I am very surprised to read this from you, tc. As Kosta point out, we are utterly incapable of knowing God's essence/nature. This is because, quite simply, God is the Being Which is the Source of being... Ο ΩΝ. We who are beings with natures could never, ever, know or understand or share in that. His uncreated energies, however, we do perceive and we can experience and we can become united with. If this were 500 years ago, I could understand you not knowing this, but virtually all of this has been available to Christians for more than 1500 years. Palamite theology, which forms all of this into an understandable whole has been available in the West since the 14th century. tc, there is no earthly reason why you should ascribe to the theology of The Church, but before you presume to characterize it, you ought at least to become marginally familiar with it.
***As Kosta point out, we are utterly incapable of knowing God’s essence/nature...there is no earthly reason why you should ascribe to the theology of The Church, but before you presume to characterize it, you ought at least to become marginally familiar with it.***
I’m always willing to learn more about Greek theology, K.
Let me point out I agree completely with the following quote from John of Damascus:
“God is... one essence (ousia); and that he is known and has his being in three subsistences... and that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in all respects, except in that of not being begotten, that of being begotten, and that of procession....But neither do we know, nor can we tell, what the essence (ousia) of God is, or how it is in all.... It is not within our capacity, therefore, to say anthing about God or even think of him, beyond the things which have been divinely revealed to us, whether by word or by manifestation, by the divine oracles at once of the Old Testament and of the New.”
-The Orthodox Faith 1.4