Butler University

Digital Commons @ Butler University

Graduate Thesis Collection Graduate Scholarship

1-1-1960

A Study of the Trinity in the Cappadocian Fathers

George W. Buck

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses

Part of the Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought,
Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons

Recommended Citation
Buck, George W., "A Study of the Trinity in the Cappadocian Fathers" (1960). Graduate Thesis Collection.
440.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/grtheses/440

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Scholarship at Digital Commons @ Butler
University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Thesis Collection by an authorized administrator of
Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact digitalscholarship@butler.edu.
 (This certification-sheet is to be bound with the thesis. The major pro-
fessor should have it filled out at the oral examination.)

Name of candidate:

..........
g~.~~~~
..~~;ht~~J?J...~~.C?~ .

Oral examination:

Date ~~r.
..}? ..!~.?.Q .
Committee:

Professor Frank Albert .

•............................................................................................. , Chairman
Professor David Pellett
..............................................................................................
Professor Robert Tobias
..............................................................................................

..............................................................................................

..............................................................................................

Thesis title:

A STUDY OF THE TRINITY IN THE

..............................................................................................
CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS
..............................................................................................

..............................................................................................

Thesis approved in final form:

Dat~ May, •.~\ ••.:••..•.;~.~; ••••..••••.•.....•.:••.••

Major prOfessot::~rw.~~0 ~., .

(Please return this certification-sheet, along with two copies of the

thesis and the candidate's record, to the Graduate Office, Room 105,
Jordan Hall. The third copy of the thesis should be returned to the
candidate immediately after the oral exarnination.)
A STUDY OF THE TRINITY IN 'fHE CAFPADOCIAN FATHERS

BY

George W. Buck

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree
Master of Arts

Division of Graduate Instruction

Butler University
Indianapolis
1960
LV
70!
 PREFACE

The object in writing this thesis has been to pursue the theologi-

cal development of the doctrine of the trinity in the Church of the early

centuries through the writings of the Church fathers. It is a continua-

tion of a former study, A~ Testament Study of Trinity, a thesis

submitted for the Bachelor of Divinity degree, which was received in

July, 1952. This entire study has been an attempt to soak the self in

the patristic writings and to arrive at a first-hand conception of the

classical doctrine of the trinity, which we believe, is a creation of

the fourth century.

The former study was for the purpose to determine whether or not

the trinity of generally accepted orthodox Christian dogma was to be found

taught explicitly, or not at all upon the pages of the New Testament, or,

in other words, to separate fact from mere interpretation.

We did not find any of the developed doctrines, of schism or ortho-

doxy, explicit nor implicit within the canonical writings of the New

Testament. The trinity of experience is there explicitly, which is the

experience expressed in all historical Christian witness.

It has been stimulating, to say the least, to find permeating the

thought of contemporary theologians this same zest in pursuit of an under-

standing of trinity and very encouraging to discover trends of thought

with little variance from ours. Cyril C. Richardson, who has written one

of the most recent books on trinity, has concluded, "It is not a doctrine

ii
 iii

specifically to be found in the IJevlTestarnent.,,1 He, also, asserts that

there are elements in our NevI 'I'eat.amerrt

which point toward it and others

trh i.ch point avmy from it. "No one has been able to trace one in its pages

nor make one from its incoherence of interchangeability of terminology

and functions.,,2

fIr. Richardson takes comfort in his position from another contem-

porary scholar.

~fuile my book was in the press, the illuminating article,

"Some Reflections on the Origins of the Doctrine of the
Trinity," by l1aurice :·Jiles,appeared in the Journal of Theo-
logical Studies, April, 1957, pages 92-106. I am encouraged
to find another theologian independently raising some of the
issues I have tried to treat, ru1d arriving at conclusions
not dissimilar to my own.3

That it was God who was taking action in Jesus Christ of Nazareth

has not and is not questioned. That it is God acting by the Holy Spirit

has not been doubted. The pursuit of the former thesis and this one is

to question the classical fonl1ulations of the trinitarian doctrine in the

light of biblical research ru1d religious speculation ru1d deterDline for

reasons of personal religious faith whether the doctrine is, and if it is

necessary to Christian faith and the adequate \'layof speaking of the reality

and functions of God, the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

HOVl to interpret theologically the Christian trinitarian experience

of God vrith clarity minus inconsistencies and contradictions in the use of

terms has been the problem of the Church through the centuries. Our own

1Cyril C., Richardson, The Doctrine of the Trinity: (New York:

Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1958), 17.

2Ibid., 52. 3Ibid., 9.

 iv

consciousness of a need for such a knou-hotr has driven us into the pre-

'lious Hew Testament study and on to the present one, endlessly trying to

glean fact from interpretation Hithin the biblical record and separating

biblical fact from interpretations of the centuries. For us, affirmation

of trinity and some attempt to intellectually comprehend it, as well as

experience it, plus the acquisition of a vocabulary and a jargon to talk

about and e~~lain faith are an inevitable and inescapable corollary of

Christian certitude. Reaching out toward this goal, He have entered into

a study of the development of the trinitarian doctrine from the primitive

church through the succeeding centuries, singling out the Cappadocian

Fathers as the focal point for this paper.

The Cappadocian Fathers, their works, and environnlent lie at the

heart, historically, in doctrine, events, and calendrical years of the

definitive formulation of trinitarian dogma. We feel that ru1 intensive

study of these three fathers of the Church has taken us a long limy t.otrard

satisfying personal inquisitiveness and supplying knowledge to explain

theologically the trinity of experience and adding Christian certitude

to personal faith.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
PREFACE •••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • •• • • • 1i

INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1

Chapter
I. BACKGROUND • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• 12
II. THE CONCEPT OF GOD • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 37
III. THE CHRISTOLOGY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 47
IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 60
V. THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 71
CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 83
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . , 94
 InTRODUCTION

Trinity is characteristic of the Christian religion but is by no

means peculiar to it.

In Indian religion, He meet t-liththe Trinitarian group of

Brahma, Siva and Visner; and in Egyptian religion 1dth the
trinitarian group of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, constituting
the divine family like the Father, Hother, and Son in medi-
aeval pictures. Nor is it only in historical religions that
we find God vie~Ted as Trinity. One recalls in particular
the Neo-Platonic vievT of the supreme or Ultimate Reality,
trhd.ch was suggested by Plato in the Timaeus; in the philoso-
phy of Plotinus the primary or original realities ••• are
triadically represented as the Good or • • • the One, the
Intelligence or the One-Many, and the \-lorld-Soulor the
On e and Hany. 1

The term, trinity, 'tThichis derived from the Latin trinitas

appears to have been used first by Tertullian (150-200 A. D.), an early

Church Father of vrestern theology.

Perversion of the truth is • • • one cannot believe in One

Only God • • • by saying that the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person. As if in this way
also one trer e not All, in that All are of One, by lffiity(that
is) of substance; the mystery ••• distributes the Unity into
a 'l'rinity.2

1Hilliam Fulton, "Trinity," Encyclopedia of ReliKion and Ethics,

ed. by James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons), XII, 458.

2Tertullian, "Against Praxeas," The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by

Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (American Reprint of Edinberg
Edition, revised and chronologically arranged by A. Cleveland Coxe, )
(Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885), III, 593.

1
 2

Here vre see an approach to trinity characteristic of vTestern

theology, one essence shared by three, a "one-in-three" approach.

The corresponding Greek term, triad, was applied first by an

older contemporary of Tertullian, Theophilus of Antioch. His use of the

term was not God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, but "The Trinity, of God,

and of His Hord (Logos), and His vJisdom.,,1 Here we find the roots of

Eastern Trinitarian theology, a "three-in-one" and not, "one-in-three."

There can be no doubt that these two Apologists' mid their contem-

poraries' thought vlaS highly confused; they trer-e far from having worked

the threefold pattern of the Church's faith into a coherent scheme. Their

trords about the Holy Spirit 'tfere very meager. They said more about the

Son, of v1homthey Here primarily concerned, to preserve his deity and

unity 'V1ithGod, the Father, and to comprehend the relationship. Theophilus

provides for us a fairly mature example of their teaching, v1hich, even

though merely a forerunner of orthodoxy, shows that there was firmly fixed

the idea of a holy triad.

Theophilus • • • stating that the three days whi.ch preceded the

creation of sun and moon ''Vlere t:rnes of the Triad, that is, of God,
and His \vord, and of His ~I}'isdom.
I

Preceding the era of the eastern and west.ern Fathers of the Church,

we have the age of the Apostolic Fathers. The dramrig upon Old Testament

1Theophilus, "Theophilus of Autolycus," Ante-Nicene Christian

Library, trans. by l1arcus Dods, ed, by Alexander Roberts and James
Donaldson (Edinburg: T. and T. Clark, 1868), III, 82.

2J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (NetvYork: Harper and

Brothers, Publishers, 1958), 102.
 3

imagery and theophanies for support of the idea of trinity has been common

from their time. l>Ieconclude here, bouever s

It is exegesis of a mischievous, if pious sort that nould

discover the doctrine in the plural form 'Elohim,' of the
Diety's name, in the recorded appearances of three angels
to Abraham, or even in the ter sanctus of the prophesies of
Isaiah. 1

By the end of the Apostolic Fathers' era there \"lasno belief in

a pre-existent beings, God and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit was

identified Hith the pre-existent Christ, or the Logos. or the Father's

'thought. ,2
Then beginning vIi th the Apologists, of vhon -VTe have cited

Theophilus and Tertullian as examples, a distinction is made between the

pre-existent Logos and the pre-existent Holy Spirit. The Logos non being

identified ~>J'ith
the pre-existent Christ.

The Holy Spirit becomes a third preexistent incorporeal being

vlith the result that the Trinity, now a Trinity of God. Logos,
and the Holy Spirit, no longer begins 11ith the birth of Jesus;
it has an existence prior to His birth and even prior to the
Creation of the 1fOrld.3

"Christianity began as a trinitarian religion with a unitarian

theology.,,4 The historical record reveals that the trinity of experience

-- -
1Fulton, loco cit.

2Cf• Harry A. Holfson, The Philosophy of the Church Fathers

(Cambridge: Houard University Press, 1956), 191.
Kelly, QQ. cit., 92, 95.

>!lolfson, .Q.£. cit., 49.

4Leonard Hodgson, The Doctrine of the TrinitI (third ed. London:

Nisbet and Oo ,, Ltd., 1946), 103.
 4

long antedates the trinity of dogma. In spite of the confused and

incoherent thought of the Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists, lineaments

of trinitarian doctrine are clearly discernable. And the trinity of

experience now gives way to trinity of speculation. 1

The differentiation is no longer, as it was for Paul and John

of the Early Church, a difference in the operation of the Divine
Being in His Creation and upon human life • • • but a descrip-
tion of distinctions vrithin the Godhead for which their is no
definable basis, and perhaps can be no basis, within our assured
knovrkedge of God. • •• And the resulting conception verges
precariously toward tritheism.2

The baptismal formula3 and the widely used benediction4 undergo a

transition in history from primarily teaching vlhat each Christian knetr to

be his experience of God to what theologians assume to be tr~e of the being

of God, v1hich has culminated into the trinity of dogma, vrhich has held a

place of priority through the centuries to the present day. The best

formulation of the dogma for our introduction to trinity is the so-called

Athanasian Creed:5

1Fulton, QQ.. cit., 459.

2Henry P. Van Dusen, Spirit. Son and Father (Nev1 York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1958), 156.

3}1atthew 28:19.

4rI Corinthians 13:14.

5"Sooalled" because it is believed to have originated in the Latin

Church; Athanasius is an Eastern theologian; since the middle of the 17th
Century Athanasian authorship has been fully abandoned. For a full exposi-
tion see, Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, (Nen York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886, III, 35-37.
 5

The Catholic Faith is this: that 'VTe worshap one God in

Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons
nor dividing the Substance.

For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son,

and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one - the glory equal,
the majesty co-equal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such is the Holy
Ghost: the Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy
Ghost uncreate; the Father incomprehensible, the Son incompre-
hensible; the Holy Ghost incomprehensible; the Father eternal,
the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal;

And yet there arc not three eternals, but one eternal; as
also there are not three incomprehensibles nor three uncreated,
but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.

So likeuise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and

the Holy Ghost almighty; ru1d yet there are not three almighties,
but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the
Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not three Gods but one God;
so likevTise the Father is Lord, the Son Lo rd, and the Holy Ghost
Lord; and yet not three Lord's but one Lord. 1

For like as tre are compelled by Christian verity to acknovl.;

edge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so we are for-
bidden by the Catholic religion 'Co say there be three Gods or
three Lo rds,

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten;

The Son is of the Father alone, neither made nor created

but begotten;

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made
nor created nor begotten, but proceeding;

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not

three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

And in this Trinity none is afore or after other, none is

greater or less than another; but the whole three Persons
are co-eternal together and co-equal.2

1Cf. John 5:19-30; I Cor. 15:24-28.

 6

So that in all things as afore said: Unity in Trinity,

and Trinity in Unity, is to be norshipped.

He therefore that vlill be saved must thus think of the

Trinity. 111

A careful scrutiny of this creed reveals the assertion of schisms

and heresies as vTell as the denials and affirmations of the trinity of

dogma. It shows an affinity to scripture, but also a speculative play

upon the ultimate significance of words such as; "begotten." It reveals

an ignoring of gospel and epistolary record2 and a going beyond the scrip-

tural account and biblical implication to new concepts. It shous the

battle of centuries in relationship to trinity and a conmonly accepted

orthodox statement of dogma.

Ever since St. Paul 't-lrote,

"God tras in Christ reconciling the vTOrld

unto himself, ,,3 and the In-iter of Hebrews asserted about the Son, "He

reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,"4 and

the Disciple said, "And the iTord was God," 5 (and Paul's statement being

the central Christian conviction) Christian theology has been trying to

understand and explain it; therefore, it has become the central problem

of Christian doctrine; viz. how to maintain the unity of God, "the Lord

1The Athanasian Creed quoted from Van Dusen, 22. £1i., 159ff.

2Cf. John 5:19-30; I Cor. 15:24-28.

3II Cor. 5:19; cf. Col. 1:19.

4Heb• 1:3.
r;
....
John 1:1.
 7

our God is one Lord, ,,1 and hotr to affirm the true humanity of Jesus and

not obscure, "God was in Christ," nor default redemption as truly an act

of God.
Salvation was endangered to dispute the deity of the Son and to

assert the inferiority of the Holy Spirit, it was so felt by the Fathers

of the Church. To tolerate such philosophical-theological belief was to

endanger the uniqueness of the Church as the felloHship in which God

himself was at work and to permit the Church to be sval.Loved up in the

culture of the day and call to question its distinctive message and

mission.
The doctrine of the trinity was fashioned in order to explain the

incarnate subject, Jesus, and how the non-incarnate Father and Holy Spirit

could be embraced in one undivided Godhead. On one hand it was necessa17

to avoid a separation of the several subjects within the Godhead for that

would be tritheism. On the other hand it vras necessary to assert distinc-

tions, intrinsic to deity, of itlhichthere should be an eternal difference.

in some respect, between God as Father and source of all being, God as

soul of Jesus, God as the Holy Spirit.

