Plotinus the antipalamite

Abstract

The synod of Constantinople of 1351 discussed six questions and answers concerning the Palamite doctrine of energies. Nikephoros Gregoras was condemned at the gathering and subsequently defended his position in his History of the Romans, where he indicated that the Neoplatonist Plotinus held the same views on the relation between the divine and its activities. This would imply that Plotinus’ ideas were also condemned at the synod of 1351. On the other side of the debate, the Neoplatonist Proclus had anticipated the same arguments as Gregory Palamas in his commentary on Plato’s Parmenides. Indeed, the Palamite debate employed argumentative strategies which had distinguished Plotinus from Proclus and therefore revealed the brilliant dynamism of Byzantine Platonism in the fourteenth century.

Keywords

• plotinus
• proclus
• neoplatonism
• gregory palamas
• nikephoros gregoras
• hesychasm