The elaboration of notions word, name and energy in the post Byzantine theology

Abstract

The article dwells on the basic ideas of the Palamite theology within the context of the Orthodox theology (XIV c.). The issue is about if the name of God is the energy of God. This issue is the key issue for the name-gloryfying debates of the past century. The article underlines that the word (the inner word included) is a constructive, not a random sign of a man, in accordance with the teaching of St. Simeon the New Theologian (X-XI c.), an outstanding late-Byzantine author, the forerunner of Hesychasm. Antinomia of incomprehensibility and comprehensibility of God, unlikely to be fit either in a thought, or in a word, is solved by St. Gregory Palamas following the Cappadocian Fathers by way of defining the essence and energies of God. The most important conclusion in the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas is that all Devine names are the essence of His energies. So the ontological direction in the philosophy of a name, represented by such thinkers as Florensky P.A., Bulgakov S.N., Ern V.F., Losev A.F. is connected with the tradition of Hesychasm, which is the theological substantiation of the name-gloryfying. This problem is viewed by the article.