It is in "threeness" that the main difficulty lies. How can God

be one yet three? How can the three be united into ultimate oneness?

How can God be Creator? 2 HoVT can Jesus be Creator3 and also the Holy

Spirit ?L~

')
1Deut. 6:4. 2Gen• 1:1. JJohn 1:3.

4Gen• 1:3, Hatt. 1:20; Lk. 1:35; Gal. 5:22.

 8

How were Jesus and the Holy Spirit different from God and from each

other and yet have no tritheism and have these differences not merely

modes, aspects of energizing, attributes, roles?

Indeed it may be said that from Tertu1lian to Aquinas the

expounders of the doctrine of the trinity were seeking to find
a notion of a kind of entity denoted by persona, substantia,
hypo::;tases, "begotten," "procession;" in all these VIe see
atte~pts to express in a notion of an entity. 1

Houever, the same thinker, on different occasions, uses expressions

and analogies suggestive of tritheism and then modes of speech implicative

of Honarchianism; it is not surprising to find at the end of a treatise on

trinity the vJriter confessing that he has been discoursing about a mystery

that is above reason, on which analogies drawn from human life and experi-

ence, concepts of logic and philosophy, thro1; little light but do not

explain.

One thing has been made clear by the age-long attempt is that
the clearest and most assured statements of doctors of theology
leave no doubt but that tritheism is repugnant to the Church and
that orthodoxy when it is not vague or vacillating is as monarch-
ias as Sabellianism. If the Person of the Trinity be not God's
but monotheism is left and academic orthodoxy is at least logical
in being modalistic.

Hr. Tennant has made discerning statements, because a. certain com-

mon ground of schism and orthodoxy is a. fervent dislike to the division

of the Supreme Being owing to their strong zeal for the Divine Unity,

vrhich has been regarded by both as necessary for redemption of man as an

act of God.

1F. R. Tennant, The World. the Soul and God, Philosonhical Theology
(Cambridge: The University Press, 1930), II, 268.
 9

Traditionally, Christian theology in setting forth its conception

of trinity has taken its start. from "God, the Father AL'1lighty,l-1akerof

heaven and earth,,,1 and has passed on to Jesus Christ, his only Son, our

Lord, and almost casually, at long last come to the Holy Spirit. Some

have felt that it Has the place of the Son in the trinity which is the

beginning point and, if explained, gives clarity to trinity. So, some

have considered Christ, and then God, in the light of Christ, and finally

the Spirit. The former taking the great co~~ission2 for biblical founda-

tion; the latter building upon and from the Pauline benediction.3

Seldom, if ever, an exposition of trinity has been made beginning

with the Spirit urrtd.Lrecent times. Dr. Van Dusen has attempted4 an

exposition of trinity in this order: the Holy Spirit, and then on to

consider IIChrist_in_the_Iight_of_the_Holy Spirit,"5 and finally "God-in-

the-light-of-the-Holy Spirit. ,,6 Another intriguing treatise vlith a

similar, but Dlore daring approach, is by Arnold Come.? The fruitfulness

of the experiments remain to be seen. It nasn't until the fourth century

the Spirit's place became a focus of attention in trinity.

Holy Scripture has been the basic authority for all Christian doc-

trine, schismatic or orthodox. This is substantiated throughout the

1Taken from the Apostles' Creed, II~Je believe in God • • ."

2Hatt. 28:9. 3rr Cor. 13:14.

4Henry P. Van Dusen, Snirit. Sor. and Father (Um; York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1958).

5Ibid., 4.

?Arnold B. Come, HWllan Snirit and Holy Spirit (Philadelphia:

The :Jestminister Press, 1959).
 10

"lritings of the early and later Church Fathers and is dwelt upon by noted

scholars 1 of the history of dogma. There is no need to dvJel1 upon this

as a doctrinal norm for trinitarian theology. Em·rever, another source of

authority for the Christian doctrines of the early church is 'tfrittenand

unuritten tradition. In fact, it seems that doctors of theology w"ere

forced to accept tradition as equally authoritative as Scripture or

relinquish their tenacious grasp on some trinitarian theology. Many fine

scholars give adequate reference and treatment of the "limyChurch Fathers

cited the authoritativeness of tradition but not one equals or excells,

in our opinion, J. N. D. Kelly.2 Our primary subjects, the Cappadocians,

made their direct appeal to the authority of tradition for their trinitar-

ian doctrines.)

The literature on trinitarian doctrine is vast and scarcely a life-

time Vlould master it. tilt has been observed that \'Jhileone may be in

danger of losing his soul by denying it, he is in equal danger of losing

his Hits in trying to understand it. ,,4

1Kelly, 22. cit., 41.

J. Bethune-Baker, .An Introduction to the Early History o:t:
Christian Doctrine (2nd. ed. London: Methuen & Co., Litd., 19~O), 55ff.

2Kelly, .Q.J2. ill., 29- 51 •

)Basil the Great, "De Spiritu Sancto," Nicene and Post-Nicene

Fathers (ed, by Philip Schaff and Henry vlace, 2nd. Series. Nevl York:
The Christian Literature Co., 1895), VIII, 17, 18, 4), 44.
Gregory of Nazianzus, "Epistle 101," Library of Christian Classics,
Christology of the Later Father (ed. by Edward R. Hardy,. Philadelphia:
Hestiminister Press, 1954), III, 215.
Gregory of Nyssa, "Against Eunomius," Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers (ed, by Philip Schaff and Henry ~vClce,2nd. Series. New Yorlo
The Christian Literature cs., 1895), V, 15)ff.

4Richardson, 22. ~., 15.

 11

The seeming necessity and importance of the definitive formulation

of trinitarian dogma by the three Cappadocians cannot be grasped without a

running survey of trinitarian speculation preceding their documents. One,

also, must envisage their setting in the rnidst of the theological battle

of the fourth century. A full discussion of merely their teaching on

trinity Hould be a large theological treatise. But to appreciate their

place in trinitarian classicism a background and brief treatments of the

main lines of classical Christian theology is of greater value than a

minute presentation and discussion of their points of doctrine; the latter

could be done Hithout grasping the significance of the Cappadocians in

the historical development of trinity; the former, our procedure novr, He

trust, v~ll accomplish both, an adequate knovrledge of their trinitarian

dogma and its historical significance in the history of Christian thought. Il

.'
 CHAPTER I

BACKGROUlJD

TvlO factors to be reckoned I-lithin the progression of trinitarian-

ism from the apostolic times onward are Gnosticism and Docetism. Particu-

larly in the second and third centuries they are most potent elements

operating in the Christian Church's environment adversely to orthodoxy,

"diametrically opposite Christological tendency.1f1 Ireneaus, Tertullian

and Hippolytus treat them explicitly as Christian heresy.

"The early Fathers almost unanimously trace2 the origin of

Gnosticism to Simon l1agus.,,3 The Nicolaitans of the Apocalypse Hero

considered Gnostics.l} Valentinus, who taught at Alexandria and later at

Rome in the middle of the second century, and Basilides, perhaps Syrian

born, VIho also lectured at Alexandria (120-140 A. D.), are the finest

representatives of Christian Gnosticism, and the Inost influential.5

1Kelly, 2£. £1i., 140.

2J• F. Bethune-Baker, Early History of Christian Doctrine (2nd. ed.,

London: Hethuen and Co., Ltd., 1920), 79.

4Bethune-Baker, 2£. cit., 79; Cf. Rev. 2:6.

5For a complete presentation of their schools of thought see:

Ibid., 86-91.

12
 There was a great variety of gnostic syst-ems but II a common pattern

ran through them all." 1 Their Christologies take us into a bizarre wo rLd

of cosmic speculation. From a spiritual VTorld of aeons the divine Christ

is to have descended and united himself for a tinle to the historical per-

sonage , Jesus. This union TiTaSto have taken place at the time of Jesus'

baptism.2 According to Irenaeus3 these Gnostics taught that Jesus Has

compounded of two distinct substances, heavenly Christ and a IOVIer Christ.

The heavenly Christ Twas invisible, impassible, implying that the IOHer

Christ, vlith whom the heavenly joined himself, Has not real flesh and blood.

The man Jesus Has not really Redeemer but merely the instrument4 selected

by God for the purpose of revealing himself to men. It was only in appear-

ance that he was subjected to death on the cross. In this respect, "seem-

ing," gnosticism was docetic and herein we find the unique element of the

Christian Docetists.

"To seem," the distinctive feature whi.ch gave the name, Docetism,

vIaS that Christ's manhood and suffering Here phantasmal, unreal. Traces

of protestation against teaching of this nature are visible in the New

Testament •.5 To the docetic thinker the divinity of Christ was no problem;

it "VIaS the humani.by Hith its inherent impurity that they could not accept.

1Kelly, QR. cit., 141.

2Irenaeust "Against Heresies," The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. by

Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, (Buffalo: The Christian Literature
Publishing Company, 188.5), I, 325.

3Ibid., para. 3. 16• .5. 32.5ff.

4Hhat the instrument Has exactly cannot be stated, but it emerges

from the Gnostics pluralism, pleroma •

.51 John 4:2, 3: II John 7.

 14

Jesus passed through I1ary as Hater through a tube. 1 For

just as water- passes through a pipe without receiving any
addition from the pipe, so too the '\oJordpassed through Hary
but VIasnot derived from Hary.2

Flesh, Hary, was only a channel by vrhich Christ came into the world.

He was through or by means of, but not "of" Hary, which is to say that he

derived no part of his being. Docetism was a direct denial of incarnation.

"It was an attitude Hhich infected a number of heresies, particularly

Harcionism and Gnosticism.")

Marcion is classed hardly vlith Christian Gnostics; "he had no

emanation or aeon theory;,,4 "it contained no trace of Gnostic pluralism.,,5

He did consider the Lord's body "as lvithout flesh, ,,6 To him the redeemer

'{.vasthe Son of God, almost as the God of the HewTestament in person, 7

but he was clothed with the outward appearance, "seeming," of man. So, to

this extent he "tv-asdocetic, but, "almost in the fashion of the modalists. ,,8

It was in conflict with Gnosticism, Docetism, and Nonarchianism that

the doctrine of the trinity was developed. Twotendencies can be distin-

guished among the Honarchians: m.odalism, i-rhich held Christ to be a mani-

festation of God the Father, sometimes referred to as Patripassianism, or

1Irenaeus, Q2. cit., 1• 2. 2Bethune_Baker, sa- ill., 81.

)Kelly, £!l • ill·, 141. 4Bethune-Baker, loc. cit.

.5Kelly, za- cit. , 142.

6Tertullian, "On the Flesh of Christ," The Ante-Nicene Fathers,

(ed. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Buffalo: The Christian
Literature Publishing Company, 1885), III, 52.5.

7Bethune-Baker, loc. cit. 8Kelly,12£.. ill.

--
 15

monarchianism proper. Dynami.c monarchianism, more accurately called

adoptd.orri.sm,a rationalism 11hich held that Christ tzas a mere man upon trhom

God's Spirit had descended adopting him a redeem8r. To the modalistic

monarchians belong Praxeas, !Joctus, Callistus, Beryllus and Sabclliu8.

Theodotus, Artemon and Paul of Samosata belong to adoptionism.

In origin, monarchianism tras an orthodox attempt to retain the

unity of the Godhead, holding fast to the monarchy, and keeping redemption

as an act of God, not merely 'p8ychic' or 'seeming' to be.

Both tendencies passing into each other, uere Catholic,

maintaining tho fund~~cntal principals of the rule of faith
(neither "ebionitic,,,1 nor gnostic).2

The originator of adoptionism is said to have been a very learned

Byzantine leather-merchant, Theodotus, Hho "brought it to Rome about

190.''')

T,fuilein full agreement 'i-lith

orthodox vieus about the
creation of the 110rld, the divine orn1ipotence and even the
virgin birth, Theodotus held that until His Daptism Jesus
lived as an ordinary man, uith the difference that He ';Vas
supremely virtuous. The Spirit, or Christ, then descended
upon Him, and from that moment He worked miracles, uithout,

1Ebionism uas a Judaizing Christianity. Ebionites rejected the

virgin birth, the Lord, Jesus, a man normally born from Joseph and Hary,
predestined to be I1essiah, and as such wouLd return to reign on earth.
They Here a potent force in the apostolic age, often called I:Jazareans,
and though denying Jesus' divinity, believed him to be Son of God as
revealed by Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian.

2Adolph Harnack, Outlines of the History of Dogma, (trans. by

Edllin Knox Hitchell, Boston: Beacon Press, Beacon Hill, 1957), 168.

JKelly, .QQ. cit., 116.

 16

houever, beco;ning divine - others of the same school admitted

His deification after His resurrection.1

Theodotus tras excommunicated by the Pope Victor (186-98). But his

ideas ~Tero taken up by another T'!loodotus2and Artemon, trho lived in Rome

after the middle of the third century and uas a contemporary of Paul of

Samo sat.a, uho is regarded as the most colorful exponent of dynamic

monarchianism. He was formally condeluued by the Synod of Antioch in 268.

The most brilliant synopsi8 of Paul of Samosata's3 trinitarianism comes

from J. 1J. D. Kelly.

He applied the title "~"ord" to God's commandment and ordi-

nance, i. e. God ordered what, Ho uilled through man, and so did
it ••• He (Apostle Paul) did not say Father, Son and Holy
Spirit are one and the same, but gave the name of God to the
Father uho created all things, that of the Son to the mere
man, and that of Spirit to the grace ~rhich in dHelt the
apostles .l~

Jesus Christ, he declared, uas one, the Hord another, the

former being from beloH and the latter from above. Hary did
not, indeed could not, bear the ~·Jord. The Hard uas a kind of
"induelling, II a "quality," not in his vieil a person, so, 'Hary
did not bear the Hord, for Hary did not exist before the ::lges.
!·laryis not older than the trord ; trhat she bore Has a man
equal to us, but superior in all things as a result of holy
spirit. 5

~'rnatthis amounts to is that Adoptionists vTOre 'iiillingto usc the

trinitari::ln formul::l,but only as a cover-up for a unit::lriantheology,

denying any subsistance to the Hord and teaching th::lttho Son and Spirit

1Ibid.; Deut , 18: 15 and Lulce 1:35 are S01110 of tho texts to 'irhich
adoptionists used for their position.

