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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 4 - Page 2 |
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This is confirmed by careful translation. It is commonly believed that Palamas taught that God is to be known not in His essence, but in His energies, a translation of the Greek word energeia. If this translation is revised slightly to understand energeia more exactly as actions or activities, and add the proviso that he makes it clear that these activities include the generation of certain inner sensations, particularly of light and warmth, the whole question changes. The activities he describes are observable and directly or in their secondary effects they are testable. Since Palamas’ main thesis is that the invisible can be confirmed by its effects on the visible; the divine by the presence of His actions in the individual human being and in human society, such research is of great significance to human thought. This question is of great importance when we are concerned with the knowledge of God. Palamas in his Triads does more than make it clear that we can know God not 'in His essence', not as He is, but by His 'energies' or effects detected within us. Seen intellectually, this claim is of course problematic, but Palamas speaks of ways of observing those effects - the light, the love, the knowledge - and of ways of becoming clear at least of the basics of what these non-intellectual communications can teach us. Once this is understood, it becomes clear that certain passages in Palamas’ text touch on key questions facing modern philosophy, particularly those concerning the nature of religion and the part it plays in human life. Thirdly, it is clear that his text provides a means of understanding these teachings of the early church which have both practical and moral implications.... moral considerations which are of primary importance in relation to education, including the larger structure of education that more directly influences the behaviour of large social groups. It leads to practical considerations that have to do with the formation and reformation of habits and the development of skills, as well as the optimisation of the human psyche in both secular and religious contexts. |
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