Following the Holy Fathers: Patristic Sources in the Palamite Controversy, session at the XVIII International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford, August 19–24, 2019

Opponents on both sides of the Palamite controversy (1338-1368) invoked the writings of the Church Fathers to support their theological claims and positions. Though scholars have long debated the patristic antecedents of the essence-energies distinction, research has tended to focus almost exclusively on the fidelity of St. Gregory Palamas to his patristic sources. This Workshop seeks, instead, to explore the use of the Fathers in the Palamite controversy more generally, from neglected influences on the writings of Palamas himself to the use of patristic authorities by Gregory’s opponents and subsequent defenders. Comprising a philological, historical, and theological exploration, we welcome papers on the following topics:

• The Fathers in St. Gregory Palamas
• Patristic sources in anti-Palamite theology (from Barlaam to Manuel Kalekas and beyond)
• Middle Byzantine and later patristic influences on the Palamite controversy
• The role of the Liturgy and Hymnography in the Palamite controversy
• The use of the Fathers by Palamite authors to 1453 (from Dishypatos and Kokkinos to Eugenikos and Scholarios)

Papers may focus on individual Church Fathers or patristic sources and methodology in general on any aspect of patristic theology that enhances our understanding of Palamite and anti-Palamite theology in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.