Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Aristotelian beginnings
- 2 The Prime Mover
- 3 Between Aristotle and Plotinus
- 4 Plotinus and the theory of two acts
- 5 The Plotinian heritage in the West
- 6 Gods, demons, and theurgy
- 7 The formation of the eastern tradition
- 8 The flowering of the eastern tradition
- 9 Palamas and Aquinas
- 10 Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Epilogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Aristotelian beginnings
- 2 The Prime Mover
- 3 Between Aristotle and Plotinus
- 4 Plotinus and the theory of two acts
- 5 The Plotinian heritage in the West
- 6 Gods, demons, and theurgy
- 7 The formation of the eastern tradition
- 8 The flowering of the eastern tradition
- 9 Palamas and Aquinas
- 10 Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun?
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay ScienceIf the ousia does not possess an energeia distinct from itself, it will be completely without actual subsistence and will be only a concept in the mind.
Gregory Palamas, One Hundred and Fifty ChaptersWe have now completed our historical survey. It would be possible to carry the story further, for the decades after the hesychast controversy saw a substantial interest in Aquinas among the Byzantines. The Summa Contra Gentiles was translated into Greek in 1355, and other works, including the Summa Theologiae, soon followed. They provoked a lively controversy, with a small but vigorous minority (led by the translators, Demetrius and Prochorus Cydones) seeking to persuade their countrymen of the merits of Thomism. This sudden expansion of horizons contributed to the turbulence of Byzantine intellectual life in its final days, helping make possible the originality of men like Gemisto Plethon and Cardinal Bessarion, who initiated the revival of Platonism in the Renaissance. No doubt it was the Byzantines' growing sense of desperation that opened their minds to the possibility that they might have something to learn from the West.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Aristotle East and WestMetaphysics and the Division of Christendom, pp. 263 - 277Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004