Encountering god : a comparative study of the doctrine of the divine energy in maximus the confessor and Gregory Palamas

Abstract

How can humankind, which is finite, unite with the transcendent God? How does God communicate with the finite and yet remain transcendent? In mainstream Orthodox theology the answer to these fundamental questions involves recourse to the doctrine of the Divine Energy. More specifically, two theologians usually come to mind in this elaboration, namely Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas. Yet there is a tendency to collapse Maximus’ earlier teaching on the Divine Energy into Gregory Palamas’ much later teaching. Much scholarship exists on both theologians, but few scholars have examined their respective doctrines of Divine Energy together in order to differentiate their teachings, and thus give voice to the uniqueness of each theologian. The lack of scholarship in this area has led some to overgeneralize and treat their teachings as equivalent. John Meyendorff, for instance, claimed that Maximus’ Christian ontology “presupposes a distinction in God between ‘nature’ (or essence) and ‘energy,’ a distinction that will later be called ‘Palamism.’” In an effort to restore the distinctive positions of both theologians on this important issue of the Divine Energy, this essay will provide a comparative study of both authors. I will demonstrate that while Palmas’ theology of the Divine Energy is similar to Maximus’ theology, Maximus treats the Divine Energy as a description of what the Divine Essence does; Palamas, however, treats the Divine Energy as a subsistent distinction in God. For the purpose of clarity, this paper will be divided into three major sections: sections one and two will explicate the theology of Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas respectively, and section three will briefly compare the two authors.