The "Vision of God" in Byzantine theology. II.

This article constitutes the second part of a study by Vladimir Lossky devoted to the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas and the hesychast controversy of the fourteenth century. Adopting an approach rooted in the history of theology, Lossky traces the transition of Byzantine thought from a christological cycle to a pneumatological cycle, culminating in the debates between Palamas and his adversaries — Barlaam, Akyndinos, Nicephorus Gregoras — on the nature of the Taboric light and of deifying grace. The central idea is that the Palamite distinction between the divine essence and the uncreated energies does not constitute a heretical innovation, but rather the dogmatic expression of a coherent patristic tradition running from the Cappadocians to Dionysius and Maximus. The contribution of the article is twofold: it rehabilitates Palamas against Western criticisms, notably those of Petau, and shows that the Byzantine theology of the energies grounds an integral anthropology in which the whole human being, body and soul, is called to real deification.