Theologian · Contemporary
Vladimir Lossky
1903–1958 · Neo-patristic (Palamite) theology
A lay Orthodox theologian of the Paris emigration, loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate; a leader of the neo-patristic synthesis.
Lossky's Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church set out Orthodox doctrine as inseparable from mystical experience: the apophatic way, the essence–energies distinction of St. Gregory Palamas, the Trinity as the ground of personhood, and deification as the goal of the whole person. He traced Western ecclesiology to the Filioque and criticized what he saw as the rationalism of scholastic theology.
Why he matters: He is the modern Orthodox voice Catholics most often meet; Orientale Lumen's call to breathe with both lungs, the Byzantine Catholic reception of Palamas, and the engagements of Congar, Balthasar and Aidan Nichols all pass through him.
Where to be careful
He is outside Catholic communion while treasured by Eastern Catholics; he rejects the Filioque defined at Florence and the primacy defined in Pastor Aeternus; his real distinction of essence and energies must be read against Lateran IV and Vatican I (“absolutely simple”), a question the Church leaves open within limits; his reading of Augustine and Aquinas is often unfair.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.