the Essence Energies Distinction and Patristic Legacy: An Antinomic Epistemological Perspective: 16

This book’s innovative approach in the study of the Palamite controversy abandons the traditional "ontological" front of an (Eastern) defense or (Western) rejection of a “real” divine essence-energies distinction, assessing the (dis)continuity between Palamas' thought and its patristic sources on the basis of the epistemological notion of antinomy. Since its clear formalization in the 14th century by the Orthodox theologian Gregory Palamas, the assertion of a „real“ distinction in God between essence and uncreated energies has become the major point of conflict between Western and Eastern Christian theologies, to the point that nowadays even the notorious Filioque controversy tends to be seen as a theological consequence of this problem. The innovative approach of this book on the Palamite controversy abandons the traditional „ontological“ contraposition based on the (Eastern) defense or (Western) rejection of the aforementioned „real“ distinction, and moves to epistemological terrain, taking the logical notion of „antinomy“, in its vital connection with theological apophaticism, as the formal touchstone to discern the effective continuity (or discontinuity) between Palamas‘ thought and its patristic sources.

Pagina's: 300, Editie: Eerste editie, Hardcover, Lang, Peter GmbH