3. Различия и точки соприкосновения в богословских системах свт. Григория Паламы и Фомы Аквинского

Having outlined the teachings on the participation of the Holy Spirit in the life of man by Saint Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas, we must note the points of agreement and differences between these theologians in order to understand how possible a dialogue on this issue is between the Eastern and Western traditions. This dialogue seems to us to be especially important because it concerns the main issue in the life of a Christian - the question of how salvation occurs. If we understand this issue, we will be able to understand the ultimate goal to which every Christian should strive. In accordance with the final goal, we can also understand what means we need to achieve this goal. 3.1 Main similarities in the theological systems of St. Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas 1. Saint Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas agree in their teachings regarding the deifying action of the Holy Spirit. For one and another theologian, the idea is obvious that it is through the Holy Spirit that the deification of man occurs. It is the Holy Spirit who bestows grace, which belongs equally to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. By receiving this grace, we become involved in God. It is participation in God that is the goal of a Christian’s life. Through participation in God, a Christian is deified. 2. Both Saint Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas speak about the dwelling of God in man. Man is the temple of the Holy Spirit, in which God the Trinity Himself dwells. They say that the dwelling of God in man must change man: make him a god, but not a god in the sense that God is by nature, for we can never achieve equality with God, but God by grace. 3. Both St. Gregory and Thomas Aquinas attach great importance to the Economy of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. It is as a result of the Economy of the Son and the Holy Spirit that our unity with God becomes possible. Thanks to the fact that the Son and the Holy Spirit come into this world, we can know God and be involved in Him. The Son comes into this world in the flesh, becomes like us in everything except sin, and accomplishes the work of Redemption, healing our nature. The Holy Spirit assimilates to us the fruits of the Redemptive deed of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us grace, and through this grace we become involved in God the Trinity. 4. For Saint Gregory Palamas, as well as for Thomas Aquinas, the eschatological orientation of our unity with God is important. The Holy Spirit, which is given to us in this life, is the guarantee of our future resurrection, our future stay with God. The Holy Spirit testifies to our belonging to God. It is because the Holy Spirit dwells in us that we are sealed with the seal of God. This seal is for us the guarantee of our eternal life with God. 3.2. Major differences in the theological systems of St. Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas Having highlighted the main points of contact in the theology of St. Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas, we must also highlight the main differences between these two systems. Let's move on to consider the main differences. 1. Unlike St. Gregory Palamas, Thomas Aquinas, and also his followers do not want to distinguish between two things in God: the incommunicable and unknowable Divine essence and the communicated, knowable Uncreated Divine Energies, being participants in which we can know God and have communication with Him. Divine energies make it possible to know God through participation in what is God as a whole. This communication is the generalization and expression of the total way of being of the entire Deity or humanity. There is no Divine or human nature outside of actually existing hypostases. The personality ascertains existence as an existing reality. The distinction between essence and energy is the starting point and prerequisite for apophatic knowledge of God. We do not know the Essence of God, but we have access to experimental knowledge of the Divine way of being. We can talk about God's way of being, since we cognize Divine Energies. This difference in no way violates Divine simplicity, since, as was said above, energy is a substantial and essential movement. It flows from the Divine essence, as from an ever-flowing source. Therefore, we can say that essence and energy are inseparable. The existence of Divine Energies does not in any way complicate the Divine essence, and Divine simplicity is not violated. According to Catholic theologians, who proceed from the premises of the theology of Thomas Aquinas, the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas contain many errors, which are as follows: · Firstly, he distorts the concept of God when he introduces the concept of Uncreated Divine Energies. This, in their opinion, is a kind of attack on the simplicity of God. “Palama's main mistake was the assumption of the complexity of nature and the Three Persons, substance and accidents, essence and physical properties arising from essence, primary and secondary element” 25. · Secondly, the thesis of Saint Gregory Palamas about deifying uncreated grace is, in their opinion, also erroneous, since, according to his teaching, Divine Persons do not enter into direct relationships with creations. The righteous are not given the Face of the Holy Spirit, but His action. All this is incommensurable with the Catholic doctrine of justification, the essence of which is precisely that a person is given not just grace, but the personality of the Holy Spirit. According to Catholic theologians, to assert that “nature and Persons are absolutely inseparable, even in the angels and in the elect in heaven, and that beatitude consists essentially not in seeing God as He is, but in contemplating the uncreated light flowing from the Divinity, is a heresy, opposed to the definition of Pope Benedict XII, 1336, issued on the eve of the dispute between Barlaam and Palamas.” 26. 2. Although both Saint Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas talk about participation in God, they understand this participation differently. For Saint Gregory, it is obvious that we can be involved in God only through the Uncreated Divine Energies. When Saint Gregory Palamas speaks about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, His indwelling, he means that we are given Divine Energies, and not the Holy Spirit himself. He distinguishes the Holy Spirit from His gifts. But at the same time, he insists that the gifts, the energies of the Holy Spirit, are inseparable from the Holy Spirit Himself. The Holy Spirit cannot give us energy without giving Himself. Thomas Aquinas insists that man receives not only grace, but also the very Person of the Holy Spirit, and thus man becomes a participant in the Divine Persons themselves. God is present in man not only through gifts, but also personally. He is the master and friend, He is the object of knowledge and love. Thomas characterizes the image of God's presence in man as known in the knower and as loved in the lover. Man's spiritual abilities, such as faith and love, give this new presence of God, through which He dwells in us as in His church. However, the assertion that God is present in us personally and the Holy Spirit, as the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, dwells in us is alien to the Orthodox Tradition. 