One Hundred and Fifty Chapters

by Gregory Palamas, Robert E. Sinkewicz (Translator)

English, Greek (translation)
Original Greek

Genres: Theology

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Saint Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) was a monk of Mount Athos in Greece and later the Archbishop of Thessalonica known as a preeminent theologian of Hesychasm. He is venerated as a Saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Though he is not widely venerated in the Roman Catholic Church he is recognised as a saint. The second Sunday of the Great Lent is called the Sunday of Gregory Palamas in those Churches that commemorate him according to the Byzantine Rite. Some of his writings are collected in the Philokalia, a highly regarded book in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Palamas is perhaps most well-known for his central role in the defense of the doctrine of Hesychasm, which was upheld in 1351 at the Council of Blachernae.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author interestingly chose to translate ἐνέργεια as two different words in different circumstances - operation and activity. This can be frustrating as the distinction the translator is trying to portray already exists in the Greek language at the time. St Gregory did not make this distinction, even though he was in his full capacity to do so, and therefore the distinction does not have to be made. This might not seem like a big problem, but various Roman Catholic apologists and sympathisers have tried to use this english translation distinction to align Palamas with the same thought of Thomas Aquinas, even going as far as to maintain that they teach the same thing. If the sympathisers had it their way, it would be a denial of theophanies of the Old Testament, and the incarnation would be in a compromised position too.

[Carson Harraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dude is a stud. Everything is very biblical and patristic. Hinges on asserting that substance requires an energy which actualizes that substance. Fixes dionysius’s problems.

Would have preferred him to talk more about Tabor, but I guess thats in his homilies.

[Alfred Ingmår · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is antidote