The Hesychast controversy had been taken up…

The Hesychast controversy had been taken up by Gregory Palamas after being asked by his fellow monks on Mt.

Athos to defend hesychasm from the attacks of Barlaam of Seminara.

Trained in Western Scholastic theology, Barlaam was scandalized by hesychasm and began to combat it both orally and in his writings.

As a private teacher of theology in the Western Scholastic mode, Barlaam propounded a more intellectual and propositional approach to the knowledge of God than the Hesychasts taught.

Barlaam also took exception to the doctrine held by the Hesychasts as to the uncreated nature of the light, the experience of which was said to be the goal of Hesychast practice, regarding it as heretical and blasphemous.

It was maintained by the Hesychasts to be of divine origin and to be identical to the light which had been manifested to Jesus' disciples on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration.

Barlaam viewed this doctrine of "uncreated light" to be polytheistic because as it postulated two eternal substances, a visible and an invisible God.

Barlaam accuses the use of the Jesus Prayer as being a practice of Bogomilism.

The hesychasm dispute had continued through a synod convened by Barlaam supporters that refused to accept Patriarch Isidore before a final settlement of the dispute comes about at a sixth synod in 1351 during the patriarchate of Callistus I. Palamas, well-educated in Greek philosophy, has written a number of works in its defense and has defended hesychasm at six different synods in Constantinople, ultimately triumphing over its attackers in the synod of 1351.

As a consequence, a real (or formal) distinction between the essence (ousia) and the energies (energeia) of God become a central principle of Eastern Orthodox theology.