2"~'J'no
is said to be an Asclepiodotus." Ibid.

3A Syrian. ll-Ibid.,11}Q•
 17

Here merely the Church's names for the inspired man Jesus Christ and grace

nhich God purod upon the apostles. So Jesus had a status very much like,

if not identical to, the old Testament prophets. 1

not adoptionism but modalism vras the dangerous opponent of the

Logos Christology and the subtle blockage to progressiveness in orthodox

trinitarian formulations. The dynamic form of monarchianism uas so

apparently destructive to the divinity of Jesus that it could hardly have

been a real threat to faith in the incarnation. "These adoptionists uere

an isolated and unrepresentative movement in Gentile Christianity.,,2

declares authoritative J. l!. D. Kelly; houover-, opposition to them covers

not a small space in early Christian literature. Hodali::;tslJ'eremore

apt to attract sincere, pious, earnest Christians for they were passionate

for the oneness of God and the deity of Christ. But any assertion that

the ~'rord,or Son Has a distinct person from the Father, or other than the

Father was declared by Hodalists to be a blasphemy, viz., two Gods, thus

Partipassians as they Here first called3 by Tertullian in the l/lesE. In

the East modalistic theology Has knctrn as Sabellianism taking its name

from Sabellius,l} "for subsequently everything is called "SabellianisDl,"

1This evaluation of Paul of Samosata seems to be identical to:

3dlmrd Rochie Hardy, "General Introduction: Faith in Christ, Theology
and Creeds," Christology of the Later Fathers. Library of Christian
Classics (Philadelphia: The Hcstminister Press, 1954), III, 16.

2Kelly, QQ.. £ii., 117. 3Harnack, QQ.. cit., 176.

L~3ybirth a Libyan of Pcntapolis in Africa; active at Rome in the

early part of the 3rd. century; for a time had the confidence of Pope
Callistus but later excommunicated by him.
 18

-;rhich portnins to the eternnl hypoabas i.s of tho Son, ,,1 or "Father and Son

arc merely t'tiO o.ppcarnnccs of the somo oubject - tuo parts ('01"080'00.,

ncr!')on:V:l,0.0 in dramatic norsonac) assumed by the same bamg , ,,2

,..,
:!OCtU8of Smyrna tras the first theologian to state..) thi::: monarchian
!'
position doclaring ( that it 'ITa:::the Father trho suffered and under-rent.

Chriot's human oxpcr-Lencec j if Christ uac God then he must be identical

~rith tho Father for he tras God; consequently, if Christ suffered, the

Father ouffered since thero uas one God and there could be no division in

the Godhead.

Pra::ca::5 ·taughtG that it tras the Father trho entered the Virgin's

";Tomb,so boconung , as it tror-e, his otrn Son, trho suffered and died and

roso ::teain.

Yet Praxcac and his associates, it uou'ld seem uere in the

end obliged to recognize a duality in the Lord in the sense
that the man Jesus uao, strictly speaking, the Son, nhile the
Christ, 1.e. the divine clement (spiri tum, id est deum) vms
properly the Father.?

1Harnack, .2.£. cit., 183. 2Hardy, QQ.. cit., 15.

3Kelly, .QQ. cit., 120.

I}Hippolytus, 11 Against the Heresy of One I!oetus, II The '\nte-~!icene

Fathers (cd, by JJ_exander Roberts and James Donaldson, Buffalo: The
Christian Literature Co., 1886), 223-231.

5" A shadowy figure; 'Praxeas' could be a nickname, meaning

'busybody,' some have identified him uith lloct.us ," See Kelly, QQ.. ill.,
121.

6Tertullian, "Against Praxeas," .2.£. cit., 10 5. ? 10.

?Xelly, .2.£. cit., 121.

 19

"It ib curious to observe hov close at this point modalism

came to Theodotus' adoptionism.,,1 "As soon as the distinguishing of £ill:.Q.

(filius) and spiritus (pater) vTaS taken strictly modalism passes over into
~dopt·
H
. •.
~on~sm ,,2

The philosophical, more systematic presentation of modalistic

theology appears to be the vlOr1::

of Sabellius. Ho is credited uith the

establishing of clearer distinctions bot-neen the modes, or aspects of

God's appearances and recognized morc definitely the Holy Spirit as a third

nrosoporlt mode, of deity. He seems to have "adopted the language of the

Church so far as to speak of three 'persons' using the term,7T rb (7W1!A ,

but in so different a sonse.") God had put forth his activity in merely

throe successive onergies, or stages.

First in the prosonon ( = fonll of manifostation, figure; not

= hypostosis) of tho Father as Creator and Lmlgiver; secondly,
in the ~osonon of tho Son as Redeemer, beginning 11ith the
incarnation and ending ,)liththe ascension; finally, and up
till the present hour'l in tho £rosopon of tho Spirit as giver
and sustainer of lifo. ~

God is, according to teaching accredited to Sabellius, ("HO cannot

bo sure that all the details of the position • • • can be attributed to

Sabollius himself • • • evidence dates from a century or more after his

2I~-
iarnac k , .t
QP.. £!_., 180, 1'0" 1• Cf. Tertullian, QP.. cit., 27, 29.

)Bethune-Baker, QQ. cit., 105.

I}T. Recs , The Holy Spirit in Thought and Exoerience (Nm'l York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), 121}.
 20

lifcti:ilO. '}1) eO:Jcntially one, and tbo trinity he recognizes is not of

occcnco but cf rcvcldion, "not in the essential relations of the deity

ulthin it.::;clf, but in rel~tion to the iTOrld outside and to manlcirid, ,!2

The one God is appearing notr as Father, notr as Son, and nOHas Holy Spirit.

"!~ccordinz to Epipho.nlls and Athanasiu8 God tras not at the same tilne the

F~thor and the Son, but rather ll1 thrce :Juccossive Gtages.3 In any caGe,

it i:::; cl<::o.rthat there i:::;no permanence about such J2!:.Q§.~, personali-

tic:::;, appearances, therefore, no roal incarnation. God only manifested

him:::;olf in Christ, and ~ihcn the part Has played "the curtain fell upon

that act in tho great drama there ceased to be a Christ or a Son of God.,,4

:fe have referred to the ~1est and to the East designating the

3,::;.:::tor,l./.
Church and its thought and the ~Jestern Co.urch and it:::; character-

istic::: in theological expreaai.on : houever , there is no coherent system of

theolOGY iJ'hich can bo clearly designated as Gither. By "Sast" or "Host,"

ltGrocl~t" or "Latin," ~le simply mean primarily tho per-t merrt elements of

thought uritton dotm by a fe~r selected representatives of the Church in

tho Za:;t or bho Church in tho ';Jest. Thore are personalities who primarily

roll in the Bn.stern Church cotegory, and at the same time have· on affinity

to ~-Jostern thOUGht, and visa versa.

In tho :1e::t, at this time, uo have the first group of Latin thoo-

100inn::J, Hippolytu8, Tertullian, novation and Cyprian. They had already

1Kelly, Ql2.. cit., 122. 2Bethune-Baker, loco cit.

3nces, loco cit.

Ii-Bethunc-Baker, .9..l2. cit., 106.

cr. Arthur Cushman acGii'fei~t, A Histor,"{ of CJ~ristian To.ought
(lJmJ York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931), I, 238-9.
 21

laid dotm the 'ilesternconception of trinity in the sense of a 'monarchy'

or 'economy,' a society, but one-in-throe not three-in-one •. Tertullian

is cited mostly as the representative of this. He uas anti-modalistic,

yet, "the economic Trinity, like the 11odalist, ~ms a Trinity of revelation

• • • it uas 110dalism modified • • • it carried the stages of divine

administration into the inner being of God as essential and personal, (not

passing) distinctions. ,,1 The Hodalist's indistinctiveness bet~J"CenFather,

Son and Spirit cause him to exert himself to ShOll that the threeness

revealed in the economy ,JaS in no T.-JaY incompatible uith holding to God's

essential unity.

Tertullian "was the first to define the Godhead by the formula,

:l:!.llil; substantia, tres personae,,,2 Hhich has been since considered orthodox

and essential to it.

His characteristic Hay of expressing this VIas that:

Father, Son and Spirit are one in 'substance.' Thus Father

and Son are one identical substance vr11ichhas been, not divided,
but 'e:dended;' the Saviour's claim, 'I and my Father are one'
(unum) indicates that the Three are 'one reality,' not 'one
person' (~), pointing as it does to identity of substantia
uith the Father and the Son and the Spirit are consortes sub-
stantiae partis; ••• the Father is the uhole substance WhITe
Son is a derivation from and portion of the vncl.e • • • the
threeness applies only to 'grade,' (gradus) or 'aspect'
(forma) or Tmanifestation'\' (species).]

One readily can see hou dangerously close this came, in the final

summary, to Sabellian modalism. Revelations, Son and Holy Spirit, are

1Rees, 2£. cit., 125. 2Ibid., 127.

3Quoted from, Kelly, 2£. cit., 113-11}.

But cr, Tertullian, "Apology," Q!2. cit., 11-13,21.
Tertullian, "Against Praxeas," 2.3.9.19. 25.
 22

Ged, but not at once and the same time, Father, nor is the Spirit, Son.

The unity involves neither co-equality nor co-eternity, nor identity of

person but oneness of substance.

Hippolytus visciously attacked Sabellim:; 'IJhogot a little support

from Calli::;tu8of Rome. Callistus 'tT::W "driven to excommunicate the leaders

on either side, both Sabellius and iIi9Polytus.,,1 Orieen, tho early

systematic theolo::;ianof the Eastern Church, "the ally of Hippolytus,,,2

tras condemned by Rome.

OrigEm "tras particularly opposed to modal.Lsm, II) uhich sacrificed the

distinction of Father, Son and Spirit for the sake of their oneness.

Along ~rith '"Jesternor-thodoxy, Origen propounds'! the oneness (unius) of

the substance of the Son and Spirit. He sets forth systematically his

philosophy of the One and the !iIany. One represents the only reality, sub-

stance, existence. He meets the most exacting demands of monotheism by

insisting that the fullness of unoriginate Godhead is in the Father alone,

~·]hois the "fountain-head of deity." 5

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, along "lith Tertullian, are ono-

in-throe, but not merely 'manifestations,' 'aspects,' 'grades' but 'three

per-sona," distinct h~!postasis from all eternity from Hhich comes his ::l::s-

tinctive doctrine of eternal generation.

13ethune-Baker,
------------------------------------------.----------
loco cii., 106.

3:'IcGiffert.,.QQ. cit., 223.

i}Origcn, "DePrincipiis, ned. by Alex::mder Roberts and James Donald-

son, The Ante-1Jicene Father§. (Buffalo: The Chri.stian Literature Publish-
ing cc., 1885), IV, 2/}2-J82.

5Ibid.; cr. Origen, .QQ. £.it•• Dlc. I. 11:1, 2.

 23

Origen ezplains that God must impart himself, 1rhich he did, and

chose to effect this revelation of hi..":lself

in the LQgos; for this reason

the Logos exists, and has a personal subsistance, but one other-rise, ,lith

the Father. This required organ for revelation, Logos, is effected,

generated, as the 17ill proceeds from the mind, as brilliance from light,

eternal and everlasting.

The Logos became flesh, Son. That brings the idea of the eternal

generation of the Son: He is not merely an act in time but outside of

time. Thi::;"is Origen's chief permanent contribution to the doctrine of

the person of Christ,,1 in the trinity of dogma.

The Son is of the Father's uill, uhich is his very essence thus

making the Son or the Father's essence. H011cver, since the Son is of the

,rill of the Father he is also begotten. The Father is first in the

trinity: the Son is second: the Son is eternal ~rith the Father in that he

is of the Father's 'trill,2vrha.ch Has from the beginning. There tras a time

trhcn the Son tras not, that is, as one of three, for he uas 'begotten,'

made by the Father; yet, there uas never a time when he Has not in that

he wac of the substance of the source of all being: herein is Origen' s

eterno.lness and oneness, not in person, numcr-tcal.Ly, In relation to the

God of the universe the Son merits a secondary degree of honor. This

subordination is discernablo in Tortullian but the thorough-going uorked-

out subordinationism :i.s integral to Origcn' s trinitarian scheme, "~Je nay

call Him a second God • • • receiving honor second only to that 1'1hic11
is

given the Host High God.'.')

_ . =.....
h~ethurle-Bal~er, OJ"). c·it., 1!.!}">.
,U 20r·;gen
....., =.
OJ") ci t
--=._.' I , 11 :0.
I'"

30r'i.....,
g,en "A(1"a';n~t
",'"_ CaLsus
_ _,"0'0
=' c~
...l.o., ~l• 39 , 'lII ,:; t:7 •
.I.
hQC'.<.l nor a b1ul'ring of t.hr) p(";r::;on~litieD of tho triad.. Through Origo11 never-

u.oub~cu. tho 'vaoHe:;:;,' ho ira:::more lntcro:::tc1 in the Sen's zubordinativn

than in thl:;; 'oHono.:;::;.' It i:::; almoDt inovUablc that distinction be

f>:qunl1y \ii!:.h ot.crnnl t;cnoratlon, cli:;tinctlon:;, onc-Ln-Lhroc, and.

1n.c\cinG in hi::; humanity thnt ie necessary to man and at the same time

nothi!'1g 1ac1:1n2 in hl::: divino nature. Godhead and manhood coexist, like

firo and metal in red-hot iron.

In regards to tho Holy Spirit and the trinity, Origen seems to bog-

dorm, "On tho Hork of tho Spirit • • • Origen is full and clear • • •

Lbut.7 a"mb:i..guity
appears in Origen's doctrine of the nature of the Spirit. ,,2

"Th/') Holy Spirit Has a noc088ary incidental.,,3 "0rigen sometimes seems

to oponk of Son <mel Spirit 0.8 coc tcrnal., and yet not quite divine. "L~

lJevertheless, thoro i:; trinity in Origenism but non-dofinitive and unde-

veloped in regard:::;to Spirit for his primary interest uas not trinity but

di:::;tinctionbot~J"oon Fathor and Son Hithout destroying their oneness of

OSDenco.

1HcGiffort, .QQ. cit., 312.

2Rees, .QQ. ill., 132, 131.}.

Cf. Origon, "De Principiis," .QQ. cit., I, 3:1; II, 7:2.

