__When a Calabrian philosopher mocked the Athonite monks for the way they prayed, a quiet Byzantine archbishop wrote the works that would shape Eastern Christian theology for seven centuries.__The Wisdom of Gregory Palamas: Hesychasm and the Uncreated Light traces the life and thought of the fourteenth-century theologian who became the most articulate defender of the contemplative tradition of the Christian East. Born into a senatorial household in Constantinople and formed in the philosophical schools of his day before withdrawing to Mount Athos, Palamas spent decades in the silent practice of the prayer of the heart. When his tradition came under philosophical attack, he answered with works of patient precision that vindicated the hesychast monks and gave the Eastern church its definitive teaching on the divine being.

The Wisdom of Gregory Palamas: Hesychasm and the Uncreated Light follows his entire arc, from his early formation in the imperial city to the years of theological controversy, the councils that ratified his teaching, his service as archbishop of Thessalonica, and his year of captivity among the Ottoman Turks. Along the way the book examines the practice and theology that were at stake in the most consequential Byzantine theological dispute of the late medieval period.

• The biographical journey from Constantinople through Mount Athos to Thessalonica
• The hesychast practice of inner stillness and the prayer of the heart
• The theological controversy with Barlaam of Calabria and the writing of the Triads
• The doctrine of the uncreated light revealed at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor
• The distinction between divine essence and divine energies that secured the patristic teaching on participation
• The doctrine of theosis and the destiny of the human person in communion with God

The Wisdom of Gregory Palamas: Hesychasm and the Uncreated Light is for readers who want to understand how a tradition of contemplative prayer became one of the most carefully articulated theologies of the Christian East, and why its insights continue to draw seekers, scholars, and contemplatives almost seven centuries after the death of its greatest expositor.