Page 144 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
actual essence of God – the essence can neither be known nor approached. That which can be experienced are the energies of God’s essence – through which the essence is expressed. Thus, according to Orthodox theology, while both God’s essence and His en- ergies are uncreated, man can come into contact only with God’s energies, which are experienced as divine grace and power. Within this experience, man as a created being becomes sanctified through the uncreated energies of the uncreated God. It should be noted here that the differentiation between the uncreated and the created is the basic condition of Orthodox theology since the earliest history of the Church. In the period of the Hesychast Debate this differentiation simply underwent a further clarification.
The main question of the Hesychast Debate was whether the hesychast vision of the uncreated (Taborian) light is in agreement with the dogmatic teaching of the Orthodox Church or not. In this, Varlaam argued against the idea that the light with which Christ shone on Mount Tabor at the point of His Transfiguration was uncreated and eternal. He also argued against the possibility that the hesychasts could see that light almost four- teen hundred years after Christ’s life on Earth. According to Varlaam, if we accept that the light on Mount Tabor is uncreated, we are forced to accept that such light is the de- ity itself, as, according to Varlaam, only the essence (ουσία) of God is uncreated. Of course, the idea of an essence of God which can be seen was regarded as blasphemous by both parties. Eventually, the entire debate was consumed by the question of whether there should be a differentiation between God’s essence and His energies (In this context it is equally legitimate to use the term energies in the plural form as well as energy in the singular form). Varlaam claimed that no such differentiation is plausible, and that its acceptance contradicts the dogmatic belief in the singularity of the divine and introduc- es higher and lower deities, eventually leading to paganism.48
On the other hand, Gregory Palamas did not claim that the essence of God is revealed to the hesychasts, but that the act of the essence, as energy (ἐνέργεια), which is also un- created, is experienced by the hesychasts as grace (χάρις) and power (δύναμις). There- fore, according to Palamas and the hesychasts, God’s essence is entirely incomprehensi- ble and unapproachable but His countless energies can indeed be experienced by man. Further, according to Palamas, if there is no difference between God’s essence and his energies, then there is no relationship between God and the World – as in His essence God is entirely transcendent of the world.49
48 Георгије Острогорски, О Веровањима и Схватањима Византинаца. Наслов Оригинала: Studien zur Geschi- chte des byzantinischen Bilderstreites. Превела Др Љиљана Црепајац (Београд: Просвета, 1970), 214.
49 Ibid., 215.
142