06 — The Palamite Chapters

With the inscription of the hesychast councils of 1341, 1347, and 1351, the Synodikon became the Church’s dogmatic charter of hesychasm — and, in the positive clauses that follow the anathemas, something close to a small creed of the uncreated energies. This section treats that stratum, deferring the controversy itself to the St. Gregory Palamas collection.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
the-councils-of-1341-1347-and-1351.md The conciliar sequence in brief and the deferral stated; how the hesychast material entered the text around 1352, with the acclamation of Palamas added after his canonization in 1368; the acclamations of Andronikos III, of Palamas, of the empress Anna and of Patriarch Philotheos; the clause on Isaac Argyros and what it shows about the Church’s procedure; what the inscription claimed
the-confession-of-the-uncreated-energies.md “The Chapters against Barlaam and Akindynus” set out by content — the dilemma of the Taboric light, the natural energy and the appeal to Constantinople III, created energies, divine simplicity, the name “Godhead,” the communicability of the essence; then the positive “Eternal Memory” clauses that state the doctrine; and why this is the turning point of the whole document

Deferral

The hesychast controversy — Barlaam, Akindynos, Gregoras, the civil war, the Triads, the Tomos of 1351, the modern scholarly debate over “Palamism” — belongs to St. Gregory Palamas, and above all to The Councils, 1341–1351, which is the repository’s anchor for the dates and for the open question of the ecumenical numbering of 1351. The doctrine of deification that these chapters secure is carried by the wave sibling Theosis. This section treats only the Synodikon’s part.

See Also