The Energy of God -- Aristotle, East and West

January 9th, 2008 | 2 min read

See David Bradshaw's 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

This essay is adapted from his book of the same title, available at Amazon. (You can also preview it 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."

Topics:

Theology and Practice

The Energy of God -- Aristotle, East and West

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