I translated energeiai, in some cases, by activities or acts, and in others, by energies, depending on what I thought made more sense in English. Palamas himself indicates that, to refer to that which is around God (or that which is not His essence), one can use the term
Migne, in Patrologia Graeca, chooses the Latin term operatio. Meyendorff, the first translator of Palamas into a contemporary language, French, uses the terms âénergieâ/âénergiesâ. Perrella opts for the terms âattoâ/âattiâ and states that it is necessary to find an adequate term instead of simply transliterating. He also indicates that, in Aristotleâs case, the word was translated by âattoâ, as can be seen in the pairs potency (
For a discussion of the best possible translation of the terms âenergeiaâ/âenergeiaiâ in the Palamite context, the introduction by Ettore Perrella, coordinator of the Italian translation of the complete works is a good starting point.3 Ph.G. Renczes discusses the translation of the term within the work of Maximus the Confessor in Agir de Dieu et liberté de lâhomme.4 In addition, Maspero argues that, in the case of Gregory of Nyssa, the sense of peri in the accusative is inspired by Plato, who used the term in the sense of attributes or activity. Well, the divine energies are these peri ton teion â what is around God â that is, the
It is also worth noting that there is some variability in the translation of certain Greek terms into English: for example,
Palamas, Divine Energies, 21: âIn fact, one can use the term âworksâ (
For the discussion on the term âenergeiaâ in Gregory of Nyssa vid. L.F. Mateo Seco and G. Maspero eds., The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa(Leiden/Boston, 2010), 258â262.
Cf. E. Perrella, âIntroduzioneâ, in Gregorio Palamas. Atto e luce divina. Scritti filosofici e teologici (Milano: Bompiani, 2003), XXVIIâXXIX.
Ph.G. Renczes, Agir de Dieu et liberté de lâhomme (Paris: Ãditions du Cerf, 2003), 35â44.