Mary Another Way: How Gregory Palamas Grounds Access to Salvation and Hesychasm On the Theotokos
What is the significance of, and upon what ground does Gregory Palamas establish, both his soteriology and his ascetical theology of hesychasm? The answer may come as a surprise. Gregory Palamas teaches of the blessed virgin Mary: “She alone forms the boundary between created and uncreated nature, and no one can come to God except through her and the mediator born of her, and none of God’s gifts can be bestowed on angels or men except through her. As in the case with lamps on earth constructed of glass or some other transparent material, it is impossible to look at the light or enjoy its rays except through the lamp, so it is beyond the reach of all to look upwards to God or be helped by Him to make progress in any direction, except through the Ever-Virgin, this God-bearing lamp who is truly radiant with divine brightness.” (The Homilies, "On the Entrance into the Temple," 53.37, pg 431; cf. Homily 37.15, 17, 18, pgs 296-297) The relevant portion of Homily 37, "On the D...