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# The Energy of God -- Aristotle, East and West
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-energy-of-god-aristotle-east-and-west/
- Published: 2008-01-10T05:57:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-20T21:19:47.000Z
- Description: The Energy of God -- Aristotle, East and West
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Keith E. Buhler, Theology and Practice

See [David Bradshaw's](http://www.uky.edu/%7Edbradsh/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) provocative, pleasing, and thoroughly insightful essay on the contrasting reception of Aristotle's concept of "the energy of God."

  
"The term ‘energy’ comes from the Greek *energeia*, a term coined by Aristotle. Aristotle’s earliest works use it to mean the active exercise of a capacity, such as that for sight or thought, as distinct from the mere possession of the capacity." - From [The Concept of Divine Energies](http://www.uky.edu/%7Edbradsh/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com)  
  
This essay is adapted from his book of the same title, available at Amazon. (You can also [preview it ](http://books.google.com/books?id=xZPsSG75uCUC&dq=aristotle+east+and+west&pg=PP1&ots=nFeRCWKQCR&sig=hGwKp1J50Pl-dhOWmzqufbigfOk&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=aristotle+east+and+west&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail&ref=mereorthodoxy.com#PPR7,M1)thanks to Google books!)

"My goal in this paper is two-fold. First I wish to show that a sharply different way of thinking about God was present within the Christian tradition from an early point, that is, prior to Augustine. Second, I wish to show that this alternative conception is of live philosophical interest. Although I shall be discussing primarily Christian sources, I by no means believe that what I have to say should be of interest only to Christians. The question of what God is like, if there is a God, is of universal human importance. What ought to interest us in any answer is not what religious label it comes under, but whether it is true."