Section 02: The Hesychast Controversy
The section covering the great fourteenth-century dispute that defined St. Gregory Palamas’s public life and Orthodox dogmatic history. These files narrate the quarrel with Barlaam the Calabrian over how God is known and whether the light of the hesychasts is divine, and the conciliar sequence (1341, 1347, 1351) that vindicated Palamas and inscribed his teaching in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| The Barlaam Dispute | Barlaam the Calabrian — the Italo-Greek polymath, his anti-Latin treatises, his mockery of the monks (omphalopsychoi) and his claim that God is known only indirectly and the Taboric light is created; Palamas’s Triads in response and the Hagioritic Tome (1340/41) |
| The Councils, 1341–1351 | The conciliar sequence: June 1341 (Barlaam condemned), the Akindynos phase and the civil war, Palamas’s imprisonment and excommunication under Patriarch John Calecas, 1347 (Calecas deposed, Palamas vindicated and made Archbishop of Thessaloniki), the Gregoras phase, the 1351 Blachernae Tome, and its reception (the “Ninth Ecumenical Council” question) |
How to Use
- Read The Barlaam Dispute first: it sets up the theological question (how is God known?) and the opening engagement.
- Read The Councils, 1341–1351 for the political and conciliar resolution, including the entanglement with the Byzantine civil war.
- For the theological substance of Palamas’s answer — the essence/energies distinction and the uncreated light — see the parallel treatment in The Triads: Structure and Argument.
Cross-References
- For the prayer and practice under attack, see Hesychast Formation and The Jesus Prayer
- For the foundational distinction of essence and energies in Orthodox dogmatics, see The Holy Trinity
References
- See the collection README for the principal sources; each content file carries its own full reference list.