Monday, November 14, 2022

θεοπνευστος ("God-breathed argument" [θεοπνευστω λογω]) in Gregory of Palamas, Apodictic Treatises on the Procession of the Holy Spirit

 The following excerpts come from:

 

Gregory of Palamas (1296-1359), Apodictic Treatises on the Procession of the Holy Spirit (trans. Christopher C. Moody; Uncut Mountain Press, 2022)

 

Treatise 2, 32:

 

So I am forced to marvel at the extreme excess of the Latin insanity as I consider that, while the Spirit is said to be “of the Son” in all of the aforementioned ways but is not at all described thus only in one sense, they indeed irreverently both ignored and set those all aside, paid attention to what had not been said at all (and irreverently at that), and dogmatised that the Spirit has existence from the Son on the basis that He both is and is said to be the Son’s. But let us buttress our thoughts on this upon a sure foundation, setting our seal upon them with a most clear and God-breathed argument (θεοπνευστω λογω). You know the John that kindled a torch from Damascus and completely enlightened the entire world with the light of divine knowledge. Does he not clearly say that “while we say the ‘Spirit of the Son’, yet we do not say ‘the spirit from the Son’”? “Yes,” he responds; “and I am not able to say that this person has not spoken thus, but I am able to say that it is with respect to the first cause that ‘from the Son’ is not said.” (p. 249)

 

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