Stamoulis Chrysostomos, About the Light, Palimpsiston, Thessaloniki, 1999.

           A special study of academic character devoted to the issue of the existence or not of “personal actions” constitutes the content of this volume under the title: About the Light.

The renaissance of the theological studies in Greece coincided with and was marked by the renaissance of the palamic studies, the explosion of apophatic and, at the same time, experiential theological knowledge, the participation in Grace and the saving energies of God, the need for a realistic and, at the same time, transformative reading of academic theology.

Another world seemed to be born inside the contemporary academic theology, removed from the intellectual leadership and scholasticism, whose dead and nerveless historical and thematic development constituted the content of the theological science before the renewal of interest in hesychasm and the theology of Saint Gregory Palamas.

In the light of the above problems, a re-examination of the whole of our academic tradition, terms and theological thematic that affect every branch of theology, but also of philosophy – and not only – were employed to analyse and fully understand the mystery of the Triadic God, who moves towards man, imparting His Grace to him and rendering him part of His saving Energies.

The major efforts of the theological dialogue have focused on the conceptual, theological dipole of essence-energies, precisely because it constitutes a turning point in the understanding of our theological tradition and a criterion of contradistinction from other theological traditions. In this volume, readers can inform themselves analytically about the significance of the uncreated energies in the patristic theology, as well as the central role that the theology of the divine energies has played in modern theological approaches.

The issue at hand of the “personal energies” seems not to be justified by the course of the theological thought on these issues in the patristic period. However, it does not fail to highlight, in spite of the problems it itself brings about, the various tendencies of a mechanical understanding of God’s actions on the matter of salvation, which, thus, render the role of the divine persons in the Economy incomprehensible.

Professor Stamoulis, faithful to the terminological accuracy of the patristic tradition, will try to solve the issue with anatomic judgements and scientific compositions.