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Knowledge of God in St Gregory Palamas

Publication date: 2021

Studia Religiologica, 2021, Volume 54 Issue 3, pp. 249 - 268

https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.21.016.16553

Authors

Wojciech Micał
Jagiellonian University, Doctoral School in the Humanities, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3786-2483 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Knowledge of God in St Gregory Palamas

Abstract

The topic of knowledge of God is one of the most important questions discussed by St Gregory Palamas in the majority of his works. Palamas distinguishes four basic types of knowledge of God: knowledge of God drawn from creation, Christian knowledge gained from Scripture and Tradition, mystical knowledge understood as true wisdom, and the deifying vision of the Light of Tabor, which is called knowledge only in an improper sense of this word. All the above types of cognition concerning God are deeply embedded in the whole of Palamite theology, being linked to ideas such as objective distinction between God’s essence and energy or teaching about deification through participation in divine grace.

References

Texts by St Gregory Palamas

Atti Divini, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 984–1066.

Confutazioni di Acindino IIIV–V, [in:] Dal Sovraessenziale all’essenza, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2005, pp. 90–233, 386–643.

Dialogo d’un Ortodosso, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 1123–1232.

Discorsi dimostrativi I, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 7–118.

La partecipazione deificante, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 1067–1120.

Prima Lettera ad Acindino, [in:] Che cos’è lOrtodossia, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2006, pp. 387–422.

Seconda Lettera a Barlaam, [in:] Che cos’è lOrtodossia, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2006, pp. 501– 574.

Teofane, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 1233–1320.

The Homilies, C. Veniamin, Waverly PA 2016.

The One Hundred and Fifty Chapters, R.E. Sinkewicz (ed.), Ontario 1988.

To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia, [in:] The Philokalia, G.E.H. Palmer, P. Sherrard, K. Ware (eds.), vol. IV, pp. 293–322.

Tre capitoli sulla preghiera, [in:] Che cos’è lOrtodossia, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2006, pp. 169– 174.

Triadi, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 269–928.

Unità e distinzione, [in:] Atto e Luce Divina, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2003, pp. 931–983.

Vita di Pietro Athonita, [in:] Che cos’è lOrtodossia, E. Perrella (ed.), Milano 2006, pp. 175–232.

 

Literature

Athanasopoulos C., Demonstration (Απόδειξις) and Its Problems for St Gregory Palamas: Some Neglected Aristotelian Aspects of St Gregory Palamas’ Philosophy and Theology, [in:] The Ways of Byzantine Philosophy, M. Knezevic (ed.), Alhambra CA 2015, pp. 361–374.

Bradshaw D., Aristotle East and West, New York 2004.

Harper D., Becoming Homotheos: St Gregory Palamas’ Eschatology of Body, [in:] Triune God: Incomprehensible but Knowable – The Philosophical and Theological Significance of St Gregory Palamas for Contemporary Philosophy and Theology, C. Athanasopoulos (ed.), New- castle upon Tyne 2015, pp. 235–247.

Ierodiakonou K., The Anti-Logical Movement in the Fourteenth Century, [in:] Byzantine Philo- sophy and its Ancient Sources, K. Ierodiakonou (ed.), New York 2002, pp. 219–235.

Matzaridis G., Hesychasm and Theology, [in:] Orthodox Mysticism and Asceticism, C. Athanasopoulos (ed.), Newcastle upon Tyne 2020, pp. 2–14.

Mantzaridis G., Simplicity of God according to St Gregory Palamas, [in:] Triune God: Incomprehensible but Knowable – The Philosophical and Theological Significance of St Gregory Palamas for Contemporary Philosophy and Theology, C. Athanasopoulos (ed.), Newcastle upon Tyne 2015, pp. 19–27.

Melchisedec of St John the Baptist’s Monastery, The Indisputable Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, [in:] Triune God: Incomprehensible but Knowable – The Philosophical and Theological Significance of St Gregory Palamas for Contemporary Philosophy and Theology, C. Athanasopoulos (ed.), Newcastle upon Tyne 2015, pp. 12–18.

Russell N., Gregory Palamas and the Making of Palamism in the Modern Age, New York 2019.

Sinkewicz R.E., Barlaam and Knowledge of God, “Medieval Studies” 1982, vol. 44, pp. 181–242.

Sinkewicz R.E., The Concept of Spiritual Perception in Gregory Palamas’ First Triad in Defence of the Holy Hesychasts, “Христианский Восток” 1999, vol. 1(7), pp. 374–390.

Swinburne R., Gregory Palamas and Our Knowledge of God, “Studia Humana” 2014, vol. 3(1), pp. 3–12.

Yangazoglou S., Eucharist and Ascesis: Eucharistic and Therapeutic Ecclesiology in the Theology of St Gregory Palamas, [in:] Triune God: Incomprehensible but Knowable – The Philosophical and Theological Significance of St Gregory Palamas for Contemporary Philosophy and Theology, C. Athanasopoulos (ed.), Newcastle upon Tyne 2015, pp. 67–83.

Information

Information: Studia Religiologica, 2021, Volume 54 Issue 3, pp. 249 - 268

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Knowledge of God in St Gregory Palamas

English:

Knowledge of God in St Gregory Palamas

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3786-2483

Wojciech Micał
Jagiellonian University, Doctoral School in the Humanities, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3786-2483 Orcid
All publications →

Jagiellonian University, Doctoral School in the Humanities, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Poland

Published at: 2021

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Wojciech Micał (Author) - 100%

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Publication languages:

English

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<p> Knowledge of God in St Gregory Palamas</p>