On the energies of God : and how many there are
The concept of the energies of God is one of the most important concept of orthodox theology, being one of the three core categories of our metaphysics : it had a central place in the writings of the apostles and church father, and today is much forgotten by the West.
The main meaning of energy in orthodoxy is simply : an action. Eating, or going for a walk, or greeting someone, is an energy. Energies aren't subjects, but are interactions between multiple subjects, in wich subjects experience each other.
Energies aren't restraint to willing subject : every characteristic and interaction of matter is energy, as our Fathers clearly maintain in the exemples they give (about rocks, trees, copper, etc)
So, there are multiple human energies, multiple coppery energies, multiple equine energies, and, of course, multiple divine energy, as God acts in many ways, the work of his hands being infinite, from creation to miracles, and many other divine works.
But, as you know, we (as in Ad Ablabius) always say that "the three person of the trinity have one energy". What doest that mean ? Do they only have one action that they do ? Are they just, for exemple, continuously opening the sea for Moses ?
No. Here we say energy in a slightly different manner : we want to say that they share the same economy : that is, that every diverse energy they do, they do together, and they do only one and the same, done by the three simultaneously. St Gregory of Nyssa himself explains it
Like, for exemple, they all created the world in a commmon action, nuked sodom with a common action, healed Lazarus in a single common action, etc
So, in that meaning, we say that there is only one energy of god : that is, only one economy, only one mode of acting, like there is only on will, all willing the same things, one mode of willing, but diverse things willed by all three together.
That "single energy" concept also exist in christology. When, at the council of Constantinople 3, we declare that Christ has one divine energy and one human one, do we say that he only possess two actions ? (like for exemple, changing water to win, and weeping ?)
No ! He does/possess multiple divine and human actions (and even mixed ones), howewer he has two mode of acting : divine and humane.
It's the same thing with will : when we say he has two wills, that is not to say he only willed two things, but that he has two modes of willing.
It's the same thing with will : when we say he has two wills, that is not to say he only willed two things, but that he has two modes of willing.
Now, there are other ways we could speak of "one divine energy", without, of course, removing the truth of what we said earlier ; that god possesses multiples energies and that they are all shared and acted collectively by all three persons.
We could say such a sentence when speaking of "all what god did", like "The Action of God" or of the divine providence. That would be the sum of all of God's action, taken as a whole, as a single action, "Goding", divised in many subaction (talking to prophets, etc)
That is not a problem, we could really well speak that way, and divide energies into subenergies, and unite energies into bigger ones. For exemple, we could speak of the action of creation, but also of the separate actions of creating earth, humans, animals, etc
Howewer, in speaking of such an amalgam, we should keep in mind that each individual action of god, each part of "the Action of God", is really distinct, not to be confused with the rest, and not necessarly dependant on the rest nor necessary to the other actions
For exemple, god's grace is eternal, while god's creation isn't. If we could group the two in "God's Action", we shouldn't for that reason pretend that one doesn't go without the other
Another way of speaking of "one energy of God", is when speaking of the eternal and necessary energy of God, that defines what God is and that is inseparable from his being
that is, God's Grace. Howewer, Palamas and Maximus list multiple of such "necessary/defining energies", such as, for exemple, foreknowledge. As with the previous meaning, we could still speak of "one energy of god", speaking of all the primordial ones, as parts of one composed
"eternal action of God". Howewer, we must certainly refrain from pretending that they are in fact one ontologically, but different aspects of the same one, as that will completely collapse their meaning and existence, as Palamas argueed against the barlaamites and thomists
So to conclude, it's really true that there are multiple distinct energies, howewer their are multiple meanings in wich we could speak of only one divine energies, and all of these don't negate the main meaning of energy meaning action, of wich there are many.
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