3. Regarding the question of deification, Thomas understands it as participation in the Divine nature and essence, which occurs through participation in the Person of the Holy Spirit. It must be remembered that the concept of personality in Trinity theology implies that each person of the Holy Trinity possesses the fullness of the Divine Nature, the fullness of the Divine Energies. And if we assume that a person is involved in the Personality of the Holy Spirit, then as a logical conclusion we can assume that a person can be involved through the personality of the Divine Essence, which is unknowable and incommunicable. Saint Gregory Palamas insists that the saints participate only in the Divine Energies, but not in the Divine Essence. The Divine Essence is unknowable and incommunicable. According to Thomas Aquinas, “The Holy Spirit gives not only his gifts, but also himself. Giving His gifts, He gives nothing else but Himself. The Uncreated Divine Energy is common to all Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, just as the Divine essence is common to the Three Persons. And when we say that the Uncreated Divine Energy is communicated by the Holy Spirit, we mean that thanks to this Uncreated Divine Energy we become involved in the Triune God. The teaching that we receive the Divine Persons Themselves is alien to Eastern theology. However, St. Gregory emphasizes the personal nature of Divine action. Divine energy cannot be known either in itself or through the Divine essence, but only through the personality. In the theology of Thomas Aquinas, there is no distinction between the Essence and the Divine Energies; he is forced to talk about the fact that we become involved in the Divine Persons Themselves. Another consequence of the fact that Thomas does not distinguish between the Divine Essence and Energies, in our opinion, is his doctrine of assimilation. Thomas refers to this concept as the Three Divine Persons. He says that in the field of Divine Economy all the Persons of the Holy Trinity act, but one of them is assigned a certain action. So, for example, the three Persons of the Holy Trinity participate in the work of dwelling in the human soul, but this action belongs to the assimilation of the Holy Spirit, since He is the gift of love with which the Father and the Son mutually love each other. The Father sends this same gift of love, by which the Holy Spirit is meant, into the soul of man, where He Himself also dwells together with the Son. For St. Gregory Palamas, as well as for the Eastern Fathers in general, this problem does not arise, since he teaches that the Divine Persons act in this world through Their Uncreated Energies, and each action is performed jointly by the entire Holy Trinity. This expresses the consubstantial Persons of the Holy Trinity, which is revealed to us through Divine Energies. Thomas Aquinas admits that in the state of beatific vision, which will take place after death, the soul will be able to contemplate the pure Divine essence, while the Eastern fathers say that neither in this nor in the future life we ​​will be able to comprehend the Divine essence, since this is a great mystery for our human mind" 27 . 4. Saint Gregory Palamas speaks of Grace as Uncreated Divine Energy, which is communicated to man and deifies him. Thomas Aquinas gives a complex system that describes the process of man's participation in God. He speaks of sanctifying grace, which is of a created nature. Its purpose is to prepare us for the perception of Uncreated Grace, by which Thomas understands the personality of the Holy Spirit. For Saint Gregory, Uncreated Divine Energy is an attribute of the Essence. Divine Energy is inseparable from the Divine Essence. And since the essence has an uncreated character, then Energy must also have an uncreated character. 5. For Saint Gregory, unlike Thomas Aquinas, the concepts of possession and enjoyment of Divine Persons are alien. These concepts, in our opinion, introduce a certain jurisprudence into the relationship between God and man. Saint Gregory describes this action as unity with God, which is accomplished through the Uncreated Divine Energies, which are given to us by the Holy Spirit. 6. Unlike Thomas, Saint Gregory never claimed that after death a person will be able to see the Divine essence. The divine essence is incomprehensible and incommunicable. This teaching, as we have already noted above, is a consequence of Thomas’s failure to distinguish between the Divine Essence and Energies, as well as the teaching about the dwelling of Divine Personalities in man. 7. Unlike Thomas Aquinas, who says that only the soul will see God, and this will happen in a future life, St. Gregory emphasizes that the whole human nature participates in the process of deification: both soul and body. The whole person must be adored. Deification does not consist in the fact that after death a person sees the essence of God, but that a person unites with God by grace, thus realizing his Godlikeness. This is not an instantaneous process, but a process that continues throughout a person's life. To summarize all of the above, it should be noted that both Saint Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas are very significant figures in the theology of their time. They represent two traditions of theology that have similarities and differences. The differences are due primarily to the premises on which these representatives form their theology. However, these differences, in our opinion, should in no way hinder the dialogue between Western and Eastern theological thought, but the study of these differences should help mutual understanding and the cause of rapprochement between East and West. As we study these two traditions, we need to remember that, despite all the differences and disagreements that have arisen over many centuries, these two traditions have common roots, common origins from which all subsequent theology has been formed. And this is precisely what accounts for the similarities that exist between these two traditions. List of used literature 1. Bible. Books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. M., 1997. 2. St. Basil the Great Word 3 About the Holy Spirit // Creations. St. Petersburg 1917. 3. St. Gregory Palamas of the Triad M., 1996. 4. Evdokimov P. Orthodoxy. M., 2004. 5. Cyprian (Kern), archimandrite. Anthropology of St. Gregory Palamas. M. 1997. 6. Lossky V.N. Essays on mystical theology. M., 1997. 7. Yannaras H. Favorites: Personality and Eros. M., 2005. 8. Saint Thomas d'Aquin Somme de la théologie. Paris 1999. 9. HussyE. M, The structure of the Person-Energy in the theology of Gregory Palama // Saint Vladimir’s quarterly. 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