In the order of the house-building manifestation of the Holy Trinity in the world, each energy proceeds from the Father and is communicated through the Son in the Holy Spirit (?????????????????????????????????????). For this reason it is said that the Father creates all things through the Son in the Holy Spirit. This proposition is very clearly expressed by St. Cyril of Alexandria: "The action of an uncreated essence," he says, "is something common, although it is peculiar to each Person, so that according to the triune hypostasis the action relates to each of them, as a property of a perfect Person. Thus, the Father acts through the Son in the Spirit. The Son acts in the same way, but as the power of the Father, inasmuch as He is from Him and in Him according to His own Hypostasis. And the Spirit works in the same way: for He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the Spirit almighty, the mighty" [123]. In the order of sending down the manifesting energies that manifest the Godhead, the Father is the possessor of the manifested attribute, the Son is the manifestation of the Father, the Holy Spirit is the One who manifests. Thus, for St. Gregory the Theologian, the Father is the True, the Son is the Truth, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth: ????????????????????????????????????????????????? [124]. According to the teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa, "The source of power is the Father, and the power of the Father is the Son, and the Spirit of power is the Holy Spirit" [125]. Therefore, the attribute of Wisdom common to the Trinity in the order of the Divine economy designates the Son; "The Son is the hypostatic Wisdom of the Father." The very name - the Word - ????? - applied to the Son, there is also the name "oikonomic" proper, peculiar to the second Hypostasis, inasmuch as She reveals the nature of the Father. This is precisely what St. Gregory the Theologian has in mind: "It seems to me that the Son is called the Word not only because of His passionless birth, but also because He is united with the Father and because He reveals Him. It could also be said that He relates to the Father as a definition to the defined. For "logos" also means "determination," and he who knows the Son also knows the Father" (John 14:7). Thus, the Son is a brief and clear expression of the nature of the Father; for every generation is a silent determination of the one who begotten. Finally, if by "logos" we mean the cause of the essence of every thing, we shall not be mistaken in attributing this name to the Son. For can there be anything that is not the Logos, the Word?" [126] It is impossible to express more clearly the house-building character of the very name "Logos", the external manifestation of the nature of the Father through the Son. St. Irenaeus of Lyons expressed a similar judgment, characteristic especially of the Christian thought of the first centuries: "The invisible of the Son is the Father, and the visible of the Father is the Son" (127). The Son, who manifests the hidden nature of the Father, is here almost identified with the energies of Deity. Likewise, when St. Basil the Great says: "The Son manifests in Himself the whole Father, as having shone forth from all His glory" [128], he emphasizes the energetic character (glory, radiance) of the appearance of the Father through the Son.

The teaching of the Fathers about the Persons of the Word and the Spirit, considered as perfect images of God, can only be explained in the same sense, that is, in the external aspect of the Holy Trinity, which manifests Itself in the world by Its energies. Developing the idea contained in the text of the Apostle Paul: "the radiance of glory and the image of the Hypostasis" (Heb. 1:3), St. John of Damascus says: "The Son is the image of the Father, and the image of the Son is the Spirit." Thus, for Damascene, the image (?????) is a manifestation and an indication of that which is hidden. And he clarifies his idea in the following way that the Son and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, manifest Him: "The Son is the natural, unchanging image of the Father, in all things similar to the Father, except the unborn and the patronymic. For the Father is the unborn parent. But the Son is begotten, and is not the Father" [130]. "And the Holy Spirit is the image of the Son, for "no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12, 3). Therefore we know Christ the Son of God and God through the Holy Spirit, and in the Son we behold the Father" [131]. Thus, the consubstantial Persons of the Son and the Holy Spirit, acting in the world, do not reveal Themselves, for They do not act according to Their own will, but the Son makes the Father known, and the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Son. An important point to note here is that the Person of the Holy Spirit remains unrevealed. He does not have His image in another. We will return to this question when we speak of the Holy Spirit and grace. For the time being, let us note the following: the Eastern Church accused Western theology of confusing the aspect of external active manifestation in the world, in which the Holy Spirit, as a consubstantial Person sent into the world by the Father and the Son, reveals the Son, with the aspect of the inner being of the Holy Trinity in Itself, where the perfect Person of the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone and has no "related" relation to the Son. The difference between these two aspects is that, according to the teaching of the Eastern Church, the intra-Trinitarian relationship is not determined by the will, but the will determines the external actions of the Divine Persons in relation to the created. This will is the common will of the three Persons; therefore, in the mission in the world of the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of the three Persons acts together with the other two: the Son is incarnate, but as sent by the Father, and is clothed in flesh with the assistance of the Holy Spirit; The Holy Spirit proceeds, but is sent down from the Father through the Son. About the love of the Most Holy Trinity, which is manifested in the plan of the Divine economy as the mystery of the cross, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow says the following: "The love of the Father is crucifying, the love of the Son is crucified, the love of the Spirit is triumphant by the power of the Cross" [132].

