WORD of the Week series: Synergy & Logoi

 WORD of the Week: Synergy & Logoi

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship (koinōnia) of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

—1 Corinthians 1:9

The words Synergy (συνεργία, synergeía) and Logoi (λόγοι, logoi) belong to the deep marrow of Orthodox Patristic theology. To speak of them together is to enter the very heart of the mystery of man's participation in God, the human person's ascent into hypostatic being through cooperation with Divine Energies.

In Orthodox thought, Synergy refers to the cooperative action (συν-εργεία, "working together") between human freedom and Divine Grace. It is not a merger of equals, nor a mutual necessity as if God required man; rather, it is the divinely willed cooperation wherein man's free response is called forth and empowered by the divine initiative. As Saint Paul proclaims, “We are God's fellow workers” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Saint Maximus the Confessor explains this synergy in terms of the will: man's natural will (thelēma physikon) must be healed and elevated through free cooperation with Divine Energies, and only thereby is true freedom realized (Ambigua 7, PG 91:1076–1080).

Without Divine Grace, the human being cannot ascend; without human response, the divine gift remains fruitless in the personal existence of man. Saint John of Damascus further affirms this delicate relationship: “God creates in man the capability for virtue, but it is the person’s own choice to practice it” (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, II.30). Thus, synergy is neither Pelagianism (where salvation is a human work) nor Augustinian monergism (where salvation is exclusively unilateral); rather, it is the dynamic, living communion between Divine Giver and human receiver.

The term Logoi (λόγοι) has a profound theological significance, especially articulated by Saint Maximus the Confessor. The Logoi are the divine ideas, principles, or wills (plural of λόγος, logos) by which God creates and sustains all things. Each created being exists according to its own logos, which is its divine reason, purpose, and calling within the larger tapestry of creation. As Saint Maximus writes, “The logoi pre-exist in God and in accordance with them all things are and have come to be” (Ambigua 7, PG 91:1076).

The Logoi are not static blueprints; they are living, relational participations in the one eternal Logos—the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Therefore, creation is not an autonomous existence but an ever-present participation (methexis) in the divine wisdom and love. Each human being, in particular, bears a personal logos—a unique calling and path towards Theosis (deification). This intrinsic logos calls each person not merely to exist but to Become, through freedom and love, a hypostatic revelation of divine beauty.

Thus, Participation (methexis) is the great underlying framework that unites Synergy and Logoi. Man, as a rational and free being created in the image (eikon) of God (Genesis 1:26), is called to participate in the Divine Life by actualizing his personal logos through synergistic cooperation with Grace. This participation is not mere mimicry or external imitation; it is an inward, transformative union by which man comes to exist authentically, not in isolation or autonomy, but in communion (koinōnia) with God and others.

Saint Gregory Palamas, defender of the distinction between God's essence (ousia) and energies (energeiai), emphasizes that it is through the uncreated Divine Energies that man participates in God without becoming identical to the divine essence (Triads, I.3.23). Participation in the Energies is the actualization of one’s logos through synergy. It is to live by Grace what God has eternally intended one to become.

Ultimately, participation through synergy is a kenotic (self-emptying) and ecstatic (going beyond oneself) act of love. It is man’s answer to the call inscribed within his very being, echoing the ancient words of the Psalms: “Deep calls unto deep” (Psalm 42:7 [LXX 41:8]). The Logoi beckon, Grace enables, and through free Synergy, man participates in the uncreated Light, becoming, by Grace, what God is by nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4).

In summary:

• Synergy is the living cooperation of human freedom with Divine Grace.

• Logoi are the divine principles and destinies for each created being.

• Participation is the dynamic, personal, and free ascent into union with God, whereby the human person actualizes his logos through synergy with the Divine Energies.

The harmony of these three realities forms the true Orthodox vision of salvation: not an extrinsic legal pardon, but the personal, relational, and loving transformation of man into the likeness of Christ, the eternal Logos, "in whom we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

Footnotes

1. Saint Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua 7, in Patrologia Graeca 91:1076–1080.

2. Saint John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, II.30, trans. Frederic H. Chase, Jr., The Fathers of the Church (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1958).

3. Saint Gregory Palamas, The Triads, ed. John Meyendorff, trans. Nicholas Gendle (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1983).

4. Holy Scriptures: Genesis 1:26; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 3:9; Acts 17:28; Psalm 42:7 (LXX 41:8); 2 Peter 1:4.