Many see the Essence/Energies distinction in the East as something irreconcilable with the Western Christian concept of Divine Simplicity but nothing could be further from the truth! St. Gregory Palamas's theology is the core of the Byzantine theology. Without Palamas, our theological doctrines fall apart. Palamas is to Byzantium what Aquinas is to Rome. Remove them from the place and the entire city falls. Within St. Gregory Palamas's response to the heretic Barlaam, we see that Palamas is deeply influenced by the Church fathers of the East, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. Denys the Aeropogite. This influence is particularly striking in that St. Denys is well-renowned for his deeply Platonic theology, his focus on Divine simplicity, and his own influence on the West. Whereas St. Gregory Palamas isn't big on pagan philosophy (which is an understatement!).
Richard Swinburne states the following on the essence/energies distinction: "Aquinas also claims that we know some things about God's 'nature', which he understands in the same sense as God's 'essence' (essentia)" (The Coherence of Theism, 2nd. ed., 279). Such things include God's simplicity, his omnipotence, his eternity, his goodness, etc. For St. Gregory Palamas, these things are a part of the energies of God. Palamas rebukes the heretic Barlaam on this subject. "Our opponent...thinks that everything which has a beginning is created; this is why he has stated that only one reality is unoriginate, the essence of God, adding that 'what is not this essence, derives from uncreated nature' (Triads, III.ii.8).
Following St. Cyril and the Eastern Fathers, St. Gregory Palamas differentiates between the Divine Nature of God and his attributes such as his omnipresence (III.ii.9). "[T]he divine essence that transcends all names, also surpasses energy, to the extent that the subject of an action surpasses its object; and He Who is beyond every name transcends what is named according to the same measure" (III.ii.10). Like the sun, the rays can be experienced, but the essence is beyond our grasp. The essence of God cannot be known in the Palamite theology whereas the energies we come into contact with and touch. We will become partakers in his glory through theosis but we will never become one with the essence (III.ii.13, III.ii.17). It is this distinction that enables St. Gregory Palamas to defend the supernatural simplicity of God (III.ii.7). I have heard a subdeacon at church claim that the Divine simplicity falls apart with the essence/energies distinction as the energies and essence are now "parts" of God but nothing could be further from the truth in the orthodox Palamite distinction! The Divine simplicity of God is in His Triune essence, not in the energies!
Without the necessary distinction, men would be absorbed into the nature of God and become God by nature in deification, whereas it is in his will and in his glory that we are deified (III.iii.8). Another thing Palamas brings up is that it is those who make a poor usage of the light of God who are bereft of the light and then given over to depravity (III.ii.17). St. Gregory Palamas has important comments to say about the dignity of man which we'll return to later as that would go off-topic but one sees in these two sections of the Triads how deeply indebted to the philosophy and theology of St. Denys the Aeropagite that Palamas is. St. Denys is also one of the core influences for the Angelic Doctor and is widely regarded as the chief proponent of "Christian Platonism". This is not to say his theology is Platonic as it is not, but also shows there is much more that St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Gregory Palamas have in common other than being the core theologians of both East and West.
Going back to Swinburne, he rightly points out that "Orthodox theologians usually claim that there is a conflict here, and that Basil and Gregory Palamas are right in claiming that humans cannot have any knowledge of God's 'essence', and that Aquinas is wrong in claiming that they can have some such knowledge" (The Coherence of Theism, 280). But if what is meant in the Latin essentia that St. Thomas Aquinas applies is actually referring to the question of the properties and attributes of God rather than the actual ousia that St. Basil and St. Gregory Palamas refer to, then they could quite agree. Here, I think that the influence of St. Denys on both the doctors is important to take into account and that we might be able to unify their theologies under our Holy and Catholic Orthodoxy rather than split them apart. Richard Swinburne would certainly not be the only one that has shown this to be a matter of misunderstandings. As the Union of Brest states regarding the Filioque clause,
"Since there is a quarrel between the Romans and Greeks about the procession of the Holy Spirit, which greatly impede unity really for no other reason than that we do not wish to understand one another - we ask that we should not be compelled to any other creed but that we should remain with that which was handed down to us in the Holy Scriptures, in the Gospel, and in the writings of the holy Greek Doctors, that is, that the Holy Spirit proceeds, not from two sources and not by a double procession, but from one origin, from the Father through the Son."
Most differences and controversies seem to arise from mere translational issues. When I covered the doctrine of original sin, I discovered that there is a heavy misunderstanding between the Latin doctrine and the Greek doctrine. Almost as if there were some hostile Greeks that actually wanted to slander Latins and paint them as Calvinists which is completely irresponsible and reckless theology! As one of my professors once stated, a lot of theologians like to really go "hoo-hoo" over the differences even if they are virtually non-existent. For Byzantine Catholics, let this second Sunday of our Lenten journey remind us of the theological co-existence between East and West as the Church continues to breathe with both its lungs still in tact!
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