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It is in chapter five that Fr. Hussey addresses the problem of the filioque, and he tries to show that there is an eternal procession or manifestation of the Spirit through the Son in the theology of St. Gregory Palamas. It is also in this chapter that he deals with the fundamental difference that exists between the triadology of the East and the West, that is, the fact that the East primarily centers upon the three divine hypostases, while the West primarily emphasizes the unity of the divine essence. Thus, East and West approach the Trinity from different perspectives and appear to understand the hypostases and essence (ousia) of God in different ways. The East tends to see the divine essence (ousia) as a type of universal, while the West tends to view it as a particular. [12] As far as the divine hypostases are concerned, the East focuses upon them as concrete objects, while the West normally sees them as subjects. [13]

The distinctive views of East and West on the nature of the unity within the Trinity is what leads to confusion over the filioque in Trinitarian theology. The East with its focus upon the Father as the unifying principle within the Godhead rejects any notion of a procession of the Spirit from the Son at the level of the divine hypostases or at the level of the divine essence, but St. Gregory Palamas does accept that there is an energetic manifestation or procession of the Spirit through the Son in the divine economy; and more than this, because the divine energies are eternal and uncreated, it follows that there is some type of energetic manifestation of the Spirit through the Son eternally within the intimate life of the Godhead. This second aspect means that there is a true sense in which the Spirit proceeds through the Son as a part of the inner life of the Triune God, that is, as a part of the immanent Trinity and not merely as an economic outpouring of the Spirit upon mankind within salvation history. [14]

In the sixth chapter Fr. Hussey tries to workout in greater detail the eternal manifestation of the Spirit through the Son by focusing on the Trinitarian nature of this idea. Thus, for St. Gregory Palamas the divine energies are proper to the Father as the font of Godhead, and so they flow from Him through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This out pouring of God�s uncreated energy is not simply a temporal reality, because God�s glory eternally radiates out from His essence, and so He cannot be contained within Himself even before there is a created universe. That being said, throughout this entire chapter Fr. Hussey emphasizes what St. Gregory Palamas holds to be a fundamental truth of the faith, that is, the idea that the divine energies are God Himself, as He exists outside of His essence, and that this manifestation of God is not merely a temporal reality.

The last portion of chapter six is centered on Fr. Hussey�s attempt to clarify the relationship that exists between the Holy Spirit as the sanctifier of man and the divine energies that flow out from the Divine Spirit and which can be participated in by man. In the Palamite system it is not possible to participate in the hypostasis of the Spirit, but only in His energetic manifestations, but that being said, there is a tension present within Palamas� own thought in this area, because he constantly emphasizes that the divine energies are the activities of all three hypostases together, and yet when speaking of man�s divinization he focuses almost exclusively upon the role of the Holy Spirit in bestowing deifying grace. In order to try and bring balance to his presentation of this mystery, St. Gregory relies upon what Fr. Hussey calls a traditional patristic formula, that is, the idea that grace is sent, �from the Father through the Son and in the Spirit.� [15] Fr. Hussey shows how this patristic formula, which can be found in the writings of St. Cyril of Alexandria, is used by Palamas to try and show that the focus upon the Spirit as the giver of the gift of deification does not involve a rejection of the truth that the Father and the Son also give this deifying energy to the human person. There is in other words, a unity of action among the three divine hypostases, which necessarily involves a distinct ordering of the operations (energies) of the Trinity among the three divine hypostases in the economy of salvation.

End Notes:

[12] See Cross, Richard. �Two Models of the Trinity?� Heythrop Journal 43 (2002): pages 275-294. Richard Cross speaks of the different approaches to the Trinity used by East and West in his article, and as he puts it: �There is a clear difference between the two views, however, and it is this: the Eastern view does and the Western view does not, generally accept a sense in which the divine essence is a shared universal. This divergence can clearly be seen in the originators of the two different approaches. As I will show below, Gregory of Nyssa, for example, asserts that the divine essence is a universal, and Augustine just as decisively denies this. And similar assertions are not hard to find later in the various traditions too (as I will show in the cases of John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas).� (page 275)

[13] See Hussey, 60-61; Fr. Hussey, referring back to the work of G. L. Prestige, says that there is a fundamental difference between the way that Greek and Latin theology approach the Trinity: �to the Greeks, God is one objective being, though He is also three objects, whereas to the Latins, God is one object and three subjects. Although Prestige does not give an exact definition of his terms �subject� and �object,� the tenor of his study clearly indicates that the Greek emphasis is on three really objective presentations of one identical being and that the Latin emphasis is on one objective being with three real, internal and subsistent relationships.�

[14] See Hussey, 72-75.

[15] Hussey, 84.