3!!cGiffert, .QJ2.. cit., 220. nar dy, .QJ2.. ~., '.1-

I}TI 17 •
 25

Before the classical formulation of the trinitarian dogma Has

made in the fourth century by the Cnppadocians there is another position

'7hich ono in that:.day could ht70 adopted, Arianism, named after Arius,

presbyter (fl. D. 2.56-336). "Orl[.(on'

of Alo:::'i.'.ndri~, G theory of oternal

generation had no meaning for him." 1 "A:t'iuodeveloped ono side of Origcn' s

speculations ignoring others. ,,2 "Arius made use of the ::mbordination

clements in Origen's system to construct his o~m academic one.,,3

One could adopt the course and say that God the Father alone
is God in the true sense, Then the \-1ordkno ...m on earth lIas
rulother, a second and subordinate divine cntity--thcos kai
kurios heteros. Arius formalized this subordination.4

To Arius God alone is unkno"rable and separate from every created

being. Being, God, 'H<:W too remote to be incarnate and man too 10~i to be

capable of receiving deity but illtormcdi.n.tobeings could connect God and

man \lhilo themselves being neither. Such 0. person, "intermediate being"

~ras bho Son of God, Jesus, uho appeared on earth in the body being neither

God nor man, truly. Arius' Christ 'Has a demigod.

~'leare ,persecuted because He say, "The Son has a beginning

but God is uithout beginning." For thi::;;
ue are persecuted
because l1e say, "He ic made out of things tho.t nere not." But

1Albert Henry Ne1rman, A ~1anual of Church History (Revised and

enlarGed, ~ Vols., Philadelphia: Tho American Baptist Publication SOCiety,
19!~7), I, 236.

2Hardy, 2J2.. cit., 19. 3Richardson, £2. cit., 120.

l~Iardy, .2l2.. ill., 15.

 26

thls 1[; ~Th<:tt He cay, ::;::.:lCO he is neither 0. par-t of God nor

f~r!il'::d.out of any substratum. 1

The fo1lo'(ri113 verso :L8 at tributcd. to !l.rim: by Athanasius:

If you trarrt Lo:::;osdoctrine, I can

S0r'18 it hot and hot:
God oogat him and beforo he Has
bo,"rotton
u he trac not. 2

Arius contended for a tri::\d. "Thus there are three hypoctases., ,,3

trh l.ch Roche ,(Inrdy clarifies by saying, !IEpiphaniu8 and Hilary add, perhaps

correctly 'Father, Son and :Io1y Spirit,!l-...;one sees trhy the term 'three

!1ypoctas8S' ITas lone; suspect at Alexandria, as suggesting three different

Ariu8 considered the :101y Spirit's "es sence as utterly

un'LLke that of tho Son's, just as the Son's tras utterly unlike that of

The forcgoing is thOUGht of as the 'extreme Arianism.' There uas

o. so:n1-Arian position one could have adopt.od Hhich acsor-tcd that the

no.turoD of tho Father and Son \lere alike but not identical.

A history or trinity of c1or;macould '00 Hell nigh complete by t.he

cxp'l.anat.Lon of tho usc of a 80ries of tochnicnl t.ormc, the understnnding

1Arius, "The Lett.er of Arius to Eusobius of lJicor:18dia," Christolof~:r

of the Later Father, Librnrv of Christian Classics (cd. by Edunrd Rochie
Hardy. Philadelphia: The ';'/estminister Press, 1954), III, 330.

2Quoted from Dorothy Sayer's, The Emoeror Constantine (lJmr York:

Harper and 3rothers, 1951), 119•
.,_.Jllr~us,
~ .
"The Confession of the Arians," .QQ. cit., 333.

II-Hardy, .QQ. cit., 333. 5Ke11y, £2. cit., 255.

 27

in the minds of tho various theologians using them, the misunderstandinG,

and final definitions uhich make up the developed doctrine::;. The terms

'Here uidely Ll1 use in the early part of the third century.

There tras the Greek trord, hypostasis, and the Latin equivalent,

substantia, uhich Here used to express the essential being"nature of

Father, Son and Spirit, separately or that uhich ';Jascommon to Father,

Son and Spirit. In controversies the Greek term had the advantage of

being a De:; Testament term (Heb. 1 :3). Another Greele term for essence or

substance uas ousia; and if one uished to say that the Father, Son and

Holy Spirit ':Tcreof the same essential being they troul.d say "homoousius."

Yne.Latin substantia, "standing under," and hypostasis could be

taken in tuo different senses.

It could mean tho prinCiple of differentiation ••• ; and

that is vhat hypostasis came to mean in the orthodox formula
of the Trinity, three hypostasis and ono es:::;ence
or ousia.
:Jut it could nlso mean the fundamental essonco bohind tho tiro
moues of God's being ••• the boing of God it self. That is
uhat the Latin meant by substantia, uhen they contrasted
three persons and one SUbstance. I

Then .10 have the Greek, 12rosopon, and the Latin, RersOna or

"person." "Thoir COl11.'1lon

unity is designated in Gr eelc as ousia and in

Latin as substantia, in the sense of substratum. ,,2 ~'1henono realizes

tho connotations possible3 for persona uhich represontG the Groek

lYroostasis, trhd.ch could be taken in t1W different senses, avarenoss of

tho theological battle over terms becomes more vivid.

1n·i ,,'.. ardson on c-1t

... I" .......... ,U.
J. .;; 1.4,

-I
-.J..,.,
• 01' --I'.
I• QI2.. cii., 333.
2~]olf::;on,

):-JheelerH. Robi.nson , The Christian E::nericnce of the TIol' Sniri t

(ne:; '101'1:: Harper and Jrothers Publishers, 1928 , 25L:-.
 28

"Person," or to use the Grock torm, hyro:::;tnsis mc~ns n

distinct cnLity • • • ~rL1.cn 11ethinl~ of pcrcon 110 tend to
t:1inl~ in psychological terms • • • primarily a center of
sclf-con:::ciousnc:::;:::;. 3ut tho eO.rlior attitude 110.::; opposite
of thi:::;. Hot self-consciousness, but confrontation \10.:::; tho
underlying idea. A person wac 0. prcsopon, a II facing bctrards"
(as the vord litol'ally means in Grock) or 0. pOl'~Ono., a
:::.Jounclin~throuGh," as it moans in to.tin • • • Porcona thus
could moan a mack uorn by actors • • • Po.thor and .sOll ~'loro
thus di::rtinguisho.ble in torm8, not of sclf-consciou:;ncs::;,
b~lt of pr08enting 0. special II I'ace" • • • or aspect of being.
Trw tcrm \1h1ch really cxprecccd 'nho.t tras intended 1s that
of IImoc1e"of being."l

In the translation of terms scholars havo been compelled to use

Lheso etymological equivalent::;; yet, the results have boen grave mls-

fortUne for the professional and popular unc1erztnndine; of trinitarian

doctrine. These words have suffered greatly in their hiotory and have

been tho ccurco of suffering to many minds tho.t. .;anted to '00 tOGether and

under-st-and if only etYlllologico.l equaval.cnt.o had been synonymous in liloaning.

'loluYlles are needed to hold the arguments over terms in trinitarian dogma.

This brings us to the last major consic1eration in our bo.cke;rouml

nocc:::;sary for introducine; the class1co.l theologians of the fourth century

and thoir definitive teaching. Orthodo::; comes to grips vrith schislilatic

.~,rius through theologian, Athanasius, resulting in the first. authorized

s tat.omcrrt of orthodox trinitarianism., the !Jicene Creed, f'ormed at the

Councd.I.' of iTicea (325 A. D.).

Act.ually it uas Athanasius 17ho, at the beginning of the

fourth cenburyorccent.cd the main challenge of religion to
philosophical 'theory, not in the person of its great. repre-
sentative, Origen, but in the person of Arius.2

1Richardson, 2£. cit., 63.

 29

Tho pr-i.mary interest of Atllanasiu3 and his cohorts as opponents

of Arianism uas in the deity of Christ. ';Jas he fully divine, in thl~

precise sense of the term, therefore really akin to the Ii'ather, or Has

11'3 after all a creature, superior no doubt to the rest of creation, but

all the same separated by an unabridgeable chasm from the Godhead? ';Jas

he like, or unlike, or of the same ousia, substantia with God the ::rather?

At the end of the third century and the first decades of the fourth,

"her-e "iTe must largely confine ourselves to the Greek-speaking section of

t.he Church. Little. • • survives to show 'That T:Testerntheologians ,Tore

thinkinz.,,1

'I'he rc 'N'8re tllo type::>of Origenism in vogue.2 One is represented

b,7 Alexander, bishop of Alexandria (313-323) trho called Arius to :JicGa.

He dressed the oneness, co-eternalness of Lhe Son ";lith th·e Father , maki.ng

full use of Origen' s eternal g enerat.Lon, The other type of emphasis tras

.nade by Eusebius of Caasarea, the church historian, makLng the 1110St. of

Origen's subor'dtinat.Loni.sm, ~lhich bordered very c103e to Arius' Christ as

a demigod, not divine, nor human.

At this moment AthanaGius Dots out the central theme of

the Alexandrian Christology at its best. His chief concern
is \lith the pouer of t~e ne'\J'life in Christ uhich 'LIeshare;
his divinity makes his life mighty and hi::; humanity makes it
oars • • • Athanasius can say simply of the incarnate TiTord
that "he Has made man," and certainly does not mean to imply
that he uas a r-educed humanity. 3

In 325 A. D. the Eml)erOrConstantine called an ecclesiastical

council to ncct. at llicaea in Byt.hinia. He had shown favor to the

1Kelly, .QQ. cit., 223. 3Hardy, QQ.. cit., 18.

 )0

Christians and hoped to gain their further support for his empire by

uniting them. The Arian schism vras threatening the unity of the Christian

body, "\tThich
Constantine deemed essential to harmony "\tlithin
his domain. It

nas suggested to him, perhaps,1 by the Spanish bishop of Hosius, who was

very influential at court, that if a synod ~'Tereto moet representing the

uhole church, both East and Hest, it might be possible to restore harmony.

So, here 'LTesee an inner connoction bebJ'een theology and political uelfare

and politics playing an important roll in the background leading to the

first orthodox statement of the Church. A united Church and a unified

empire both ;rere at stake.

The Council :ras attended by clerics from the East and ;Jest, the

latter being in the minority, but "the ideas of Athanasius entered into

the general stock of Hestern theology. ,,2 1,fuilebishops alone trer e members

of the Council, Arius and Athanasius ';rerethere. At the time, Arius vas

a presbyter and Athanasius a deacon in the Church. "They had no vote and

took no public part in the deliberations,") yet, their ideas nere the

center of the theological discussion.

To maintain the unity of deity, Arianism had to take atray divinity

from Jesus. For salvation to be of God, and real, Athanasius had to oon-

tend for the deity of Jesus as redeemcr and at the same time maintain the

'oneness' of the Godhead. The one iTord by ~Jhich Athanasius championed

his vimr and made possible the first generally accepted statement of

orthodox trinitarianism is homoousios. It is not found in Scripture even

1HcGiffert, OPe cit., 258.

2IIardy, "Introduction to Athanasiu3," Q.l2.. cit., !~9.

)EcGiffert, 1Q.£. ill·

 31

as trinity or triad cannot be found there. "The nord homoousios was trrung

out of a soul vrho had found salvation. ,,1 "Ouai.a and :"ypostasis, in the

Nicene Creed, had no distinction between them. and Athanasius dre:T no dis-

tinction be'tvreen them. ,,2 "Athanasius actually introduced a word unknorrn

to tradition and by strength of his vision compelled th'9 Church to accept

it.,,3

It sras a layman's term for a Hay of saying Christ Has divine

not a theological terIll ••• no theologian quite liked it •••
umrol.come to many of those vlho accepted it ••• it suggested
to them that God vTasbroken into fragments - something like the
phrase of our modern Faith and Order Conference, "Jesus Christ
as God and Savior.,,4

But the bishops, on the groundof adding the homoousious, produced

the follo~iing statement:

~'Jebelieve in one God ••• And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

begotten of the Father uniquely, that is of the substance of
the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial uith the Father ••• And
in the Holy Spirit.5

"Thus it Has declared that they used the phrase 'of the substance'

to indicate his being of the Father, but not as if it wer-e a part of the

1Richardson, 2£. cit., 120. 21,1cGiffert, _.

on c'it
--=-.., _?6n
-e

3Richardson, loco cit.

I~Hardy, "Introduction to Faith, Theology and Creeds," QQ.. cit., 20.

5From the Creed drmm up at the Council and quoted from, Eusebius,
"The Letter of Eusebius of Caesarea Describing the Council of Nicea,"
Christology of the Later Fathers, The Library of Christian Classics (ed.
by EdHard R. Hardy, Philadelphia: The iJestminister Press, 1954), III, 338.
 . .
;)~1ClS 01 the
fll·+
l.., and in

r~.i::;0cl n'J\J and ('tiffic).lt

II
~.:'~:lC·t:lr88 C:}1)~)~(loci3.11::;"'f' ~T7Jr'?! cCt:lin0 on t:18 SCC3lJ.0at. t~'l:1..S Li.filc;.

(32')-.3't;) cOLl..;Dnl,Y c:.:'.11o:.l :32.:::;i1 thoJ:co:>.t.

council of }31, Gregory lived. t'1.rou6h it w:r~i1 late 33? or carly 3':)0.

"
...i:'I0.r:ly, £2.. cit., 21.

."~ .1'
('~o.PP':t:lOCJ_a,
 33

Gregory of Hyssa, a younzer brother of 3asil Has the third of the

CappadocLan Fathers nhosc death is fixed at about, 39l}.

Cappadocia produced in the fourth century throe distin-

guished cuurch teachers • • • trho stand in strong contrast
~Jith general character of their countrymen; for the Cappado-,
cians Here generally described as couardl.y, servile and
deceitful. 1

Basil and Gregory of liaz Lanzen met at tho school in Caesarea and

studied together at Athens becoming bosom friends academically and spirit-

ual.Ly, Bot.h came from prominent families of the church; Gregory's father·

tras a bishop. It is not knotrn nher-e or no» 3ac;il' s brother received his

education but it nas one of no disrepute. All three Hent through years

of inten.:;ive study, disciplined monastic life, climbing to tho seats of

authority, bishoprics, so designated by their titles.

Philip Schaff contrasts the three Cappadocians and at the same time

wakes a superb sUlmnarization uhen he says of Gregory the theologian:

• • • inferior to his bosom friend, Basil, as a Church ruler,

and to his namesake of llyssa as a speculative thinker, but
superior to both as an orator.2

The grot-ring pmwr and influence of the three men is made clear

by Eusebius3 "trho want-ed the intellectual power-of Basil and Gregory of

Eazianzen but lIas soon eclipsed by them and he treated Basil badly."4

1Schaff, QQ.. cit., 394,. 2Schaff, QQ. cit., 909.