Thus, the theology of the Eastern Church distinguishes in God: three hypostases, which occur personally; nature or essence; Energies that occur naturally. Energies are inseparable from nature, nature is inseparable from the three Persons. In the tradition of the Eastern Church, this is of particular importance for the mystical life:

1. The doctrine of energies inexpressibly different from nature is the dogmatic basis of the reality of all mystical experience. God, unapproachable by nature, is present in His energies "as in a mirror" while remaining invisible in what He is. "Thus our face becomes visible in the mirror, while remaining invisible to ourselves," says St. Gregory Palamas [133]. Wholly unknowable in His essence, God reveals Himself wholly in His energies, which do not divide His nature into two parts, the knowable and the unknowable, but point to two different modes of Divine being, in essence and without essence.

2. This teaching explains how the Holy Trinity can dwell in Its incommunicable essence and at the same time, according to the promise of Christ Himself, can make a dwelling place in us (John 14:23). It is not a causal presence like God's omnipresence in creation; nor is it an essential presence, for communion by its very definition is incommunicable. This is a certain mode by which the Holy Trinity really dwells in us in that which is communicated to Him, in His energies common to the three Hypostases, that is, by grace; for this is the name given to the adoring energies communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. He who has in himself the Spirit that gives, also has the Son, through Whose mediation every gift is given to us, also has the Father, from Whom "every gift is perfect" (James 1:17). By receiving the gift of adoring energies, we become the abode of the Holy Trinity, inseparable from His natural energies, present in them in a different way, but as real as in His own nature.

3. The distinction between essence and energies – the basis of the Orthodox teaching on grace – makes it possible to preserve the true meaning of the expression of the Apostle Peter: "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). The union to which we are called is neither a hypostatic union, as for the human nature of Christ, nor an essential union, as for the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. It is union with God in His energies, or union by grace, which "communes" us with the Divine nature without our nature becoming Divine nature because of this. According to the teaching of St. Maximus the Confessor,[134] in the state of deification we possess by grace, that is, by means of Divine energies, all that God possesses by His nature, except identity with His nature ?????????????????????????????? ). By becoming gods by grace, we remain created, just as Christ, having become man by incarnation, remained God.

The distinctions that the theology of the Eastern Church allows in God do not contradict his apophatic position in relation to the truths of Revelation. On the contrary, these antinomic distinctions are dictated by religious concern to preserve the mystery by expressing the data of Revelation in dogma. Thus, as we have seen with regard to the dogma of the Holy Trinity, the distinction between Persons and nature sought to represent God simultaneously as a monad and a triad, so that the unity of nature would not prevail over the trinity of hypostases, so that the original mystery of this identity, difference, would not be eliminated or weakened. In the same way, the distinction between essence and energies is explained by the antinomy of the unknowable and the knowable, the incommunicable and the communicable, the antinomy with which religious thought and experience of Divine things come into contact. These real distinctions do not introduce any complexity into the Divine being, but speak of the mystery of God, absolutely one in nature and absolutely triune in Persons, of the Trinity, one-reigning and unapproachable, living in His abundant glory, which is the uncreated Light, Her eternal Kingdom, into which all those who will inherit the deification of the age to come must enter.

