Ones & their Manys
avoiding pantheisms & theopanisms
If we’re to avoid pantheisms & theopanisms tainted with untenable divisibilities & embrace a panentheism that preserves our best classical theist intuitions ---
A synthetic unity of any oneness with its "many," at least of a oneness which would neither obliterate nor be exhausted by any of its particulars, requires more than a condition, a conditioned & a concept / reality arising from their union.
Such a oneness would manifest, primarily, as unconditioned, & secondarily & triadically as - not only both a condition & conditioned, but - their unity.
In Trinitology, the MOF refers to such an unconditioned One, Who generates the triad & emanatively originates (vertically causes) both His own & all mutually constituted others' conditions (horizontal relations).
In Christology, the Logos refers to such an unconditioned One, Who emanatively originates (vertically causes) both His own & all mutually constituted others' (tropoi) conditions (logoi). Christ, Himself (as tropos), is thus both also conditioned (horizontally) as well as a unitary microcosm of all logoi & the unitive macranthropos of all tropoi.
Anthropologically, while each person's primary nature is conditioned by logoi, they vertically (tropically) co-cause the conditions of their own secondary nature vis a vis how they will relate (horizontally by mutual conditioning) to - not only all other persons as microcosms & the cosmos as macranthropos, but - unitively & cosmotheandrically, for all are both originated by (the primary nature) & mutually constituted as (the secondary nature of) the Body of Christ.
Hypostatic univocities & Perichoreses of
Trinitology = same nature, different persons;
Christology = same person, different natures; &
Theosis = differently natured persons, same eternal personal relation of love.
Ergo, our Theory of truth = Christology & of knowledge = pneumatology.
The Holy Spirit, economically, intercedes for & comforts & empowers us to realize our natural teloi & personal tropoi that each may uniquely manifest Christ.
The Holy Spirit thereby glorifies Christ in Creation & guarantees the gifting by grace (per the pleasure of God's will) of our eternal inheritance, even as adoptees!
This is nothing less than our participation in divine beatitude, God's very own love & enjoyment of & delight in God!
The hypostatic logic of theosis thus includes a univocity of divine beatitude!
to wit
'The cognition of God and of truth is the only thing that raises human beings above animals, that sets them apart and makes them happy, or rather, according to Plato and Aristotle as well as Christian doctrine, blessed.'
Hegel, Foreword to Heinrich's *Religion*
Hence my twist on JDW's upcoming publication. One way to receive it is to focus on its practical implications regarding deification, grace & the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Among other things, I've seen it as The Story of Grace as told by Maximus!
Come Holy Ghost!
Yes, there's a natural asymmetry between divine persons who are nondetermined & self-determined & created persons who are partly self-determined, hence an essential analogia.
Perichoretically, though, we GET the help we need to realize, even to desire, THE divine beatitude!
The Story of Grace as told by Maximus goes beyond the theandric to the cosmotheandric.
Eternally, it includes creation & recreation, ecstasis & epectasis, multiple incarnations of mutually constituted I - Thou - nesses, all uniquely manifesting Christ.
the Spirit woos creation forth•
makes this way south & that way north•
invites each blade of grass to green!
horizons, boundaries, limits, origins•
perimeters, parameters, centers, margins•
we're given freedom in between!
thus truth & beauty & goodness grow•
thus lizards leap & roosters crow•
and dawns break with each new day!
good news is ours to be believed•
love freely given if received•
the Spirit in our heart will stay!
"Hence St. Maximus had written,” says Meyendorff summarizing Palamas, " ‘God and the saints had one and the same energy.’ " ~ Eugene Webb, The Pneumatology of Bernard Lonergan, A Byzantine Comparison, Religious Studies and Theology, 5, no. 2 (May, 1985), pp. 13–23