Date Thesis Awarded
12-2019
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Philosophy
Advisor
Aaron Griffith
Committee Members
Aaron Griffith
Noah Lemos
Kevin Vose
Abstract
In this essay, I defend Gregory Palamas’ distinction between the essence of God and the energies of God and describe how it can be used to reconcile commitments of divine transcendence and divine imminence without compromising commonly-held attributes of God. I argue that divine transcendence is total and this prevents us from making catophatic statements about the divine essence. On the other hand, I argue that God is imminent and must be able to interact with the world in some way, as well as be described and known by intelligent creation. I posit that this is fulfilled by the divine energies spoken of by Palamas, which are actually distinct from the essence yet no less divine. I also in this essay defend this model of God against several objections.
Recommended Citation
Erdahl, Luke, "'Poverty of Particularity:' Reconciling Divine Transcendence and Imminence Using Gregory Palamas' Essence-Energies Distinction" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1433.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1433
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
