Divine Essence and Divine Energies Divine Essence and Divine Energies Ecumenical Refl ections on the Presence of God in Eastern Orthodoxy Edited by Constantinos Athanasopoulos and Christoph Schneider C James Clarke & Co James Clarke & Co P.O. Box 60 Cambridge CB1 2NT www.jamesclarke.co [email protected] ISBN: 978 0 227 17386 2 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A record is available from the British Library Copyright © The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, 2013 First Published, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced, stored electronically or in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the Publisher ([email protected]). Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 9 Beyond Agnosticism and Pantheism Christoph Schneider Chapter 1 27 The Concept of the Divine Energies David Bradshaw Chapter 2 50 St. Gregory Palamas as the Response of Orthodox Mystical Theology to (Neo-)Platonist and Aristotelian Metaphysics Constantinos Athanasopoulos Chapter 3 68 Pancreation Lost: The Fall of Theology Roy Clouser Chapter 4 96 The Woes of Originality: Discussing David Bradshaw’s Aristotelian Journey into Neo-Palamism Antoine Lévy OP Chapter 5 122 Striving for Participation: Palamite Analogy as Dialogical Syn-energy and Thomist Analogy as Emanational Similitude Nikolaos Loudovikos Chapter 6 149 The Significance of the Distinction between the Essence and Energies of God according to St. Basil the Great Georgios Martzelos Chapter 7 158 Christianity and Platonism in East and West John Milbank Chapter 8 210 The Sense and Reference of the Essence and Energies N. N. Trakakis Chapter 9 232 The Distinction Between Essence and Energy according to Maximus the Confessor Metropolitan Vasilios (Karayiannis) of Constantia-Ammochostos Chapter 10 256 In Defence of the Essence/Energy Distinction: A Reply to Critics David Bradshaw Bibliography 274 Notes on Contributors 286 Index 289 Acknowledgements This collection of essays originated from a colloquium organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge, UK), which took place in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge on 5th December 2008. However, the number of papers and the scope of the questions discussed in Divine Essence and Divine Energies by far exceed the original conference programme. We would like to thank the Faculty of Divinity for providing facilities and hosting the colloquium. We acknowledge with gratitude a conference grant from the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius that made both the colloquium and this publication possible. We also wish to thank James B. South, editor of Phil osophy and Theology, who granted permission to reprint David Bradshaw’s article ‘The Concept of the Divine Energies’, Philosophy and Theology 18 (2006), pp. 93-120. We are particularly grateful to our publisher, James Clarke & Co, and in particular Adrian Brink, for his patience and flexibility in relation to the delivery of the manuscript. We would also like to thank Claudiu Radu for compiling the index. Feast of the Commemoration of the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils, 15th July 2012 Constantinos Athanasopoulos and Christoph Schneider Introduction Beyond Agnosticism and Pantheism Christoph Schneider For most contemporary Orthodox theologians the distinction between the divine essence and energies belongs to the very core of the Orthodox tradition and has no direct equivalent in the West. This position has been restated and developed by Professor David Bradshaw in his publication Aristotle East and West: Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom (Cambridge, 2004). However, the views expressed in this book have not remained uncontested. The present volume takes Bradshaw’s work as the starting point for an ecumenical debate about this controversial doctrine. Leading Anglican, Calvinist, Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians are given the opportunity to critically assess the essence-energy distinction from historical, theological and philosophical perspectives. The authors contributing to this volume present very different and often mutually incompatible narratives. It becomes clear throughout the book that we have not yet reached an ecumenical consensus about the nature and significance of this doctrine and its relationship to theology in the West. The content of the book revolves around the following questions: In what way were the Aristotelian concepts of ousia and energeia used by the Church Fathers, and to what extent were their meanings modified in the light of the Christological and Trinitarian doctrines? What theological function does the essence-energy distinction fulfil in Eastern Orthodoxy with respect to theology, anthropology and the doctrine of creation? What are the differences and similarities between the notions of divine presence and participation in Paul, the Apostolic Fathers, the Cappadocians, Dionysius the Areopagite, John Damascene, Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas? What is the relationship between the essence-energy distinction and the Western ideas of divine presence in Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Martin Luther, John Calvin and Karl Barth? How is this doctrine related to Kantian and post-Kantian thought and the debate about realism and idealism?