311m-1 Bishop of Caesar ea so placed. by Emper-or- Julian.

lJ'Edmond
Venables, "3asilius of Caesarea," Dictionary of Christian
BiograDhy (cd, by 'dilliolU Smith and Henry :'lace, London: John ~'Iurray,
1877), I, 283.
Perhaps the most powerf'ul, and influential one vras Basil of whomit is said,

"champd.on of orthodoxy in the East, II "restorer of union to the divided

Oriental Church," and "pr-omot er of unity between the East and ~Jest.1I1

The Cappadoc i an fathers ••• gre:r up "tlith the Semi-.".rians

and uer-e Origenistic in sympathy2 and strongly opposed to
Sabellianimn. But they also felt the influence of Athanasius
and recognized the :licelle Creed,3 already a half century old,
as authoritative. 4

Provoking the work and uritings of the Cappadocians was the

,
contemporary attack of the l1acedonians on the Holy Spirit. They \-lere

knotrn also as Pneumatomachians, 'Spirit-fighters' led by Eustathius of

Sebaste vIho preferred hO!:loeousios, 'like ill substance,' choosing not to

call the Spirit, God, nor call him a creature but give him a middle posi-

tion, giving Father and Son the sole relationship in the Godhead; He could

be no more God than other spirits.5

There Here the Ocacians or Homoeans, led by Acacius, called the

party of the compromise, but in effect uere recognized as Arians since

their key word was 'like.' Eunomius led the Eunomi.ans , or imomoeism,
,-
called ne~T-Arianismbecause their watch-word tras? that the Son is unlike

the Father in all things to prohibit use 'of the same substance' or 'of

like substance.'

1Ibid.

2Basil and Gregory of Haz. made an anthology of Origen's Horks.

J"The Creed represents more clearly the moderate position of the

Cappadocians than that of Athanasius and his associates." l1cGiffert,
212. ill., 274.

4Ibid., 267. 5Cf. Kelly, Q£. cit., 260. 6Ibid., 248, 249.
 35

:forLll an.:l

J(;.:u.::;;

in tho :lis tory of

S11rictio.n do ctrine.

')
o7or."_)
~1on-schisrlatic Ch1'i;:;ticm .acn notr oeli8ve:lt.hat th:J t":1re8 :>.1'0one
it is oro::cdly

+Y"1~'
v ... L..'_.-,

probJ.G~;tof relDting the thrc,') nho arc one in definitive .i.'or:mlation of

C1~ts::;iC8.1cloctrine f'or the Cht~rch ~T9.3 10.C0::.1 l)J our Co.ppadocian Fathers.

30.::;i1 brouzht out the }.'cal ;:;i~nific2nc':J of the TIel;;" Spirit;

115_8()1'otl1or, 'Jrc;;;ory of :J;-/;:;::;o. c.1evolo)::d distLlction:;;JhiCh ~J8r()

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
39; :·icGiffBrt, 25;), 277,
Sc1w.ff, ~.,
'+

122. "
..IIIard], 222. ill., 31.
 largely verbal developments of metaphor and Gregory of
lJazianzen helps us see the varieties and uncertainties of
opinion at the time trhen the formula lIaS being framed. 1

1Robinson, OP. cit., 253.

Cf. Reinhold Seeberg, History of Doctrines in the Ancient Church,
Text-Book of the History of Doctrines (trans. by Charles ~. Hay;
Philadelphia: Lutheran publication Society, 1950), II, 22l.j.,
225 for a
treatment of Gregory's verbal development of metaphors.
 CHAPTER
II

THECONCEPT
OF GOD

In a sense it can be said that the controversy in trinitarianism

tras over the nature of God in heaven. 1J:'1.atis God like? And the answer

to this question becomes more momentous11henthe divinity of Jesus is

entertained'and some acceptance of his being in a Godhead, not necessarily

"of" the Godhead, is made a part of faith. The question grous to a more

gigantic proportion upon mental assent to the true hu.1I1.an

nature of Jesus.

Ii' Jesus is truly human and divine, ....

That is God like? At this point the

trinitaricmism of the Cappadoci.ans begins though they declare \-lith one

voice that the question cannot be answered,

Therefore we must begin thus: It is difficult to conceive

God, but to define him in tcor-ds is an impossibility • • • In
my opinion it is impossible to express him • I. • and this, not
merely to the utterly careless and ignorant, but even to those
~fho are highly exalted and who love God, and in like manner to
eVel~ycreateel nature. HOll tho subject of God is more hard to
come at Ll1 proportion as it is uor-o perfect than any other. 1

They begin honestly in this manner of humbly confessing their

inability to fully comprehend divine nature. llouever this is more than

merely an Lrrvol.vemerrtof honesty. It is t.heir .,lay of asserting a supreme

1Gregory of Nazianzus, "The Second Theological Oration - On God,"

The Library of Christian Classics, eel. by J:dHard Roehie Harely, (Christology
of the Later Eathers; Philadelphia: The vlest.minister Press, 195'·}), III,
1"')
./J.

37
 )3

being; for to fully comprehend God lrJould be to circuIrlScrlpt him and ther8-

bY' a supreme deity trou'Ld not be real but L.'1laginarJ.

:10-:'/ uhy have I gone to all this? •• • T~ make clear the

point at ulri.ch my argusienb has aimed from the first • • •
that the divino nature cannot be apprehended by human roason
• •• For ullat does the Hord prefer to rational creatures?
';.ray that their very existence is a proof of his supreme good-
ness.1 '

Hot once is there a trace of doubt that a supreme being exists:

"Our very eyes and the lavT of nature teac11 us that God exists. ,,2 "That

God.is I knov but \ihat his essence is, I hold to be above reason; ...
faith is competent to knotr that God is, not 'tihat he is. ,,) Despite this

forthright aclmmrledgmcnt the Cappadocia..l1Fathers set forth a dogma on

the God.head and practically defY.} anyone who differs Hith them to claim

Christian grace.

If indeed, He could find something to support the mind in

its uncertainty. • • it troul.d be Hell. But if ••• reason
proves unequal to tho problem ~'JO must guard the tradition •• •
as ever sure and immovable, and seek from the Lord a means of
d,;:femllng our faith • .5

'.Te Hill begin our attempt to set fort.h the system of tho'J.ght

about t.he supreme one by starting 'iJith Gregory of lJyssa's first point,

_.
-
1Ibid., 1l}). 2Ibid

)st. Basil, "On the Holy Spirit," ;,;lT~i;.;;c;.;.e-::n~e;.;..

. ..;a;;;;n;.;.d;;;....;P~0~s.;;t~-~lJ:.::i;.:;c::..:e
(2nd. Series, ed , by Philip Scbaff and Henry ~rJace. lieu York: The
Christian Literature Co., 191}.5), VIII, 16, 17, 18 •

.5Gregory of Nyssa, "lm Ans,Ier to Ablabius: That ~Je Should :Jot

Think of Saying There Are Threo Gods,1I Tho Librarv of Christian Classics
(cd, by Ed~'Jard Rochie Hardy, Christology of Later Fathers; Philadelphia:
The ','estminister Press, 199}) t III, 2.57.
 39

nrhercfore He must confess one God., as Scripture bears Hitness, 'Hear,

o Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord,' (Dt. 6 :l~) even though the term

"Godhead" embraces the holy Trinity. ,,1

In our teaching of the. knovl.edge of God • • • the same

thing is subject to number D..'1d
yet escapes it; it is observed
to have distinctions and is yet grasped as a unity; it admits
distinctions of Persons, and yet is not dividcd.2

Hith these declarations he tras trying to refute tuo extremes, the

polytheism of the Greeks, "the divine monarchy is not split up and divided

into a 'lariety of divinities,") and on the other hand, the monotheism

of the JeHs, "neither does our teaching conform to JevJish doctrine.,,4

His belief was that the Christi&1 truth uas to be found in betlJ'Ccnthese

tvIO conceptions and in order to find that meridian there had to be an

acceptance of some truth in both extremes.

The unity of the nature LOf Go:l.7must be retained from the

Jevnsh conception, Haile the distinction of Persons, and that
only, from the Greek. • •• For the triune number is ••• a
remedy for those in error about the unity; uhile the affirma-
tion of the Iillityis a remedy for those who scatter their
beliefs among a multitude of Gods.5

In order to understand the Cappadocians' thinking on the supreme

being, He must go, once again, back to his nature, vlhich is ineffable,

and whatever that is, trlri.ch is inco11prehensible, that is God. in the

2Gregory of Hyssa, "Address on Religious Instruction," .Q.J2. ill·, 273.

_.
Ij..Ibid
-
5Ibid.
-
3Ibid., 27!}.
 40

abao'lut.e, Gregory of Nyssa declares that vThntever terms there are that

lead to a knonl.edge of God it is clear that the divine nature is not

signified by anyone, or alJ, of these terms. 1 "He must non make a more

careful examination of the Hord, 'Godhead,' in order that ue may get

some help in clarifying the matter. ,,2

Gregory begins by denouncing what he declares "most people think,,3

that the 'Godhead' refers in a special i'my, to God's nature. "TiTe,hovever ,

have learned that ilis nature cannot be named and ••• every name, vrhether-

invented by humans or handed dotrn by Scripture • • • does not signify uhat

that nature is.,,4 By thought and expression ue rightfully and correctly

ascribe to the divine nature incorruptibility, "uhicn does not express

vrhat that nature essentially is."S

Our idea of incorruptibility is this: that that llhich is

not resolved to decay. In saying, then, that He is incor-
ruptible, ire tell what, His nature does not suffer. But vrhat
that is ,,1hichdoes not suffer corruption He have not defined. 6

Gregory of lJyssa aeserts that by the foregoing he has proved that

'Godhead' signifies an operation of the supreme being and not a nature,?

"Godhead does not (even) r:;fer to a nature."g

",Tesay that vre knotr our God from His operations, but He do
not under-bake to approach near His essence. His operations
come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach. 9

1Gregory of Hyssa, liOn not Three Gods, " Ql?. cit. , 259.

2Ibid. 3;Q&s!. 4Ibid• SIbid. 6Ibid• ?1' Ld

....,£;!;_. , 261 •

8Thii. 9Basil, loco ill·

 41

As vre have observed, "Godhead embraced the holy Trinity, ,,1-.;·rhich

denotes number but our theoloGians are SHift to state that neither term

'Godhead,' or 'trinity' teach more than one nature, ousia,2 for the

supreme being and that belief in only one essence does not make inYalid,

nor illogical, distinctions ~uthin the one supreme being. Their 'classic

illustrations are like Gregory of lJyssa's:

There are many trho have shared the same nature - disciples,
apostles, martyrs, - but the "man" in '~bem all is one • • •
the nature is one, united in itself, a ~it completely indiyisi-
ble, Hhich is neither increased by addition nor diminished by
subtraction, being ~ld remaining essentially one, inseparable
even vrhen appearing in plurality, continuous and entire, and
not divided by the individuals uho share it • • • Therefore
H·e must confess one God. • • .3

The one God, undivided is the first unbegotten, the cause, source

of all, but "no one troul.dhold that cause and nature are identicaJ.."l~

"T:felearn that he is unbegot.ten, II nor is "the Father by g,:,meration.1I5

Gregory teaches: "It is necessary for us first to believe that something

exists • • • trhat; exists is one thing: the manner of existence is

I'
another. flU This mo.nner of existence he explains is the 'u.nbegottenness'

or non-generation of the supreme being, vThich he explains as the "mode

of existence.,,7

1Gregory of lJyssa, .Ql?. cit., 258.

211The habit of giving a plural significance to the 1vorcifor a

nature is mistaken. It Gregory of :Jys8a, .Ql?. cit., 26ll-.

3Ibid. 266. 5Ibid., 266, 267.

7Ibid., 267.
 'de must go to Gregory of Hazianzus, the theologian, for a more

detailed account of th0 above doctrines, which Gregory of lJyssa has merely

stated:

The Father is the begetter and the emitter; 'iJithoutpassion

of course, and vJithout.reference to time, and not in a corporeal
manner. The Son is begottcn1 and the Holy Ghost2 is the emis-
o '?
s~on •.J

God the Father is not begotten, created, derived in any manner or

from anything; he is ungenerated, uncaused because he is "One whoso very

I'r an d "t'lelor
existence had no begl.nn~nr;,'· o • ... our part Hill be bold to say

n
••• it is a great thing for the Father to be unoriginate. .5 "The
c
Father granted the principle of existenco"o to everyone and every thing.

"The Father precedes the Son according to the relation of causes to the

things Hllich proceed from them."?

And he is Father in the absolute sense, for he is not

also Son; just as the Son is Son in the absolute sense,
because he is not Father also.8

The Cappadocians, "t,;ith

one voice, declare they lIant it understood

that these terms such as "unbegotten" are being used to set forth their

1John 3: 16. 2John 1.5:26•

3Gregory of Hazianzus, tiThe Third Theological Oration - On the Son,"

.QQ. ill., 161.

LrIbid
_0' 162.
-
5Ibid., 168.

QBasil, HLetter XXXVIII" 6,

I'
£E. ~., 13? -
?Ibid.

8Gregory of Hazianzus, .QJl. ill., 162.

doctrine of God only because they are "terms convenient for human

intelli;;ence.,,1

The title "unbegotten" 'Hill not be preferred by us to that

of Father, unl.eas He vlish to make ourselves Hiser than the
Savior, uho said 'Go and baptize in the name of,' not the
'Un'oegotten,' but, 'of the Father.,2

"Father" and "God" are used interchangeable by the Cappadocians

and tlun'oegotten"is consistently used to modify both titles. But as we

have previously shoHn Gregory of lJyssa declared that Father, Son and

Spirit, vrhich defines the "Godhead" are operations of the supreme being,

God. Tnis gives a secondary, if not inferior, place to the term, "Father."

Hotrever-,Basil, in no uncertain terms says, "Tho word rFathert implies all

that is meant byr'Unbegotten.' He nho is essentially Father alone is alone

of no other. ,,3 'rhis states that 'Father' reaches back far enough to grasp

supreme being. But according to his brother, it does not, neither does it

for Gregory of Hazianzus for he says "one uhcse existence had a beginning
/.
must also have begun to be father."'1" In other words, he was God before

he lIas Father in operation, or in trinity, or became a Godhead, ifhich is

in agreement, essentially, with Gregory of Hyssa. Distinctions must not

be sacrificed at any cost is their position. Houever , in the same breath,

in order to preserve their three-in-one theology they declare that though

God had a begiru1ing as Father in operation, in essence, substrultia, he had

IBasil, "Against Eunomius," 2£.. cit., 1: 5.

