Why Two Versions?

The Phenomenon of the Two Versions of Palamas’ Third Letter to Akindynos

Why was Palamas’ Third Letter passed down to us in two considerably different versions? Was Palamas the author of both versions? Were both versions written at the same time? These and other questions have been bothering scholars for a long time. Our research group tried to give answers to these questions in a workshop held at the XVII International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford (August 2015) and in an International Workshop at the University of Bern (March 2019). The proceedings of the Oxford workshop were published in Studia Patristica XCVI, vol. 22 (2017), pp. 507-558 (see Bibliography). The proceedings of the Bern workshop are expected to appear at the end of 2020.