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

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.