceeds the first two.

The light intelligence is different from light perceived by the our senses, the Light

sensitive reveals to us their objects of our senses, and the intellectual serves to manifestation

the truth that is in thought54.

So, the view and intelligence do not perceive one and the same light, it is specific to

each of the two faculties to act according to their nature and their limits. However, when those

who are worthy receive supernatural grace and spiritual power, they perceive both through

50 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 61;51http://oldmanbuhler.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/uncreated-energies-the-theology-of-light-st-gregory-palamas- archbishop-of-thessalonica/, article published on website by Edmund Nicholas John52 G. Maloney, op. cit., p. 85;53 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 66;54 Article published on website: http://www.basilica.ro/stiri/sf-grigorie-palama-despre-fiinta-lui-dumnezeu-energiile-sale-necreate-si-vederea-luminii-dumnezeiesti_5216.html

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the senses and through intellect which is above every sense and of any intellect. How? This is

known only to God and by those who have experienced His grace55.

Divine Light is not material or spiritual and sensitive, but neither is intelligible light or

intellectual. This light is divine and uncreated. Vision Divine Light is not a symbolic analogy

with the physical light and just a theory, but it is a sign of living and personal presence of

Christ.

This divine light is discovered spiritually discerned pure people and who reach on

highest peaks of virtue and they have a life of holiness. In light of the divine man sees Christ,

he knows, and he communicate with Him and enjoy untold His presence56.

Hesychasm and the Taboric Light

Palamas' assertion led to an open dispute between him and Barlaam, and it was during

their polemical exchanges that the latter was exposed to hesychasm57. The hesychasts believed

,,that the human body could itself participate in prayer and feel the action of divine grace”58,

which was manifested as a vision of the divine light. The method which they undertook to

receive this vision was psychosomatic; concentrating the mind in the region of the heart, they

would retain each breath and recite mentally the short prayer ,,Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

have mercy upon me”, thus achieving a state of inner quiet in order to receive God's grace59.

Barlaam, denying ,,all effective action of grace over human reasoning”60, launched a

vociferous campaign against this practice. He accused the monks of the same errors

committed by the Messalians - a fourth century group which claimed that through asceticism

one could receive a vision of the divine essence - and also hypothesised that if the light which

the monks claimed to experience was true, then it was probably nothing more than a created

effect or symbol61.

Palamas, himself a practitioner of hesychasm, was beseeched by the monks to come to

their aid and in 1341 wrote the first in a series of treatises known as the Triads in which he

criticises philosophical approaches towards God which exaggerate apophaticism, an approach

which, although constituting the characteristic and most appropriate method of theologising in

55 C. Yannaras, The distinction between essence and energies and its importance for theology, St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, vol. 19, 1975, p. 232; 56 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, p. 118;57 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 46;58 Ibidem, p. 46;59 John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes, NY: Fordham University Press, 1983, p. 76;60 John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, p. 46;61 Normal Russell, op. cit., p. 304;

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the East, does not isolate God from human experience because this experience occurs ,,in a

manner superior to negation”62.

Palamas went on to maintain that this experience was a manifestation of God as a

divine light which ,,transforms the body, and communicates its own splendour to it when,

miraculously, the light which deifies the body becomes accessible to the bodily eyes”63. This

light is therefore a catalyst for union between God and the human person that results in the

deification of the latter. Nevertheless, in his second Triad Palamas declared that it was his

purpose to ,,communicate the teaching of the light of grace of those long-revered saints whose

wisdom comes from experience”, proclaiming that ,,such is the teaching of Scripture”64.

This teaching is best reflected for him in the Transfiguration of Christ, and throughout

his Triads he uses the Transfiguration as a point of reference in order to emphasise the fact

that the light radiating from Christ on Mount Tabor was bestowed upon - and thus seen and

experienced by - his disciples65.

Moreover it is through the ,,long revered saints” - the Fathers of the Church - that this

divine light can be experienced ,,even now in the hearts of the faithful and the perfect”66, an

assertion which is consistent with apostolic tradition due to the fact that it implies that this

experience can be traced back through the Fathers to the disciples and thus to its source,

which is Christ Himself67.

CONCLUSIONS

Barlaam's radical nominalistic and apophatic epistemology posed a dilemma; if

nothing can be said concerning God because of His incomprehensibility, then certainly, by

extension, He cannot interact with his creation and therefore cannot be experienced. This

62 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, p. 32;63 Ibidem, p. 33;64 Ibidem, p. 33;65 G. Maloney, op. cit., p. 87;66 John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality, p. 121;67 Ibidem, p. 122;

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God, however, is not the God of the Christians who assumed human flesh; He is the God of

the pagan philosophers, so far removed from His creation that an ultimate dichotomy is

produced between the material universe and His so-called divine abode.

Palamas perceived the danger in this way of thinking. He realised that it was a

blasphemous attempt to impose finite human thinking on the incomprehensibly infinite, to

circumscribe the limitless. In his Triads, Palamas illustrated in a very cogent and logical

fashion the existential dimension of Christian theology; that the divine light manifested by

Christ on Mount Tabor can be experienced in this life, not only by the hesychasts, but by all

those who keep the divine commandments, ,,for the Lord has promised to manifest himself to

him who keeps them”68.

To accomplish this exposition, Palamas relied heavily on the spiritual legacy of the

Orthodox Church, drawing on the writings of the Fathers faithfully and consistently, a fact

which only gives veracity to his claims. Moreover, it should be every Christian's goal to

receive this light, for our purpose is to become, as St Peter stated, partakers of the divine

nature, and hence gods by grace (2 Pet 1, 4).

This is wonderfully expressed by Palamas when he states that those who have

experienced the divine light have ,,become entirely God, and know God in God”69. It is

precisely this existential message that has to be proclaimed to our very often confused society;

a society which is justifiably fed up with stories of ,,pearly gates” and ,,cloud-filled heavens”.

Our society needs to experience God, an experience that God himself has made possible in his

incarnation; an experience that He desires to be shared by all70.

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Internet:

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topic=2538.10;wap2

2) http://frgregory.blogspot.gr/2009/03/st-gregory-palamas-on-divine-energies.html , article

published on website by Fr. Gregory Hogg

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uncreated-light-of-god.html

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light-st-gregory-palamas-archbishop-of-thessalonica/, article published on website by

Edmund Nicholas John

5) Article published on website: http://www.basilica.ro/stiri/sf-grigorie-palama-despre-

fiinta-lui-dumnezeu-energiile-sale-necreate-si-vederea-luminii-dumnezeiesti_5216.html

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