The Theological Study Of The "Can" Of Palamas

This paper is on "the theology of Energy" of Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), who is a saint and theologist of Byzantine Empire and the Orthodox Church, the 14th century. It is based on the English version of The Triads, The one hundred and fifty chapters, written by Gregory Palamas himself, and the book The study of Gregory Palamas, which is written by the most important studier of Palamas, John Meyendorff. Besides these, this paper is also based on some other studies of St. Palamas, written in Chinese or English.This paper also introduces Palamas’life in 14th century, and the situation of the Byzantine Empire and the Orthodox Church.This paper is mainly constituted by five parts:The introduction is about who the person Gregory Palamas is, and what the situation of the study of Gregory Palamas, both in China and all over the world.The 1st chapter is mainly about the life of Gregory Palamas and his work.The 2nd chapter introduces of the background of Palamas’theology, and the Patristic theology’s and spirituality’s charters in his theology.The 3rd chapter the theology of GregoryPalamas, it is mainly circling on the conception of the "Energy".The conclusion part of this paper is a simply review of Palamas’ theology, this part will point out the influence of his theology both to the late time of the Orthodox Church’s theology and to studiers in the modern time of the whole Christian world.Gregory Palamas is so important in the system of the history of Orthodox Church that he can only be compared to Thomas Aquinas in the Western Church. The Patristic Theology and the spirituality of Orthodox Church was not united until he brought out the theology of Energy, which defines the theology of Eastern Church. One can say that Palamas is the last and the most important theology of Byzantine Empire, because the empire also fell down decades later than he died.The theology of Energy also breaked the barrier of the point that God can’t be understood because human-being cannot touch the essence of God, and human-being can only define Him by what He is not, which is brought up by the Neo-Platonism. The theology of Energy breaks the conception of the untouchable and unknowable God into two pieces, one is the essence of God, which is untouchable and unknowable indeed, and the other is the energy of Him, it is sent to the created world as the grace of God to make people get to know about God directly, without any media’s help.