Knowledge and Experience in the Theology of Gregory Palamas

Knowledge and Experience in
the Theology of
Gregory Palamas

James Blackstone

PETER LANG

Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Blackstone, J. (James), author.

Title: Knowledge and experience in the theology of Gregory Palamas /
James Blackstone.

Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, [2018] | Series: Eastern
orthodoxy ; 3 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018036791 | ISBN 9781788743990 (alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Gregory Palamas, Saint, 1296-1359. | Knowledge, Theory of
(Religion) | Experience (Religion)

Classification: LCC BX395.P318 B73 2018 | DDC 230/.19092--dc23 LC record
available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018036791

isbn 978-1-78874-399-0 (print)

isbn 978-1-78874-400-3 (ePDF)

isbn 978-1-78874-401-0 (ePub)

isbn 978-1-78874-402-7 (Mobi)

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,

52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom

oxford@peterlang.com, www.peterlang.com

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This publication has been peer reviewed.

About the author

James Blackstone studied at Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge for a first degree in Theology and Religious Studies and later completed doctoral research as Decani Scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, from which this book is derived. He has worked variously in education and is currently engaged in the field of iconography.

About the book

This book questions the extent to which knowledge and experience can be reasonably, if at all, separated in consideration of the divine. Gregory Palamas’s dynamic patterning of unions and distinctions provides the context for a response to this question in which the breadth and depth of human functioning is explored - from the body to the passions to the intellect. In the course of close analysis of Palamas’s writings, the author presents from Palamas a thoroughly apophatic and an iconic mode of understanding the whole human person so as to mark out a fully integrated theological anthropology.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1

Monk, Hesychast and Intellectual

Chapter 2

Apophatic Patterning

Chapter 3

Nous

Chapter 4

Heart

Chapter 5

Dispassionate Passion and Sacramental Vision

Chapter 6

Icon

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index←vii | viii→ ←viii | ix→

Acknowledgements

This book originates in research undertaken for a doctoral thesis completed under the supervision of Dr Marcus Plested at the University of Cambridge. I am grateful to Dr Plested for his gracious encouragement and rigorous support. My thanks are due to very many people who have been generous in giving assistance and critical advice at different points along the way, among whom are Rada Bojovic of the Sebastian Press, Dr Margaret Bowker, Dr Nicholas Cranfield, Professor Sarah Coakley, Aidan Hart, Martyn and Irene Payne, Dr Peter Riley, Dr Christopher Ryan, Dr Gregory Seach, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Professor Ian Whicher, and the communities of Clare College and Westcott House in Cambridge. I owe particular gratitude to Archimandrite Maximus Lavriotes.

Dr Graham Speake and Professor René Gothóni, series editors, have given valuable insight and attentive oversight. The Friends of Mount Athos have generously supported this publication. Errors and omissions in the text are all my own.

Brynberian

July 2018←ix | x→ ←x | xi→

Abbreviations

Primary sources

For ease of reading and for consistency throughout, all authors are referred to in the Latinized version of their Greek names (e.g. Climacus and Acindynus, rather than the transliterated Klimakos and Akindynos).