Orthodox Mysticism and Asceticism: Philosophy and Theology in St Gregory Palamas’ Work

The scholarly contributions gathered together in this volume discuss themes related to the cultural, social and ethical dimension of St Gregory Palamas’ works. They relate his mystical philosophy and theology to contemporary debates in metaphysics, philosophy of language, ethics, philosophy of culture, political philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of religion and theology, among others. The book considers a variety of topics of special interest to Christian theologians, philosophers and art historians including church and state relations, similarities and differences between Palamas, contemporary phenomenologists and philosophers of language, and hesychast influences on late Byzantine iconography.
Dr Constantinos Athanasopoulos, FHEA, is an Associate Lecturer at the Departments of Philosophy and Religious Studies of the Open University, UK. He is also the founder and Editor of the BWS Wittgenstein Annotated Bibliography. He has edited two volumes on the philosophy and theology of St Gregory Palamas, Divine Essence and Divine Energies: Ecumenical Reflections on the Presence of God in Eastern Orthodoxy (with C. Schneider, 2013) and Triune God: Incomprehensible but Knowable— The Philosophical and Theological Significance of St Gregory Palamas for Contemporary Philosophy and Theology (2015). He has also published four books in Greek and more than 30 papers in various international journals of philosophy and theology. In 2015, together with Professor Dan Chițoiu and Professor Oleg Dushin, he founded the Palamas Seminar.