Energy in Orthodox Theology and Physics: From Controversy to Encounter by Stoyan Tanev

Author:Stoyan Tanev [Tanev, Stoyan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781532614873
Publisher: Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2017-09-14T04:00:00+00:00

St. Maximus the Confessor—Essence, Energies, and the Logoi of Creation

The logos of essence and the tropos of existence in St. Maximus the Confessor

The fundamental relationship between essence and energy is linked in St. Maximus the Confessor with the distinction logos-tropos which constitutes one of the major axes of his theological system.430 The logos-tropos relationship was widely used before him for the articulation of the distinction between the essence and the hypostases of the Trinity.431 St. Maximus, however, applies it more universally and moves it out of the purely Trinitarian context. This universality is considered as one of the main characteristics of his Christian philosophy.432

The doctrine of the logoi (“reasons”) of creation is at the theological foundation of the Maximus’ teaching on the knowledge of God. The logos of a thing is its formative cause, the principle of its beginning and purpose in terms of its being.433 Every created reality has its associated logos corresponding to the inner law of its nature.434 The logos is the carrier of the definition of the essence. Any change of the logos of an essence would destroy its nature and create a new nature corresponding to a new essence. The logoi of creation correspond to God’s activity through which He creates, sustains, and guides all things towards Himself. The logoi pre-exist eternally in unity as models, goals or purposes of all creation in God Himself—the one Logos. Without loosing their unity in the Divine Logos, the logoi of creation become dynamic and differentiated when they are brought from potentiality into actuality at the creation of the world from nothing. Every created thing bears with it the manifestation or rather manifests its logos, and without this manifestation its logos cannot be made known.435 The logoi, therefore, have both ontological and existential dimensions that are inseparable. The ontological dimension of the logos of a thing corresponds to its existential cause and nature. The existential dimension corresponds to the Divine thought, intention, and goal associated with the creation of that thing and directed towards the believer. The many logoi of the one Logos make the world a meeting place for Divine-human dialogue reflecting and manifesting God’s thoughts and personal activity. “By seeking the logoi inherent in creation, man communes with the thoughts and intentions of God, which are directed towards him personally.”436 In this way the Logos/logoi relationship provides a personal dimension, a common meaning to every created reality. The common meaning of all things is the one Person of the Logos of God, i.e., “Jesus Christ is the ‘bridge’ to God on all levels of existence, not only through human nature (which He united to the divine in His hypostasis), but also as the one Logos of all the logoi which are found in all things.”437

The tropos (the way) of existence is the mode of the natural activity. It is the carrier of any variation, modification or innovation on the background of the unchangeable logos.438 The tropos is the form of the various manifestations of nature, it is the way in which the essence exists and functions.

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