ABSTRACT
Though scholars have often noted the connection between the distinction of Persons in God and the distinction between essence and energies, relatively little attention has been paid to the way that Trinitarian theology as a whole grounds Palamas’s understanding of ousia and energeia. The present chapter examines this broad topic to better understand how Palamas negotiates the coexistence of unity and distinction in God by looking, in particular, at the way that Trinitarian theology and Gregory’s understanding of Trinitarian categories, governs Palamas’s thinking on essence and energies. It shows that, for Palamas, a God who admits of no categories other than essence is problematic not only because it removes the uncreated energies from the realm of the Divine but also because it abolishes the very features that make God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
