| Philip Blosser Professor of Philosophy, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit |
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| "This work represents the capstone of Dr. Likoudis’s life-long effort
toward reconciling his Eastern Orthodox brethren with the Catholic Church. His concise
and informative treatment of Gregory Palamas, the famous and controversial 14th century
monk of Mount Athos and Archbishop of Thessalonica, is both highly appreciative and
gently critical. On the one hand, Likoudis praises Palamas’s ascetical-mystical
spirituality and theology of theosis, calling his rich Mariology “sublime” and
suggesting that Catholics have much to learn from him. On the other hand, he devotes
two chapters to Palamas’s controversial notion of God’s “uncreated energies,” which,
though distinct from God’s transcendent essence, allegedly do not compromise divine
simplicity and yet can be experienced by men as the “Light of Mount Tabor.” Likoudis
carefully reviews both the writings of Catholics sympathetic with Palamas as well as
those who are critical. He devotes two chapters to problematic aspects of Palamism that
serve as obstacles to reunion with Rome, noting how some Eastern Orthodox theologians
champion Palamas as a rival to St. Thomas Aquinas, yet also noting how others such as
Fr. Alexander Schmemann concede the logical necessity of a universal church’s need for
a universal head in the bishop of Rome. Highly recommended." — Philip Blosser, Professor of Philosophy, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit" |
| Fr Daniel Dozier Executive Director of God With Us Eastern Catholic Formation, and author of 20 Answers: Eastern Catholicism from Catholic Answers |
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| "The Churches of the Christian East and West have wrestled for many
centuries with the question of the relationship between the uncreated and created
realms. Orthodox Archbishop Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica weighed in on this matter
in a period of heightened controversy related to the spiritual experiences and
contemplative methods of the Athonite Hesychasts (Gk. hesychia “stillness”), forging
out of the crucible of both prayer and polemics what he believed to be a theological
solution found in the essence-energies distinction in God. The positive reception of
this distinction as defined by the Orthodox saint has been by no means univocal in
either East or West, and the emergence of a divisive and hyper-polemical neo-Palamite
school in modern Eastern Orthodoxy has shed far more heat than light on the subject. In
this work, James Likoudis presents a worthy synthesis of his own thinking along with
several others on the matter, with varying degrees of sympathy and antipathy towards
the Palamite distinction and its possible effect on the prospects of Orthodox-Catholic
unity." — Fr Daniel Dozier, Executive Director of God With Us Eastern Catholic Formation, and author of 20 Answers: Eastern Catholicism from Catholic Answers |
About Dr. James Likoudis
James Likoudis is an expert in Catholic apologetics. He is the author of several books
dealing with Catholic-Eastern Orthodox relations, including his most recent "The Divine
Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy: Letters to a Greek Orthodox
on the Unity of the Church." He has written many articles published by various religious
papers and magazines.
He can be reached at: jameslikoudis1@gmail.com, or visit Dr. James Likoudis'
Homepage