synergia

Synergia is a term of Greek origin meaning working together. It denotes cooperative action among two or more agents or processes. The English word commonly used is synergy, but the form synergia persists in historical, theological, and cross-linguistic contexts.

In theology, synergia or synergism describes the idea that human cooperation with divine grace is necessary for salvation or spiritual growth. In Catholic thought, synergists hold that grace prepares and enables the will, but human choices cooperate with grace to effect salvation, in contrast with monergism, which emphasizes divine action alone. The concept also appears in Eastern Christianity, where divine grace and human freedom cooperate in the process of theosis (deification). In philosophical discussions, synergia refers to the joint operation of causal factors and is used to examine the degrees and modes of cooperation between divine and human causes.

Beyond theology, synergia (and the related term synergy) is widely used to describe outcomes that exceed the sum of individual contributions. In science and engineering, collaborations or systems can exhibit synergistic effects. In management and business, teams, mergers, or technologies are said to generate synergy when combined strengths increase overall performance or value beyond what components could achieve separately.

Variant forms exist in Latin and modern languages; in English, synergy is the common term, though synergia remains in use in specific scholarly or rhetorical contexts.