Essence–energies Distinction
Essence–energies Distinction The essence–energies distinction was formulated by Gregory Palamas of Thessaloniki (1296–1359), as part of his defense of the Athonite monastic practice of hesychasmos, the mystical exercise of “stillness” to facilitate ceaseless inner prayer and noetic contemplation of God, against the charge of heresy brought by the humanist scholar and theologian Barlaam of Calabria. In Palamite theology, there is a distinction between the essence (ousia) and the energies (energeia) of God....