4Gregory of Hazianzus, l2.£. cit. Also, he says, "God and unbegottell

are not the same thing." Ibid.
no beginning as Father for "He did not then become a father after he began

to be." 1

"In the eyes of the Cappadoca.ans God is the source, fount amhead,

of the Godhead ••• Trinity,"2 Hhich is Father, Son and Spirit.

These properties do not belong to the divine e3sence (God)

any more than im.'1lortality, innocence, immutability. OtherHise
there vTouldbe several divine essences. That is the divine
essence that belongs to God alone, but we cannot knou that
essence, as has been already shmm.3

In one breath the Cappadocians seem to have God making himself

Father and imparting himself in the tvJOobher- persons, and in another

breath t.hey are having God impart himself to the three.4 "Novithe name

of that ~lhich has no beginning is the Father, ,,5 as though he uas Father

first, thus contradicting his otrn statement in his oration previously

cited asserting that the one tIhose existence had a beginning must have

begun as Father. Herein VIe see sympathy vTith Origenistic theology, Vlhich

placed God the Father "altogether Honad,and indeed, if it may so express

it, Henad.,,6 Again, He have Gregory of Hazianzus declaring, liThe Triad

adores the :lonad and Honad adores the Triad. 1f7

3Gregory of lJazianzus, loco cit.

t}Basil, "Letter CCXXlV,

tI .Q.2.. cit., 278.

5Gregory of nazianzus, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (ed. by Philip

Schaff and Henry ~'lace; NC~l York: The Christian Literature Press, 1894,),
VII, 390.
I'
00 r~gen,
. liD e p. . ..
~r~nc~pp~~s, If
2£. ~.,• t 1 ,0.
I'

7From Oration 25, 17 as quoted from Kelly, .Q.l?. cit., 266.

 He have observed no \'lhere in the vlritings of scholars that this last

quotation asserts not "three-in-one" but "four-in-one;" hovever , that is

1rnat appears to be assorted, ultimately, to us. Although, roaching beyond

the Father, Hhich is an operation of God, is asserting, we thin1r..1. quadr-aL,

a being divided into four parts. Houever , VIe are quick to restate the

Cappadocians' constant reiteration that ~~y nmnber of distinctions of hypos-

t ases in no viay rends the oneness of the ousia, one God, assunder.

A final point to make in setting forth the Cappadocians' idea of

God is that, although his essence is not actually known or ever ca~ be,

Horshipping God, that unknown being is not "lOrshipping, that Hhieh one

does not knosr, Basil t s enemies tormented him thus:

Do you wor shxp vJhat you knox or Hhat you do not 1:no1-17If
I anstrer-, I tror-shap l-l:1a'l:.
I know, they imrnediately reply, ~'rnat
is the essence of the object of tlOrshipr Then if I confess
tnat I am ignorant of the essence, they turn on me again and
say you uor-slri.p lTnat you do not knew, 1

His answer Has that the tror'd . ~to knou! has many meanings and to

say that one knovs not the essence of God is not to declare he is ignorant

of God, "because our idea of God 11aobeen declared from all the attributes

Hhich I have enmuerated."Z 38.sil declared the divine essence to be mani-

fested in Father, Son and Spirit and as m-l"ful, just, and merciful, "these

\'le confess He knoH,,3 so do not uor-shap nhat He knorr not.

In conclusion He might use the trords of Evagrius, Basil's cohort,

"let it be said that tre Horship one God, one not in number but in nature, III}

13asil, loco cit. Jlbid.

I}Basil, "Letter VIII, II, II loco cit.

but at the same time he insists that in using number '110 must use it

reverently pointing out t.hat each of the persons cannot be added toget.her

nor torn apart. 1rGod' is a term indicative of essence, as Gregory of

l1yssa points out,2 not declarative of persons and therefore it must alnays

be USt3d in the singular. God, this essence, being, imparts, or exists in

more than one relation, mode of existence but the being remains one and

tho same.

1Basil, "On the Holy Spirit, II 1££. ill·

23regory of lJyssa, nOn not Three Gods," 1Q.£. cit.
 CHAPTER III

THE C~mISTOLO~'~

The unfolding of trinitarian dogma necessarily begins \rlth the

concept. of the supreme be i.ng as one God having only one ousia, natur-a,

Honever, the speculations on trinity had their origins in the study of

the person, persona, of Christ. Trinity, as such, Has in tho background.

At first the question agitating men's minds 1ms the full deity of the Son.

I iush to point to vJhat seems to me the most fundamental

iS3ue • • • the difference betHcen the Father and the Son.
All trinitarian dogma ultimately hangs on this distinction. 1

The Christology being the most f'undamerrbal, issue inevitably cxi.at.s

as the hardest problem; thereforc, it became tne Bost comprehonsiYo nml

bulky subject, not only of trinitarian dogma, but of all Christian theology.

Tho fact of a "Son of God" has not been a part of tho dispute. But

-:lhondid he become 30::1, and hOH he became Son, and vihat constituted the

make-up of the Son, before the flesh, dur-i.ng

, and after uas the sub jecb

of argumont , In definitive orthodox doctrine, the Son, in order to be

t.ruo redeemer, must possess all divine attributes and at the same time

enter all relations and conditions of man, that is: except sin, actually

uillfully, knowi.ngLy commi.ttc.ng an act against the Father,2 to raise man

to God.

1Richardson, QQ.. ill., 19.

2See pages 57 and 58 for fuller exp'LanatLon ,

 4'"0

Ancient Christology usually began from above vrlth the question,

"lIou did the Son of God beeome--and become man'i',,1 The Cappadoeians

:lorked in botvrcen the speeCllal:.ions of the extremists of their day. Arius

summari.z.es the typicnl 'orthodox extremist' Bishop Alexander's phraseology

in a letter to Eusebius stated:

'iTo do not agree Hith him uhcn he says publicly. It Al~Tays

Father, a'Iuays son," "Father and Son together, II "The Son exists
unbe20ttenly uith God," "The eternal begotten," IIUnbegotten-
only-one," "Ueither in thought nor by a single instant is God
before the Son, n "."LlvIaysGod, al.trays Son. n2

On the other hand, tre have the schisms of Arius expr'e ss'Ly stated.

"',Tnat is it that tre say, and think, and have taught, and tcach'i'"J

That the Son is not unbegot.t en, nor a part of the unbegot.tcn
in any uay, nor of any oubatr-atum, but that he tras constituted
by God's uill and counsel, bofor·o times and before ag es , full
divine, unique, unchangeable. Ar.ldbefore he Has begotten or
created or ordained or founded, he tras not. For he trac not
unbegct.ben, '.Ie are pcz-socut.ed because tre say, "The Son has a
"o:::ginninc;, out God is uithout oeginning;1I ne is mad:::out of
things that "ere not • • • since he is neither do ?art of God
nor out of any substratLL'1l.1+

Of cour-se, thore ,Tas the mirl::lle-of-ths-l'oad position iThieh He shal.L

identify as the party of the Homceouai.ans to 171101rt Athnnasius made a

111110(.18rnChrictology J.S mor o lib)ly to "o8gin from bolou ~rith 11io-

torical r ccords , and ask, "nmi can ~JO say t'::1at this man i::; ,Jod. D.S
ChristS.an experience declares?" Hardy,.£2. cit., 3132.

2~'r·~,·:t(""rr~"", Tc.-I-. er of ..:1....

...... .J.L.o.J, _ .. k\,; ~)';u~ ti".. o '<'·'r''''
L
.. ..J~0'-"U~.....
....... ·_.vl,. ·i,,~...h ..... of
_ ,,_ ~T~C"'~,,""';.,
..L..... '-' " "'1"'8' T;.·]_'01";,!1"'T .J.. ....
10.,-. .... --· ..... , .i..l. __ , __ ....__

of Chr'"sti2.n Classics (cd. by Eduard Rochie lIo.rdy, Chrictolof1:7 of th.-; Later

'li'''+-hr.r<'"'·
_-:''''-'''~ v, Ph';1!lrl.-.11·)h· L .... 0r
-"'" j,,· 'T'1--.", r,r"",t""l·n-j.,..L
u,t,.;.~_ i __c.....
Pr-ess-....-oJ,
.I...:.L-J':t. ......1nr:,,)
tj,.,,.rt'
J.d •.• , TIT _
"'''0
J'.
...... ,I" oJ,...t..., -,' ••

("0-1-,..·
J"J l.r..-...;.;. • "full divine" denotes other t{lan essence of the d.eity.)
 I, "
"( )

"conciliatory t:;9sLurosaluting the Eomooousians as broth8rs,,1 since thor8

:Jas 3UC'r1 and tl18 :;icc:xJ.c

a nar ron gap bctu8e:n t110:11 party. Ti.1E:Y
rcc.:o.,sr!izcJ

t'n::rt tho Gon tras 'out of the Fat:wr's oUGia and not I'rora another hy-oos-

tacis.' Howevor, 'id8ni:,it,y,' homoousiQUS, elf subs Lance ~Jas preferred. to

'lU~8nGs::;,' hor,1oc;ousious, of nature. The CappadocLans completed. tho full

r et.urn of orthodoxy to the homocusi.on of tho Son.

In lay opinion he is called. :Jon because he is identical Hith

the FathoJ:' in eS30nce.2 The Logos is full of His Faths:rts
exc.:o11c!lCe differing from I-liLil ne Lbher' in ou:::ianor ;:)ouo1'.3 Tho
Father is God and the Son is God boeause thore is no distinc-
tion in nat.ur'e - tho nature is l..mdifferentiated. Lr

The tormentors of the Cappadoc i.ans woul.d argue that if the Son is

of the same essence as th:; God., and t118 one God is unbegct.t.en , t}leTl tho

;]on must be unbagott en also. But the rstort al.uays Has, "the proper

name of t'ne unoriginat.o is "Fat.her , '" and that of the unor-Lg Inat aLy bozot-

ton is 'Son.,,,5

In other wcrds , Jesus Chri!J (, :·ms Son of God because his essential

nature uas of identical essence "tiith Sod the Father; and the Son tras

oqual.Ly eternal :-rlth the Father, that is: unoriginate, because of this

identical, homoousios, substance, ous La, natur-e, vJit.h God the Fnt:ler;

1Kelly, .2,£. ill., 25J.

2Gregory of ~:azianzus, "The Fourth Theological Cl'ation - ~:Tnich Is
The Second On The Son," .QQ. cit., 190.

33a8i1, liOn Tho Holy' 89iri t ;" .QQ. ill,., 13, 23.

i}Gregory of ::-yssa, "0.1 l:ot Throo Gods," £f2.. cit., 266.

5Gregory of llaz i.anzus , .QQ.. cit.,

 50

therefore, and heroin, ~;8 880 the teaching of the Cappadoca.ans upon "t:1erc

'ras never a tiMo nhon the Son Has not ," because hi8 occont.Lal. natur-e HaG

unori3inatc, "bccauao he (Son) is of him ('?a.ther) t ,,1 "derived fr011 the

Fathers,lIt-" and this is all that the Cappadocd.anc t aught, nhcn declarinG that

t.ho Son is uncrcatcd. "The acco',lnt of the uncrcate and of the incomprchon-

ci'olo is one and the camo in the case of the Father and Son. ,,3

A reflective st.udent ••• beholding the glory of Father and

Son (identical nature) rccognizas no void interval uhcrein his
mind 111ay travel beb,roen Father and Son • • • for there is nothing
inserted bcttreen 'I'hcn; nor beyond the divine nature is there any-
thing • • • able to divide that nature from itcolf • • • neither
• • • make a br-eak in tho mutual harmony of tho divino essence
• • • tho continuit:r of natura bcang novor rent acsundcr by tho
distinction of the hypostases .Il-

'Hypostasis,' according to the Cappadocians, Has a "manifestation"

of the ono ousia, or a 'modo of existenco' of the one substantia.

But God, ;Tno is over all, al.ono has, ono special mark of
His otrn hypostasis, His being Fabhcr , and His derivinG His
hypostasis from no cause; and throu[;h this mark He is pecu-
liarly knotm, 5

As this essence, namely: God, expressed itself as Father, the

first h;-rpostasi§_, so this being expressed itself in a second h;mostasis,

Son, uho is very distinctly a 'mode of existence' of essence. "Tho Son

h8.S the Father as His cause; tho distinguishing property of the Son is

2Basil, "Epistle XXXVIII," QQ. cito, 137.

3Ibid., 138. I~Ibid. t 139. 5Ibid.

 51

that He is gonerated,II1 or "unoriginately begotten," as Gregory of

lJaziam,lls said it; 2 "Though numerically distinct there is no severenco

of essence;IIJ and this nOll-severence of essence, and oneness of ousia,

is all that is taughtl} in our theologians' doctrine of 'eternal generation'

of the Son and the 'unbegottcness of the begotten. ' liThe question vnether

the Son exi::;ted. before He uas begotten is absurd, Hhen eternal generation

is thought of.".5

',-)hendid the Father come into being? There never 'Has a time
trhen He Has not. And the same thing is true of the Son
Ask me again, and again I ..zi.Ll, answer you, ;'Tgentras tho Son
begotten' ',Tnenthe Father ';Tasnot begotten. 0

HDegottcn and not-begotten are not the same thin;;.!!7 Though the

30n's essential nature Has unbegotten, as Son, the second hypostasis of

the essence, he Has begotten, or generated, vlhich Has an impartation of

the essence by the first peculiar manifestation, hypostasis, Father. This

impartation of the divine being i::; the Son of God, Jesus of :-Jazaretl1, God

made man a::;suminghuman flesh.

Ho\! can this generation be passionless? In that it is

incorporeal. For if corporeal generation involves passion,
incorporeal excludes it ••• his generation according to

1Ibid. 2Gregory of Nazianzus, .Q1l. cit., 190.

J3regory of :'Jazianzus, "Third Theological Oration - On the Son, II

Q12.. cit., 161.

4Ibid., 260 rr -. Basil, "Epistle LII," 2Q.. cit., 15.5, 156.

