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of nature.” You, therefore, perhaps will say that His being nowhere is not of His essence, but is the essence of God, you who know no difference between essence and energy. But Basil the Great says, "How is it not ridiculous to say that the creative is essence, and again that the providential is essence, and likewise the foreknowing, and simply to posit every energy as essence?" And the divine Maximus says, "Goodness, and whatever is contained in the concept of goodness, and simply all life and immortality and all that are essentially contemplated around God are works of God and not worked in time; for 'was not' is never prior to virtue, nor to any of the other things mentioned, even if the things that partake of them have begun to exist in time according to them." Therefore, none of these things is the essence of God, neither uncreated goodness, nor the unoriginate and eternal life; for all such things are not from what is *in* Him, but from what is *around* Him.

(p. 666) Furthermore, all the holy fathers in common say concerning the uncreated Trinity that it is not possible to find a name indicative of the nature, but the names are of the energies. For divinity is indicative of energy, signifying to run, or to see, or to burn, or self-deification. But the supernamed is not the same as what is named; therefore, the essence and the energy of God are not the same. If the divinity of God properly signifies the energy of God, and these are created according to you, then the divinity of God is also created according to you. But it is not only uncreated but also unoriginate; for He who knows all things before their coming into being never began to see existing things, yet the supernamed essence of God is nevertheless beyond even this energy, inasmuch as that which thus energizes is beyond that which is energized, and the supernamed is beyond that which is named in this way. But such things in no way oppose worshipping one God and one divinity, just as the fact that the ray is also called sun does not oppose believing in one sun and its one light. You see how precisely we agree with the saints.

But you who say that the participable things are created and that not only all the works, but also all the powers and energies of God have a beginning in time and an end, O the madness and the desperation that dares all things fearlessly, you who declare impious and subject to excommunication and anathema the saints who glorify God as being beyond even the uncreated energies in essence, since in His essence He is beyond all affirmation and negation, therefore, by saying and thinking such things, you have no way to show that you are not numbered among the heterodox from of old, and this, by declaring that not only all the energies and all the works of God, but also the powers of that self-superessential nature are created? And yet this name, "the essence," is significant of one of such powers in God. For Dionysius from the Areopagus says, (p. 668) "if we should name the superessential hiddenness God or life or essence or light or word, we mean nothing other than the powers brought forth from it to us, which are deifying or essence-creating or life-giving or wisdom-bestowing." When, therefore, you yourself say that only one thing is unoriginate, the essence of God, you grant us to understand only one power of God to be unoriginate, the essence-creating one, but the others besides it to be under time. How then is the essence-creating power of God unoriginate, but the life-creating, the life-giving, and the wisdom-bestowing will have a beginning in time? For either every divine power is unoriginate or none is. But you, by saying and establishing that only one is uncreated, cast the others out from what is uncreated, and by declaring all to be created, you cast out the one also. For such is falsehood, both inconsistent with itself and self-destructive, naturally, so that it might be both false and ruinous to itself, proceeding against itself and refuting itself through itself.

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φύσεως». Σύ τοίνυν τάχα καί τό μηδαμοῦ εἶναι οὐ τῆς οὐσίας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐσίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐρεῖς, ὁ μηδεμίαν διαφοράν εἰδώς οὐσίας τε καί ἐνεργείας. Ὁ δέ μέγας Βασίλειος, «πῶς οὐ καταγέλαστον», φησί, «τό δημιουργικόν οὐσίαν εἶναι λέγειν, τό προνοητικόν πάλιν οὐσίαν, τό προγνωστικόν ὡσαύτως καί ἁπαξαπλῶς πᾶσαν ἐνέργειαν οὐσίαν τίθεσθαι;». Μάξιμος δέ ὁ θεῖος, «ἡ ἀγαθότης» φησί, «καί πᾶν εἴ τι ἀγαθότητος ἐμπεριέχεται λόγῳ καί ἁπλῶς πᾶσα ζωή καί ἀθανασία καί ὅσα περί τόν Θεόν οὐσιωδῶς θεωρεῖται ἔργα Θεοῦ εἰσι καί οὐκ ἠργμένα χρονικῶς˙ οὐ γάρ ποτε πρεσβύτερον ἀρετῆς τό οὐκ ἦν, οὐδέ τινος ἄλλου τῶν εἰρημένων, κἄν τά μετέχοντα αὐτῶν κατ᾿ αὐτά ἦρκται τοῦ εἶναι χρονικῶς». Οὐδέν ἄρα τῶν τοιούτων οὐσία τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστιν, οὔτε ἄκτιστος ἀγαθότης, οὔτε ἡ ἄναρχος καί ἀΐδιος ζωή˙ οὐ γάρ ἐκ τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτόν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῶν περί αὐτόν τοιαῦτα πάντ᾿ ἔστιν.

