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Does the Orthodox tradition have anything to contribute to analytic theology?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2024

Terence Cuneo Open the ORCID record for Terence Cuneo [Opens in a new window]
Terence Cuneo*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
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Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

A prominent challenge to analytic theology charges that its methodology leads to idolatry. This article explores a response to this challenge that draws upon the Eastern Orthodox apophatic tradition. Apophatic approaches, which emphasize how little we can truthfully say or know about God, are not exclusive to Orthodox Christianity. But these views take a unique form within the tradition insofar as they accord a prominent role to the distinction between God’s essence and God’s energies. The divine essence is what it is to be God, what God is as such, what God is at God’s core. In contrast, the divine energies are properties, modes, or activities of God not included in the divine essence but intimately related to it. Proponents of the distinction have claimed that it can help theorists to navigate the Christian tradition’s cataphatic and apophatic commitments, which don’t always sit comfortably together. This article argues that there are ways of crafting the essence/energy distinction that can also help to address the ‘Idolatry Argument’ against analytic theology.

Keywords

apophaticismenergiesessencegroundingidolatryorthodox
Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 16
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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