5Gregory of lJazianzu::;, Q12.. cit.,

 52.

the flesh differs from all others (for uher-e amongmen 1 do you
kno» of a virgin mother7) so does he differ also in his sniri-
t.ual, generation; or rather he, vJhosc existence is not the~ same
as ours, differs from us also in his gcneration.2

There is no attempt to explain the generation or begetting of the

Son. "This gener2.tion woul.d have been no great thing, if you could have

compr-ehended it uho have no real knotrl.edge of your otrn generation. ,,3

Em] vIaS he begotten7 "by fluxion, or by putting forth shoots, as plants

put forth their fruits; on the contrary. III.}

The beg'3tting of God must be honored by silence • • • Shall

I tell you ho» it Ilas7 It ~las in a manner knoirn to tho Father
vrho begot, and to the Son tzho Vias bego'cLen, l\.nything more than
.1:.,{l~::;
•• :LS '·dd':;
n~r e.1• ./

I'

":Jut grant that he trno :1.3 bcgot.t.en is God; for he is of God.,,0

Yet I think that tho person wno Hills is distinct I'r'om ti10
act of Hilling, he trho begets from the act of be.;;etting, as
the speaker frO!:1the speech - or 01s'3 all are vory st.upid • • •
But if you say that. he that beget. and that ~Taichis begotten
are not tho sane, tao at.at ement is maccurat,e • • • for >1;.ho
nature of the relation • • • is rythis: t11at t{18 off8nring
~
i8
of (;.[10 same nature ';lith parent. (

:1umol'ically distinct yet one in nature is the theology of Lne

CappadocLans reiterat'3d over awl over and restatcd in e~:)ositions I'r'cm

every advant-age poLnt , T!iS Father is 30n and tho Son iD li'at.llor as chc

1He is hero referring to men btller' chan J0SUS.

..- I'

)'}rc;;ory of l:2.zianzus, .9.1:;.. cit., 165. (;I'oid., 167.

7Ibicl., 1G'+, 1S7.

 5J

impartccl t.he hvpost.:l3is, SO[J,C:lO 'f:lo::lesof cxi.st encc" of th8 same natur-e,

OU::i:l.2... llav.i.ng ect.abl.Lched in tllOil' doctrins this unity of e;o:;sE:ut.ialbc i.ng ,

the eternal exi.st.ence and participation of Lhe Son in the Godh(~a::l

iIaS

ii:-:ed.

'.That among all things that exist L.> unor-i.gi.nat.e? The Godhead
• . All that l3 ab::;olut8 and uncr-i.g Inat o :ITS are to r-eckon
to the account of 11.i::;Gocfneaa.1

But this left unr eckoned ~Jith t.he manhood of the: Son uhich ~iJ..:::: the:

next inG7ito.ble fac8t of Chrlstological dogma to be: cst.abl.Lsned,

For in truth 'he vas in servitude to flo.:;11and to birth and

co the conda t Lonc of our life • • • Haat uas the cause of this
manhood, Hhich for our sake God assumed'( It was surely our
aaLvat.Lon • • • 11il:.ha v i.eir to our liberation • • • trho 1J,';:re
">
in bondage under sin.<-

Ti.1.3salvation of the sinful soul of man wrapped in human nabur e

,·ras demanding a comp'Let,e, full, human nature in God the Son. The

1Gregory of llaz i.anzus , "The Fourth Theological Oration," .QQ. ill.,

178.

2Ibid•
":Tn~yt has not been assumed cannot be rosco,ced; it is VJlwt is
united uith
God that is saved. f!Gregory of IJazianzus, "Epistle CI,!l 7,
OD. Cl(,.; Cf. Gregory of Ilyaaa, Librar'! of Christian Classic.:::, n~'JllY 80:.1
AS3Ullled HumanNature," .2.2. cit., JO!} rr.
Cappadocians Hore compelled. to ri::>o up aGainst1 their highly rccpoctod.

teacher, Apollinarius, uno tras forced to leave the church in 375. Tno

full humarrl.by had. been ackncul.cdg ed already at tho Synod. of Alexandrla,

362; no.r tho Cappadoc Lans brought tho full homoousios of Chrict. Tlith

1:1umanit.y,not only God, into an exalted dogma.

That 1,1[lichbhe Cappadcc i.ana Here able to set up in opposi-

tion to Apollinarius Here only uretchcd forlflUlas full of
contradiction: There are tvTO natures, and yet only one; there
are not tvro Sons, but the Divinity acts in one uay, tho
humanity in another; ',;hrist had human freedom, but acted under
Divino necossity.2

Gregory of lJazianzus taught that Christ, Logos, before joining

himself to man, "was not Han but God, and tho only 80::1 before all ages,

umm.ng'Led '"rith body.,,3 The heavenly, incorporeal bai.ng , "Uho tms perfec!:.

God,fill- joined hirlself to human flesh; "assumed. 11anhood, ••• uho »as

perfect man and also God . . . For He do not sever t.he Han from the

1"The Cappadocj.an fathers, led by Basil, had marshalled the case

against ApollinarianislIl." Kelly, £Q.. cit., 296.
"II':) 1'IaS accused by Gregory of iJazianzus and Gregory of lJyssa of
t eachmg that the flesh of the Lord tras pre-exi.st ent , His body of
clestial subst.ance ••• not of the Virgin, but a portion of divino essence
clothed in matter. '.' Bethune-Baker,.QQ. cit., 2l~5.

2narnack, .QJ2.. cit., 279-280.

3Gregory of lJazianzuc, "Epistle CI," IJicene and Post-1Jiccne ::;'athers,

VII, !~39.

!YIbid.
"If anyone does not. believe t.hat Holy :lary is 110ther of God. he
is severed from t.he Godhead." Ibid.
 55

"For our Lord \'JaS of tlw natures . . . for although the:::o

tHO LerEWexpress but one person, this is not by a unit of nature, 'out

by a union of tho t"10.,,2

This union of tho tHO natures Has a comntxture of the tHO m:l.nds

also. "D:>not let the men dece-ive thcr.lsclve3 that our Lord and God is

vIithO'..lt human mind.,,3

Gregory of llaz'i.anzus teaches that the Logos conies to His

otrn image, and bears flesh for the sake of my flesh, and con-
joines Hilnself Ilith an intelligent soul • • • and in all points,
.sin 87..cepted, becomes mon. Thus there are 'tuo natures con-
cur-rLng in urri, ty' in tho God-man, and He is 't~1Ofold,' 'not
tilO, but one from tlw;' and of course there are,' not tHO
Sons. ' His t'iJO natur-es are distinguishable in thought, and
can be referred to as 'the one' and 'the other' but there are
not t~TOPersons; rather 'they both form 0 unity by their CODl-
mi::1z1ing, God having become man and man God. t l}

The marked weakness of this theory in Gregory of :!azianzu::; uas

its failure to show clearly hO~Jthese tuo nri.ndc and natures functioned

as one. In fact he had to explain certain passages, one as from one

mind and the other as from the second mind, thus denying 'not t~lO, but

one from t,ro. '

A typical example of his ambiguousness is in the treatment of

"of the last day and hour knoueth no man, not even the Son himself, but

the Father.,,5

2GrcC'toryof
b Hazianzus, Librarv of C'."ristian
.. ~ Cla3sic~,~ _0'0. c;c
...:::,_', 13?.~.

3Grcgory of i.Jazianzu::;, "Epistle CI," 12.£. cit.

l~(elly, .Ql2. cit., 279. 5Hark 13:32.

 :-1o'lrcan tri.sdom 'be ignorant of anything - that is, tri.sdom
,rho made the tro.rLds • • • nhat can be mor-e perfect than this
knoul.edge? ••• Everyone must soc that he knous as God, and
knotrs not vas man • • • vre are to under-stand the igne>rance in
the most r evcr-errt sense, by attributing it to manhood, and
not to the Godheacl. 1

other:; have founcl him c:;:plaining "the Son coulcl be said to be

ignorant since He derived His knotrl.edg« from tho Father, ,,2 The gro',rth

of Christ's knovrledge "and other experiences he O)::;_Jlainecl

away clearly

regarding the Logos and not the human mind as their subject."3 He had

2.. systei!l of t.hought , 'commixt;ure,' that he could not make 'conjointly.'

Gregory of i:Tyssahad a little different approach to the humarri ty

of Christ and gave hi;; human experiences a more reali::;tic treatment. }!e

conceived of tho 30dhead entering into ancl controlling the manhood of

C'rlrist, so that Jesu::: coulcl be called, "the Qod-receiving man, the 111811 in
I,
whom He t abernac'Led ,":" Christ, the God-part, t.abornacLcd in Je:::us, the

man-part, and the f'ormer , as \711cnal.Lo.red to dsreLl, in an:l human soul, CO:1-

trolls thc human nature, or ;'Jill. This m:.G not only his Chri::;toloJical

dagxin but also hi3 attack upon the Apollinaric>.ns ;'Jho coul.d not accept the

Ulcory of hlo trno'l,e uil13 c08zistinE;; together. To 0'11' theologian::;, denial

of the h1lY:1:'.l1
fr2:e Hill, or the divine ';Jill, led to cr3ater difficulties

for f.o.ith and explar12.tiol1 of faith t.han asserting t~ro 1r.i.l1::;and accspting

1Gregory of :!o.zianza:::, Libra: ..'! of C:u"istian Cla~;sicst .££. ill.,

187-138.

!tQuotcd fro!;! Kelly, loco cit.

 57

im'..oillty to fully explo.in 1:.!-18 funct.ioning. In fact, inability to

Tl18 ::01] :Jpirit at, Lho Lncarnat.aon first pro,Pareu '::'x"c human
tOU] and soul as a .special r'cceptacle for the divinity, and tho
h:-;2.vcnlySon then 'minglecl :~LlSclff l1it.h thO;il, t~lO divino na-
ture t.her oby becoming 'prosent in t.hen both.' T:lUS' God cane
iaLo human natur-e," but tho nanner of the union is ,,-~3 r:lyst8riou.s
and inexplicable as che union bcbuecn body and soul, in man. In
this 'lrlil"gling' 1 • • • tho llesil ITa::; passive, tho Logos t[W
act.Lvc, elelTlcni:.,2.!lC. a t ransf'ormat i.on of the humannature into
the: divine ~JaS initiaLeJ.2

lIolJeVGl', as in Gregory of :Jazianzus, the c11aracteristic::; of the

GVlO uat.ures remained distinguis:lable lias the f'Lame of a Laiap l;;wing hold

of the material on uhich it feeds.")

Consequently, nhen Christ endured suffering or other human

experiences, it u<.~s not Ilis divirlity 1,lhich endured. them, but
'tho man attached by the union of the divinit:{;' they be'Long ed
, to the human part of Christ.' 1+

Tho Godhead 'ooin2; D:lpassi'o10, relrLaincdunaffected, although "the

~
tvJOtogether form a sinGle ullOle; II.J through its concrete oneness iJith

the huraarri.t.y it indirectly participated in its limitations and ueal:noss.

Can vIC not preserve a right idea of Goeleven when \18 hold
to this connection, by believing that the divine is free fro:rl
all circumspection despite tho l'act :18 is in man? ••• For

1'~'Iinglill[:;' (0 r A_' I< P Q a"IS ,JaS his favorite terril).

Ibid., 299.

2Ibi.:1. ;; Cf. Grt;:gory of llyssa, .QQ. cit., "The Incarnation," 236 fr.

~
....
Gregory of r;yssa, Ibid., 283. !tICelly, .QQ. cit., 299 •

JGrcgory of :'}yssa, Ql2.. cit., 288.

 .5G

if our oun intellectual nature is not enclosed in the limits

of the flesh • • • is free to roam everyuhor-e, ~rhydo ue have
1:.0 say the Godheadis confined • • • uithin tho limits or the
flesh as in ajar. 1

In the same -.rayGregory could recognize in Jesus the neal, human

Hill distinct fror;1"and soiaebimes contrary to"2 his divine uill, "not,

';'lnat I trill, 'out u11at thou 't·Jilt.") Tho divine 'ilill al.srays prevailed,

~rhich SeOD18d.
credited to the fact that Jesus did not ever sin, though his

fl05!1 tras the same as man's fallen flesh; but because his human:Jill

alxrays submitted duo to sinlessness to the divine 'tJill, it overcame that

fallen flesh and destroyed sin. "For though he took our filth upon him-

self, yot he is not himself defiled by the pollution: but in his oun self

he purifies the filth. ,,1+ lind tlthat is to say, tho humanuill, though

I'al.Len, iG able by union uith the divine tri.Ll, to realize its true po:mr.".5

If Gregory al.Lous full play to the human nature, though the divine

ahrays prevailing, during the earthly life of Christ, it changes uith the

resurrection.

Then begins 'thi? transformation of the lO~Jlyinto tho lofty.'

The immaterial essence of the Logos 'transelernents' the mate-
rial body born of the Virgin into the divine, immutable nature;
the flesh :7hich suffered becomes then, as a result of tho union,
identical ';'lith the nature ,'lilich assumed it. Like a drop of
vinegar Hhich falls into the sea and is uhol.Ly absorbed, the

..,
1Ibid., 287, 288. )~-lark14: 36.

4Gregory of ~\l"yssa,Antirrhet 26 Hibrle XIV, 1130, quoted from

Bethune-Baker, .QQ. cit., 252 •

.5Bethunc-Baker, QQ. cit., 252.

 59

humani.ty loses all its proper qualities and is changed into

divinity. 1

SUCI.1
uas the definitive formula of the Cappadoc
Lans" Christology.

These tltheologia..'1s ••• for the most part ••• had little positive

contribution to make to the solution of the Christological problem.1I2

They stated for che Church unequivocally its generally accepted doctrine

and caused the Church's repudiation of those liDO trou'Ld deny their position.

But thore uas still prevalent the thought of a dual, split personalit.y as

revealed by the ensuing j:Jestorian controversy. There was not a "thorOUghly

realistic ackncnl.cdgmcnt. of the humanlife and experiences of tile Incarnate

and of VelOLheo.Log
i.cal, significance of His humansoul."3 Thore are those

uho credit tho later Ant Lochene School as supplying this: I!it deserved

credit for bringing back the historical Jcsus ,":"" But, as far as ue ar o

able to discern, the ecumenical council of Chal.cedon (451).5 made the doc-

trine of tuo natures in one person uithout confusion, change, division,

soparat.Lon, not parted or divided absolute dogmaof orthodox trinitarian-

ism, but the "hotr?" and compz-ehens i.on of tho "pract.Lcal, functioning" of

this tHO naturSQ God-manremains at largo.

1Kelly, QQ. cit., 300. Kelly cites one to Gregory of l!yssa's

Against Eunor:liu:;;as translated by J. P. Eigne's Patrologia Graeca,
l}5, 693, 697.

2Kclly, .QQ. cit., 301. 3~., 302. 4~.

'Tile CappadocLans surely trer-e the forerunners of this cr-eedal,

statement.
 CHAPT3:\.
IV

THEHOLY SPIRIT

In a sense, it can '00 said that the doctrine of the trinity gre,r

out of a search to understand God as he is in his heavens; and the specu-

lations on trinity had t[18ir origin in the study of the person of Jesus

Christ of :lazarcth. No sooner Has the person of Christ. settled than the

person (homoousios or heteroousios) of the :Ioly Spirit had to be t-ackl.cd,

'Trinity' as the specific, or f oeal point, of argument and concern Has

still in the background; it UJ.S to be an inevitable result being fas'hioned

simultaneously Hith tho crystalizing of dogma concerning second and third

persons of tho deity.