(σελ. 666) Ἔτι κοινῇ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι πατέρες ἐπί τῆς ἀκτίστου φασί Τριάδος οὐκ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν ὄνομα τῆς φύσεως δηλωτικόν, τῶν δέ ἐνεργειῶν ἐστι τά ὀνόματα. Καί γάρ ἡ θεότης ἐνεργείας ἐστί δηλωτικόν, τό θέειν ἤ τό θεᾶσθαι ἤ τό αἴθειν ἤ τήν αὐτοθέωσιν δηλοῦν. Ταὐτό δέ τῷ ὀνομαζομένῳ τό ὑπερώνυμον οὐκ ἔστιν˙ οὐ ταὐτό ἄρα οὐσία καί ἐνέργεια Θεοῦ. Εἰ δέ ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ θεότης κυρίως τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐνέργειαν δηλοῖ, κτισταί δέ εἰσιν αὗται κατά σέ, κτιστή ἐστι κατά σέ καί ἡ θεότης τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μόνον ἄκτιστος ἀλλά καί ἄναρχος˙ οὐ γάρ ἤρξατό ποτε τοῦ θεᾶσθαι τά ὄντα ὁ εἰδώς τά πάντα πρίν γενέσεως αὐτῶν ὑπέρκειται δ᾿ ὅμως καί τῆς ἐνεργείας ταύτης ἡ ὑπερώνυμος οὐσία τοῦ Θεοῦ, καθ᾿ ὅσον τό οὕτως ἐνεργοῦν, τοῦ ἐνεργουμένου, καί τό ὑπερώνυμον, τοῦ κατά τοῦτον τόν τρόπον ὀνομαζομένου. Ἀλλά τά τοιαῦτα Θεόν ἕνα σέβειν καί θεότητα μίαν οὐδαμῶς προσίσταται, ἐπεί μηδ᾿ ἥλιον ἕνα καί φῶς ἕν αὐτοῦ νομίζειν, τό καί τήν ἀκτῖνα ἥλιον καλεῖσθαι. Ὁρᾷς ὅπως ἡμεῖς ἀκριβῶς ὁμολογοῦμεν τοῖς ἁγίοις.

Σύ δέ ὁ τά μεθεκτά λέγων κτιστά καί οὐχί τά ἔργα πάντα μόνον, ἀλλά καί τάς δυνάμεις καί ἐνεργείας πάσας τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀρχήν ἔχειν χρονικήν καί τέλος, ὤ τῆς παραπληξίας καί τῆς πάντα τολμώσῃς ἀδεῶς ἀπονοίας, ἀσεβεῖς ἀποφαινούμενος καί ἀφορισμῷ καί ἀναθέματι καθυποβάλλων τούς καί τῶν ἀκτίστων ἐνεργειῶν ἐπέκεινα κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τόν Θεόν δοξάζοντας ἁγίους, ἐπεί κατ᾿ αὐτήν πάσης ὑπέρκειται θέσεώς τε καί ἀφαιρέσεως, οὐ τοίνυν τοιαῦτα λέγων καί φρονῶν ἔχεις ὅπως δείξῃς μή τοῖς ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος κακοδόξοις ἐναρίθμιος ὤν, καί ταῦτ᾿ οὐχί τάς ἐνεργείας μόνον πάσας καί πάντα τά ἔργα τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλά καί τάς δυνάμεις τῆς αὐθυπερουσίου φύσεως ἐκείνης κτιστάς ἀποφαινόμενος; Καίτοι τοὔνομα τοῦτο, "ἡ οὐσία", μιᾶς τῶν τοιούτων δυνάμεων σημαντικόν ἐστι ἐπί Θεοῦ. Φησί γάρ ὁ ἐξ Ἀρείου Πάγου ∆ιονύσιος, (σελ. 668) «εἰ τήν ὑπερούσιον κρυφιότητα Θεόν ἤ ζωήν ἤ οὐσίαν ἤ φῶς ἤ λόγον ὀνομάσομεν, οὐδέν ἕτερον νοοῦμεν ἤ τάς εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐξ αὐτῆς προαγομένας δυνάμεις ἐκθεωτικάς ἤ οὐσιοποιούς ἤ ζωογόνους ἤ σοφοδώρους». Ὅταν οὖν αὐτός λέγῃς ἕν εἶναι μόνον ἄναρχον, τήν οὐσίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, μίαν μόνην δίδως ἡμῖν νοεῖν Θεοῦ δύναμιν ἄναρχον, τήν οὐσιοποιόν, τάς δέ παρά ταύτην ὑπό χρόνον. Πῶς οὖν ἡ μέν οὐσιοποιός τοῦ Θεοῦ δύναμις ἄναρχος, ἡ δέ ζωοποιός ἕξει χρονικήν ἀρχήν, ἥ τε ζωογόνος καί ἡ σοφοδότις; Ἤ γάρ πᾶσα ἄναρχος θεία δύναμις ἐστιν ἤ οὐδεμία. Σύ δέ τήν μίαν μόνην λέγων καί κατασκευάζων ἄκτιστον, τάς ἄλλας ἐκβάλλεις τοῦ ἀκτίστου πάσας δέ κτιστάς ἀποφαινόμενος, συνεκβάλλεις καί τήν μίαν. Τοιοῦτον γάρ τό ψεῦδος καί ἑαυτῷ ἀνακόλουθόν ἐστι καί αὐτεπίβουλον, εἰκότως, ἵνα ᾗ καί πρός αὐτό ψευδές τε καί λυμαντικόν, αὐτό ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτό χωροῦν καί αὐτό ἑαυτοῦ δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ καταψευδόμενον.