Western theology, even in the very dogma of the Holy Trinity, emphasizes the one essence, still less does it admit of a real distinction between essence and energies. But, on the other hand, it establishes other distinctions, alien to Eastern theology, distinctions between the light of glory, which is created, and the light of grace, which is also created, as well as between other elements of the "supernatural order," such as gifts, virtues, and grace that justifies and sanctifies (gratia habitualis and gratia actualis). The Eastern tradition does not know an intermediate phase between God and the created world of a "supernatural order" that would be added to the world as some kind of new creation. In this regard, he knows no other distinction or rather division than the division into created and uncreated. The "supernatural" created does not exist for her. What Western theology calls "supernatural" means for Eastern theology "uncreated" and Divine energies, ineffably different from the Divine essence. The difference is that the Western concept of grace includes the idea of causality, so that grace appears to be the effect of the Divine Cause, similar to the act of creation. For Eastern theology, it is a natural outpouring of energies eternally radiating from the Divine essence. Only in His creation does God act as Cause and create a new "plot" called to participate in the Divine fullness, which He guards, saves, bestows grace on him, and directs him to the final goal. In the energies God is, exists, and manifests Himself eternally. This is the mode of Divine existence into which we enter when we receive grace. It is also, in the created and perishable world, the presence of the uncreated and eternal Light, the real omnipresence of God in "all things," and this is something greater than His causal presence: "And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness hath not encompassed it" (John 1:5).

Divine energies are in everything and outside of everything. In order to unite "with the ray of the Divine," in the words of Dionysius the Areopagite, it is necessary to rise above created being, to break off all connection with the creature. However, these Divine rays penetrate the created world and are the cause of its existence. Light "was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him" (John 1:10). God created everything with His energies. The act of creation establishes the connection of the Divine energies with that which "is not God." It is the facet, the predestination (??????????) of the infinite and eternal radiance of the Godhead, which becomes the cause of the finite and accidental existence. For the energies do not create the created world by the mere fact of their existence, nor by the fact that they are the natural origins of the essence. Otherwise, either the world would be, like God, infinite and eternal, or the energies would be only limited and temporary manifestations of God. Thus, the Divine energies in themselves are the relationship between God and created being; but they enter into a relationship with that which is not God, which, by the will of God, brings into being. According to St. Maximus the Confessor, the will is always an active relationship to someone else, to something that is outside the acting subject. This will created everything with its energies so that all created things could enter into union with God through these same energies. "For," says St. Maximus, "God created us in order that we might become partakers of the Divine nature, in order that we might enter into eternity, in order that we might become like Him, being deified by grace, which produces everything that exists and calls into existence everything that did not exist" [135].

Глава V. Тварное бытие

Когда мы пытаемся от полноты Божественного бытия обратиться к тому, что призвано к стяжанию этой полноты, к самим себе, к тварному миру, который есть не полнота и сам по себе не-бытие, мы вынуждены признать, что если нам трудно было подниматься к созерцанию Бога, если нам нужно было понуждать себя на апофатическое восхождение, чтобы, в меру своих возможностей, получить откровение о Святой Троице, то не менее трудно перейти от понятия бытия Божественного к понятию бытия тварного. Ибо, если есть тайна Божественного, есть также и тайна тварного. И здесь, чтобы допустить вне Бога и рядом с Ним что-то другое и от Него отличное, какой-то совершенно новый сюжет, также необходим "бросок" нашей веры. От нас требуется своеобразный "апофатизм вспять", который привел бы к откровенной истине о творении "из ничего", ex nihilo.

Мы часто забываем, что сотворение мира - не истина философского порядка, а один из пунктов нашей веры. Античная философия не знала "сотворения" в абсолютном смысле этого слова. Демиург Платона - не бог - творец, а скорее устроитель вселенной, художник, мастер "космоса", а "космос" означает порядок, украшение. "Быть" для эллинской мысли значило быть в некоем порядке, обладать некоей сущностью. Демиург создает субстанции, "оформляя" аморфную материю, которая извечно существует во вне, как какая-то хаотичная и неопределенная сфера, которая может приобретать всевозможные формы и всевозможные качества. Таким образом, материя сама по себе есть не бытие, а только чистая возможность бытия, возможность чем-то становиться; это то "не-бытие", ????? , которое не есть абсолютное "небытие" - ?????? . Идея творения "из ничего" впервые была выражена в библейском повествовании (2 Мак. 7, 28), когда мать, увещевая своего сына претерпеть мучения за веру, говорит: "Посмотри на небо и землю и, видя все, что на них, познай, что все сотворил Бог из ничего" - ????????????????????????????????????? (по переводу Семидесяти).