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- Perhaps the most important contribution Palamas made to Orthodox Christian theology was his distinction between the essence and energies of God. While we cannot know God in His essence (God in Himself), we can know Him in his energies (the work of God’s grace in our lives, and who God is in relation to the creation and mankind).
www.saintjohnchurch.org/saint-gregory-palamas-essence-energies-distinction/
Mar 28, 2016 · He wrote this: “The energies are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His energies, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence. His energies come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach” ( Letter 234).
- Church Fathers
Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, March 27, 2016 Hebrews...
- Lent and Priesthood #6
Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, March 12, 2017 Hebrews...
- Church Fathers
- Who Was Saint Gregory Palamas?
- The Hesychastic Controversy
- The Essence/Energy Distinction
- Conclusion
Saint Gregory Palamas was an Athonite monk who later became the Archbishop of Thessalonica. Born in Constantinople to a noble Anatolian family, he had always been interested in the monastic life. Around 1318 A.D., he and his two brothers went to Mount Athos and became monks. However, with the Turks encroaching upon Greece, he fled to Thessalonica, ...
In the early 14th century, a man named Barlaam of Calabria encountered the monks of Mount Athos. These monks practiced the spiritual art of hesychasm, or unceasing prayer, and testified that through this type of prayer they could see the uncreated light of God. Barlaam claimed that the monks wasted their time in fruitless prayer when they could ins...
Perhaps the most important contribution Palamas made to Orthodox Christian theology was his distinction between the essence and energies of God. While we cannot know God in His essence (God in Himself), we can know Him in his energies(the work of God’s grace in our lives, and who God is in relation to the creation and mankind). Both essence and ene...
Saint Gregory Palamas holds a special place in the heart of the Eastern Orthodox Church. His defense of hesychasm and his clear teachings on how to truly commune with God greatly shaped Orthodoxy as it developed apart from the Roman West. This is why we remember him during Great Lent, a time when returning to God is the entire purpose of spiritual ...
energies of God does indeed know God ‘as he is’, although not as he is in himself,” that is, the person does not know God in His essence. 8 God is not limited to His essence, but exists eternally in essence and energy.
Feb 28, 2021 · This realization is what lies behind the theology of St. Gregory Palamas and his description of the divine energies – we know God through the divine energies, not by the divine nature; we know ...
- Henry Karlson
Mar 24, 2019 · We may think we know Him by way of His essence and energies, but we can only know as much as God gives us to understand. Now we come to Saint Gregory Palamas and to defend him in regards to his experience in knowing God.
According to Fr. John Romanides, Palamas considers the distinction between God's essence and his energies to be a "real distinction", as distinguished from the Thomistic "virtual distinction" and the Scotist "formal distinction".
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Jan 20, 2008 · “The energies are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His energies, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence. His energies come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach.” Basil the Great, Epistle 234.
