Number DOI: http://doi.org/10.33209/2519-4348-2707-9627-2023-11-132

VB. – № 11, 2023. – P. 17-35

Summary

In this study, the Palamite interpretation of the deification of man as a new creation in Christis based on the patristic trinitarian-anthropological concept of human existence. The Trinitarian aspect revealed the ontology of human existence at the basis of its creation and the direction of its perspective in eschatological fulfillment. The original theology presents the doctrine of human existence in a unique way through deification, which in its essence is nothing but grace. The concept of grace is represented by the concept of Divine energies manifesting the Transcendent God in action – saving salvation. Methodologically, the theological and anthropological perspectives of human existence and the process of its deification are out lined. The object of the study is the theological concept of the deification of man in the theological interpretation of Gregory Palamas in combination with the uncreated light of Divine energies and the prayer of the heart. Gregory Palamas develops his idea of the deification of man through God’s grace, based on the Eastern holy fathers, which he identifies with the energies of God, which emanate from the divine essence of all three hypostases of the Trinity. This grace, according to Palamas, is God who acts in his creation – God in us. This study analyzes the anthropo-theological concept of the deification of man in the Palamite concept of hesychasm. Palamas, as a hesychast monk, guides his conception within the framework of monastic life and hesychastic practice – the prayer and hesychia of Jesus, which are the key to deification and its consequences, that is, life in God and with God. He emphasizes that, in fact, thanks to the monastic life and its practice, this deification of man is carried out by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God, thus restoring the lost connection of communication between the One and Triune God and with his creation. With the help of problem-thematic, analytical-synthetic, structural-functional, phenomenological, hermeneutic analysis, the wealth of the theological Tradition of the Eastern Church is shown and the theological concept of active faith and the real life of the hesychast, as well as his understanding of the sense of the presence of the Transcendent through the uncreated light of the Tabor, are explicitly demonstrated.

Key words: deification, Palamas, Divine energies, grace, Trinitarian theology, anthropology, economy, salvation, uncreated light.

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