Gregory Palamas: The Triads (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)

~ John Meyendorff (Author), Nicholas Gendle (Author) "I have heard it stated by certain people that monks also should pursue secular wisdom, and that if they do not possess this wisdom, it..." (more)
Key Phrases: Holy Spirit, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian (more...)

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Product Description

Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) -monk, archbishop, and eminent theologian- was a major figure in fourteenth-century Orthodox Byzantium. His greatest work, In Defense of the Holy Hesychasts (known commonly as The Triads), was written between 1338 and 1341 as a response to the charges of the Calabrian philosopher Barlaam against the monastic groups known as hesychasts. Barlaam denied the legitimacy of their spiritual methods, which included the famous "Jesus Prayer," and discredited their claims to experience the divine presence. Palamas devoted his career as a theologian to the defense of the truth central to hesychasm: God is accessible to personal experience, because he shared His own life with humanity.

This book contains extensive excerpts from Palamas' famous work that, in the words of the book's distinguished editor John Meyendorff, "introduce the reader into the very substance of the religious experience of the Christian East."

Language Notes

Text: English, French, Greek (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Press (August 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809124475
• ISBN-13: 978-0809124473
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #188,527 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Mystical Theologian, March 6, 2006

By	Greg (Australia) - See all my reviews

Gregory Palamas is one of the most important figures in Eastern Orthodox Chrisitianity. First, a little history.

The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches split in about the 11th century over a fairly obscure disagreement over the nature of Christ. However, for many centuries before this, the Eastern Orthodox had taken a far less literalist approach to the Bible than the Latin West.

The result was the Eastern Orthodox tended to produce more mystics than the Latin West, perhaps because the Eastern Orthodox permitted more flexibility into their ideas of God. Catholic theologians from Augustine onwards generally regarded God as a 'Supreme Being' in the universe of beings, a schema borrowed largely from Neo-Platonism, while the Easterns believed God was beyond being itself. Save for a few thinkers on the fringe (i.e. Eriugena), Catholic theologians in the Middle Ages became obsessed with being and beings and proving God was the ultimate being and the maker of all other beings, something Aquinas did in great lengths in Summa Theologica.

The Easterns on the other hand, distinguished between God's infinite and unknowable nature (which was beyond being) and how God obviously manifested himself in the Bible. Gregory of Palamas distinguished between God's unknowable inner nature (somewhat like the Kantian thing in itself) and God's manifestations, his 'energies' which the Old Testament Prophets saw and who the Apostles saw on Mount Tabor in the 'Transfiguration' of Jesus.

Palamas is somewhat bigoted in some parts and writes with the polemical hostility of a Iraneus or a Tertullian. He dismisses Greek Philosophy as useless unless it agrees with theology, but not so much because he is a fundamentalist (as Tertullian was) but rather because like all mystics, he knew rational knowledge ultimately would fail in its attempts to comprehend the incomprehensible. He emphasized faith and unknowing, and patiently allowing God to mediate to us miniscule creatures according to our capacity to receieve his revelation, rather than trying to push into the mystery of the divine with our small minds and arrogantly affirming what God was, as his opponent Barlaam appeared to do.

While somewhat tedious and lacking in elegant style, and not really having the poetic beauty of some of Symeon the Theologian's mystical thoughts, Gregory remains an important thinker and any student of Christian mysticism will profit from a careful reading of his work.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An "approachable" version of his larger work., December 29, 1999

By	Matthew C. Steenberg (Oxford England) - See all my reviews

This is a "more approachable" version of Meyendorff's larger and more scholarly tome on St. Palamas, which remains to this day the definitive work on the monk. This shorter version includes numerous photographs and a good level of background/historical detail. Those with a general (non-scholarly) interest in learning more about Gregory Palamas will find it especially convenient; though it will fail to satisfy those with a desire for in-depth academic information.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contents, November 16, 2004

By	J. Macdonald - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a translation of Gregory Palamas' "Triads" with an introduction by John Meyendorff. The popular level illustrated version of John Meyendorff's "Study of Gregory Palamas" mentioned above is "Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality".St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality The Triads is a major work of Gregory Palamas written about 1339/1340 defending the possibility of direct experience of God against Barlaam of Calabria.