Dear Phil 212 Students

Dear Phil 212 students.

I’ve finally got the material put together for the last part of the semester. We’ll look at the problem of divine simplicity and the essence/energy distinction as seen from the Eastern and Western Christian traditions. I want to use focus on these two traditions both in terms of themselves and also in terms of reading Dionysius. I’m going to provide more material from the Eastern tradition than the Western primarily because I suspect the Eastern tradition is less well known to you. Dr. Bradshaw’s paper really set settup the problematic for the last part of the semester.

In several cases, I’ve used secondary material to present Eastern authors because the relevant primary texts are scattered in a number of different works. I’ll take the material fro e-rserve to the library tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be up by Friday.

Here are the readings:

John Jones, “An Absolutely Simple God, Frameworks for Reading Pseudo-Dionysius.”

This just came out in the Thomist. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.

Reserve title: EssenceEnergy—Jones

John Jones, “(Mis?)-Reading the Divine Names as a Science: Aquinas’s Interpretation of the Divine Names of (Pseudo) Dionysius Areopagite.”

This is forthcoming in St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly. It’s a companion piece to the Thomist article above. ATTACHED AS A PDF FILE TO THIS EMAIL.

Sorry to subject you to my own work, but I’ve tried to look at Neo-platonic, Eastern, and Western (Scholastic) readings of Dionysius. Most 2ary material tends to focus primarily on only one of these. So, I think both pieces will provide a general orientation for the issues we’ll be looking at in the last part of the course and in interpreting Dionysius. Besides, the last part of the course is a direct outgrowth of these two articles.

Western:

St. Augustine, Selections from De Trinitate and De civitate Dei. ATTACHED AS A WORD FILE TO THIS EMAIL.

John Scotus Eriugena, Selections from Periphyseon, Book 1. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE. Reserve title: EssenceEnergy—Eriugena

St. Thomas, selections from ST I. ATTACHED AS A WORD FILE TO THIS EMAIL.

Duns Scotus, Selections from Duns Scotus by Richard Cross, IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.Reserve title: EssenceEnergy—Scotus/Cross

Pope Benedictus XII, the Apostolic Constitution, “Benedictus Deus”

ATTACHED AS A WORD FILE TO THIS EMAIL.

If I can find a good translation of Meister Eckhart’s, Sermon DW 48, I may include it or selections from it. I’ll let you know and it will be on reserve in the library as a pdf file.

Eastern:

St. Basil the Great, Epistle 234. ATTACHED AS A WORD FILE TO THIS EMAIL.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, Simplicity of the Divine Nature and the Distinctions in God, According to Gregory of Nyssa, Basil Krivocheine. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.Reserve title: EssenceEnergy—Nyssa/Krivochene

St. Maximus the Confessor, Selections from Aristotle East and West by David Bradshaw, pp, 187-201. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.Reserve title: EssenceEnergy—Maximus/Bradshaw

St. John of Damascus, selections from De fide orthodoxa. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.Reserve title: EssenceEnergy—Damascus

St. Gregory Palamas, selections from the Capita physica, theologica, moralia et practica. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.Reserve title: EssenceEnergy:Palamas

Kallistos Ware, “God Hidden and Revealed: The Apophatic Way and the Essence-Energies Distinction” Eastern Churches Review, 1975. IT WILL BE ON E-RESERVE AS A PDF FILE.

Reserve title: EssenceEnergy:Ware

AARRGGHH you say! Way too much reading. Don’t worry. I’m interested in the overall contours of this topic across the Eastern and Western traditions not in the minute detail of each author -- at least not the sort of detail that I’ve been giving for Plotinus and will give for Dionysius.

As a special treat. One of the significant differences between the Eastern and Western Christian traditions has to do with the ‘ontological’ status of the divine theophanies mentioned in the Bible. They are understood primarily as uncreated energies in the East and, since Augustine in the West, as created effects of God. Bogdan Bucur, from the Theology department, has done a good deal of research on this matter. I’ve asked him to do a presentation of this research during class. Class date to be announced.