The Athonite monk Gregory Palamas (1296 – 14.11.1359) addressed his Third Letter to his fellow monk Gregory Akindynos (ca. 1300 – ca. 1348) at the beginning of a crucial theological turn in the history of the Byzantine Empire, the so-called Hesychast Controversy. This conflict arose in Constantinople in the course of the 1330s, when the Calabrian theologian and humanist Barlaam of Seminara (ca. 1290 – 1348) leveled harsh criticism at Palamas and his method of contemplation and prayer. This method followed the tradition of Hesychasm, an ascetic-mystical form of meditation in the Orthodox Church that had its origins in antiquity and reached its climax during the first half of the fourteenth century among the monks of Mount Athos. According to Palamas, this spiritual practice enabled practitioners to participate in God through visions of light. He explained this experience with the distinction between divine essence (οὐσία) and divine energy (ἐνέργεια), which dates back to a Christian dogma already established at the Third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 680/1. However, Palamas took the essence-energies distinction as a real distinction in God: the revelation of divine energies to humans allows them to actually contemplate God.
This novel interpretation of an old dogma induced Barlaam to accuse the Hesychasts of heresy before John XIV Kalekas, Patriarch of Constantinople, in 1337. Palamas answered this charge, although it had no serious consequences for him, with his first Triad in the following year. In the same year, Barlaam wrote a treatise against the hesychast teachings. This work has not survived. It was followed by Palamas’ second Triad written in 1339 which, still in the same year, prompted Barlaam to accuse the Hesychasts of Messalianism (an ancient Christian spiritual movement condemned as heretical) in a new treatise entitled Against the Messalians. This treatise is lost today, too. Thereafter, in 1340, Palamas wrote not only the so-called Hagioretic Tomos, a condemnation of Barlaam, and requested it to be signed by the monastic authorities of Mount Athos, but also composed a third Triad against Barlaam. At this point, the latter presented his treatise Against the Messalians to the Patriarch and the Patriarchal Synod and demanded the convocation of a synod against Palamas and the Hesychasts. Around this time, probably in the first months of 1341, definitely before a synod was finally held on June 10th, 1341 in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Palamas wrote his Third Letter to his friend Akindynos.
This letter was passed down to us in two significantly different versions. They are presented here for the first time in a synoptic juxtaposition.
Akindynos’ response to Palamas’ Third Letter suggests that he was much disconcerted. So far, he had been rebuking Barlaam’s attacks against the Hesychasts and at the same time Palamas’ campaigns against Barlaam, playing the role of mediator in the conflict. However, Palamas’ doctrinal statements in his Third Letter seemed to corroborate Barlaam’s accusations and could jeopardize Palamas’ position in the upcoming synod (see above, Historical Background, part one) for which Palamas was summoned to come to Constantinople by Patriarch John XIV Kalekas.
The synod on June 10th, 1341 in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, presided over by Emperor Andronikos III, convened, among others, Patriarch Kalekas, the Grand Domestic John VI Kantakouzenos, Barlaam, Palamas, church dignitaries and a large audience. Akindynos was most probably absent. Both the Patriarch and the Emperor were anxious to avoid any debates on dogmatical differences. They should be discussed on another occasion. Instead, the monks were absolved from Barlaam’s charge of Messalianism against them, whereas Barlaam was condemned for saying that the light of the Transfiguration was created and that the hesychast prayer methods would slander the Church Fathers.
After this defeat, Barlaam soon left for Italy. He became a Catholic and was later on appointed Bishop of Gerace (Calabria) by Pope Clement VI. Akindynos, although trying to smooth away the dogmatic difficulties and differences he had with his former friend and teacher Palamas in several meetings, turned into his fiercest theological and personal enemy and took the role of the leading antagonist against this ‘new theologian’. Palamas and Akindynos composed a series of polemic writings against each other. After several synods (which at the same time became the scene of the dispute over the succession to the imperial throne – Emperor Andronikos III had died only three days after the June synod), Akindynos was finally excommunicated by a council in 1347. In the same year, Palamas became archbishop of Thessaloniki. His doctrine of energies was canonized by a synod in Constantinople in 1351. It is to the present day a dogma of the Orthodox Church and belongs to the most prominent doctrines that are irreconcilable with the Western Churches.
Akindynos must have died as early as in 1348. Palamas was canonized in 1368, just nine years after his death in 1359, and is still among the most popular church fathers in the Orthodox Church.