In 2020-2021, IOTA held several online international colloquia on the historical and theological aspects of deification. Given the importance of the topic of deification, we are delighted to share the presentations given at these colloquia in the form of newly launched IOTA Lectures.

Lecture highlights:

The theology of St Gregory Palamas (1296–1357) is widely recognized as a watershed moment for the articulation of a strong and thoroughgoing doctrine of deification in Eastern Christianity.

This talk opens with a discussion of Palamas’ theology of deification as both creative yet simultaneously traditional, embedded as it is in a particular understanding and reception of the patristic sources, sources to which every side in the Hesychast Controversy laid claim.

The focus of the talk is the emergence of all the major contours of Palamas’ understanding of deification in the Triads, an early set of works consisting of nine treatises. These contours are traced via Palamas’ reaction to three tenets espoused by his theological opponent Barlaam which undermined for Palamas the content of Christian salvation as deification.

The talk then turns briefly to deification in some later texts by Palamas and the Palamites before concluding.