In the ::0';1 Testament and pr0-Arian pcriod:::; the doc t r ine of Lhe

Holy Spirit, the relation of the .spirit to the Fat.her aid to t.he :Jon, uas

no t an acut.e d.asuc, And.it '\JJ.5 tho Parac'Let.c of "lJhicll Christ had so

pointedly and forcefully spoken that he VIould send to the Apost.les, after

hi::; ascension, to t cach, gui.dc, and eil1pO~J8r

thE:Lll. Jut Chri.stological

cont.rover-sy shadowed organized Lhcugtrt relative to the Holy Spirit; "its

pocular offices of revelation and canct.Lf'Lcat.Lon arc mor-e often assigr18::l

to the Son.1I1 In uor shap, creeds, and fOr1:lulas the Holy Spirit is associ-

aced ~'Tith Father and Son and given 9lac8 in t.rinitarian specul.at.i.cnc, c,ert

doctrinal fOl'J1Ulation:J dangled; such uas t~1e case at the tine of trw

111083, QQ. cit., 11:-1.

 61

cr chodox cr-eedal, t~lC Holy Spirit uas aasoc i.at ed

:Jii:.}l t1'in1 ty b~t "J ::;1''oi.:1.68

~ro.s lacl:in3.

OrthodoT.'J, up to tilis point, can '03 si:.nply set forth as the faith

that. in Chris t God }l1_'7lself

.. appear ed: Christ as the :'Og03 and 30n of: God.

in 8hrl;,; l:. Clod COliLilun1catc:d. himself to man that he might "orin;;:;man to h1.11-

301f. It uas the logic of tllis cr-eedal, t.hought , :;icor.ln, that brought buo

:IolJ Jl,ic.i..t anl its iS3UC~3 into t;he trinitarian cont rover-sy, If ::Xod. had

2. second r-evcl.at i.on, ~;1Postasis, of himself, another med.iumof commurri.ca.,

tion b03ide:: the Loges made f'Lesh , tl1C came rC:.lS011ir18 tcoul.d af>ply to it

In unor-chodcx circles, if 30d uas unknouabl,o and unknoun, t.lw .spil':U:"

Li.ke t.hc Loge:, :~cJ.::;t be or another eS~Gr1CC than God, a creature. Again,

if Jod really cormurri.cat.es him.::olf by the lio'Ly :ipirit, llis 83S:':11CO, of

t10C33Sity, i,lUst, 1)(; equally p:cc:Jcul:.in the Spirit as in the Logoc, The

as unknotm and unknosrab'l,e OL' reclucing him to nothinG more Lhan finite level.

The majority of thaL:l choce the former alt.ernative, ancl held.

tl1at :10 tras incom~Jreh.9nsible and Lncommuni.cab'l.e,and ti:lc.:r'3for'z,
Lhe Log03, HIlO tras knoun, uas of a different. essence frOl~l Clod,
a creature ~1:'10m He had. sent forth as Ei::; agent and m83senger.1

Thi3 could 1:;a1 to nothing else but i1ent:i.cal logic in relationship to th;::
:Ioly Spirit. It is a stril;:ing f2~ct Lllat the CO'.1ncilof ::1C8:1. si(:lply

af.fi:Clilc.d, "l bcli3v8 in tae IIol:; Spirit," ~iithout ;l:JlilOousio;;.;, vl' any

1~.,
Te _~rl 1!~,O.
 G2

Spirit .101'8 ~0p:J.rato ill nature, ect ranged and ui8collncc t cd, alien frOla

and tIlt-hout pc..rt.icipation. in O~18 another. The one C0r.1J10n opinion of all

1l.rie.nislll of the :bly S!)irit tras th<lt it cllffers in substance and iL is

OJ.t a mini:::;t8l', third in ::;1';181', honor 2.n1 Gub:.:;tance.

'Sitl1cr t~8 Sh'J.rch did not rO.'J.lizc that the per son of tile
Ho Ly Spirit vras virtually included. in the A.dan attack upon
th? Pe:rson of t~18 Son, or SIlOwas not pz'epar'ed to pronounce
d0Cisiv0 judZlllf.:Jnt upon the 30cUlsad of the Spirit, or as it
is !!lOre probable, she :ms nob concerned to anticipate (lOre::;.?,
or define tho Lcrms of Catholic coannum.on more precisely than
+~')"
v"""J' ceca C'~011 r1 c'11"J'!lr1_"""J.
C- .. o.J.J.,. 0:-' 2
\ ..... ""'_·L-\-

A3 ue have pointed out, t.hero i~ no evidence that !trius especially

:J)oculatod about Lhe person of the 'Holy Spirit; hotcever , "it Hac not, u::ltil

tho 1',1'io.11 principle had been m~licitly applied to the Holy Spirit tllat

any advance ,Jas made tribh the d.efinition of the doct r'Lne, ,,3 It ::;08::1::::

lozical to assume that tho Lrians got on this fncot of theology '031'01'0 tho

so Qo:.t.ng
, . Lheir

J.efe:ated doctrine of tho inferiority and subord i.nat.Lon of the SOl1. "Tho

Ari<:mssolicited the fartJ:ler forlilulation of the doctrine • • • exactly

for ttlis roa80n • • • the or-thodox b8Cal.110 thoughtful. tiL;-

I~., d
~I" 1..
~_.
JI?

2:Icnry Barclay ~>lot.e, The Hol'/ 3Dirit in the Ancient Church

(London. l·:ad!illan and Co,.; Ltd., 1912), 165.
 63

There ucro numerous Ario.n and Semi-Arian statements issued bct:roon

325 and 360 upon the tro'rk of tho Ilo'Ly Spirit but not until the second

creed 01 Simirilium (357) uas a formal definitive statoment made. It

denied both tho homoousion and homoiousion of the Son and ctated that the

Spirit is through the Son, nho sent it to instruct, teach and sanctify all

apostlos and believers. The explicit inference being that the Spirit

could not possibly be of the same essence of the Father. "Eunomius called

the Spirit a creature of a creature.,,1 The full opponents of the deity

of the Spirit Hero the Hacedonians, or Pneumatomachians, Spirit-fighters.

It is true that "in the year 381 the 1-1acodoniansnere invited to tho synod,

but only to hear their condemnat.Lon and to be expal.Led, ,,2

But the controversy about tho Spirit arose from the denial
of its deity by the Somi-Arians, trho acknotzl.edged the deity of
the Son under one of the bra formulae, that lIe tras of the same
essence, or of li1<:8essence, as the Fnther.3

Of course, their formula Has tho latter for they maintained that the Holy

Spirit differed in substance from th8 Father and Son and it is but the

mini::;ter,and third in order, honor and substance.

Tho Church once arroused she spared no effort to vindicnte

the uncroated nature of the Spirit of God • • • and in a series
of great tror'ks • • • His co-ecsentiality uith tho Father and
the Son tras established.!}
After 3625 the theologio.ns in the Occident trer-c indefatigable
in iInposing upon the half-~ran Oriental brethren tho Holy Spirit

1Suete,
--
cit.,
0'0. H32. 2TTa:r~n':'!
c... ck
,.J, L""', 0'0. cit., 268.
---- --

,.,.
JCouncil of Alexandria
 as i:lOllloouslosand, in union iIith the CappadocLans thoy
succeeded. 1

If Athana3ius took the lead. in defending tho homoousion

of the Spirit, the task rras completed, cautiously and cir-
cumspectly, by the Cappn.docians.2

3ecause of ,ride variety of opinion in both camps, or-thodoxy and

other.J"ise, "progress touards the full Athanasian positionJ lTas necessarily

zr-adual,
b,L~,-c ...,,4 2asil in 370 "uas ctill carefully avoiding calling the Holy

Spirit God.".5 In fact, Gregory of :LJazianzusdescribes hO~'J

Basil, pr oach-,

ing in J72, studiously abstained from speaking of the Holy Spirit's deity.6

:1e even received great opposition for ascribing glory to the :Ioly Spirit

J.•n
. connect.i
onnec lon II].. un th e Father """
1-' and >oJ.
<:'on In 1-.1],' "1
~ De S!"].·
,J'" r.;t"... C:anct0
~ - 7 ('<7.5)
_;

he takes t11C ultimate step and declares that the Spirit must be accorded

the same glory, honor and uor-shi.p as Father and Son and he must be

"reckoned ,-rith" not "r-eckoned belo'.P them.

Lately 'HhenI uas praying uith the peopl,e, and using the
full doxology to God the Father in both forms, at one time
"Hith the Son together Hith the Holy Ghost," and at another
"through the Son in the Holy Ghost," I tras attacked by some
of those ~DI'8sent on the ground t11at I Has Lnt.roducmg
~, novel
and at thG sane tine mutually contradictory terms. Q

1'r-rarnack,t ·t
1oc, £1:..:.., ?(.()
_00. • \. t;:. C; t
2v-:.lly .Q.E.. __:;;__.,
.,
2.eP,
....,..Iv •

3Uicene Creed, roally.

/.
-"Kolly, .Q.E.. cit., 2 6 O.

)Philip Schaff, :Iistor,v of the Shristian Church, netr and revised,

York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1836), III, 66!~.

6Gregory of Eazianz<1s, I!~pistlo LVIII, II Uicenc and Post-:Jiccne

:i'~t'11('>~'~
.... <.:... _1.. tJt
0·0
~. c.;t
_.J._., 4r;_;t:
-' •
73a8il, "On the Spirit," lIiccno ~md Post-l!ic:::nc:::;'athcrs, .2.2. cit.,
2-50.
 They trou'Ld sooner cut out their Longucs t:1an utter this
phraco (viz. Glory to Lho :Ioly Ghost). They 3<;,Y the glory
is to 08 c;iv,:::nto God in tho l!oly Spirit, not to the Holy
"D'~'r"';t
"";1:..L.- - • 1

stC1.r:dinQ;
upon John 15: 26 and t:1C ba;!tisr.l8.l for:nula and th8

apostolic ~)oncdiction and traditional trinitarian doxo'Log i.os the

C:J.pp:J.cJ.oci.o.ns
pat the Holy Spirit on an cqu:llity :rith the F.o.ther and Son

re:quirinc a divino tri-personality restinz upon a unity of cs sencc, Tl18

:livino triad could tolerato in itself no insqualit;y 0:: caaence , no mi::-

nr,3uec1.for tho consL1.ostantialj_ty of th0 'loly S1_)irit, :111 ~rrj_tinz a trcQti.:;c

on De S~)iritu Sancto. Th e Clas::;ical definitive forr:lul,?, as cenerally

?cln1o';·Tledgcd,is found in B2.8il' s ,ror;q "the other Cappadoc i.ans rorJCo.t .:-m:l

cd:.:::xd 'Ca:;il' s teaching, lI2 the homoous.l.on of the Spirit. Theil' 8[~tire:

dO;;~'El of the IIoly Spirit's deity, t.hus belonging to the Godhead as an

hvnostasis, is based upon; viz., the Spirit pz-occcdc from tho Father, D.S

Lun' and' pl'ocueds' 01 llC;C8S8ity is of tLe: G2:18, es.sontial, e0~cmce, ousia,

of th':":,,!!lich ~J8;;8t.:; and .ll'O!l1 Hilieh it proceeds, thol'ofore consubst.ant La'L

Thie is :rhat ';II) moan trhcn HE: say Father and ':;on emu Holy
Gno.:::t. TJ:18Father' is the uege:tter and the: cDlitt0rj •••
Tho Son is begot.t.en , and t;08 Holy Ghost is t?18 CDlissioll
• • • ',-T[Wl1 did the ?ather COiI18 into being? There novcr ~Jas

1Ibid.
 ,:;. t.L1C; ~h(m he: ua::; not., lmd. trw came thing ic true; ofche Son
and t.ho Holy Ghosc.1

A problolll uhich the Cappadoc Lans had to I'aco ',ras tho Ar i.an net cLi.ng

tllat t:18 honoous Lan of trlc; Spirit Lnvo'Lvedt.ho Father having t,w Sons.

So enoy had. to difforentiat(_; ':JUbOOIl of origin of the Son and

that of the Spirit. ".All tl12.t :::a.::;i1can Day on the subject. is Lhat the

'spirit iGGues from God, not by Hay of generation, O'.1t as tIle broath of

his lilouth; and hi::; manner of comi.ng to be rODlaiu::.;

ineffable. H2

• • • ile is moreover caid to be "of God;" not Lndoed in tho

sense in 'lhich "all things are of God," but in tho sense of
proceeding out of God, not by generation, like the Son, out as
2re2.ti1 of Hie mouth. But in no r.my is the "mouth" a lilC:lilb8r,
nor the 3pirit breath that i:::;discolved; but the Hord. "moubh"
is used so far as it can bo appropriate to God, and the Spirit
is a Sulx;-eancohaving life, gift.od Hith supr-eme poner of sancti-
fication. TilUS the cLose relation is made plain, uhile the mode
of tho ineffable exi.st.cnce is safo3uard.8d.3

Thtl::;they ar-gued for the oneness of ousia but distinction of hyoostasos.

Perhaps Gregor.! of :1azianzus reasons on "hotr'' a little better. Sp eak'i.ng

of the Son and. 'spirit ;:;imultaneously:

IIo,;!then are they not alike unor-i.g inat e , if -el1eyar e

co=et ernal.? Because t.hey are f.ro:n him, t.hough not after
nara, :;'01' that 1,;hich is unoriginato is et0rnal, but that
tJhich Ls eternal is not noccasar-i.Ly unor-i.g i.nat e 80 long
as it lilay be referred to the ?ather as its origin. There-
fore in respect of cause they are not. unoriginato, but it
is evident that the cause is not necessarily prior to its
effects for the sun is not prior to its light.4

1Gregory of Naz Lansus , UTiliI'd Theological Oration, II Library of

eh!'; 3tian Classics, .QQ. ,ill., 160.

2Kelly, QQ. cit., 262. JBasil, QQ.. cit., !~6, 29.

!~Gregory of Hazianzus, .QQ. cit., 162.

 ~!O:7those arc tho n~;a98 of the Golhoad., but t1:10proper
1~a;:l0of' tho ul1ori[;ino.t.o is "Fabhcr ;" and thn.t of the unorigi-
!latoly bOGottr;::l1i::: "Son," and. thnt of tho unbogottonly pro-
CIJI)'.t1.ni~or li01llfS f'al'th 10 th') ":101J C'rho[;t.,,1
,.
It' ono :1,").:; fro'li the b::;~il1nin2, tho three ~iOrS! ::;0 too. .
If you thl'O\l UOHIi. ono • • • you do no t 00 t up the othor t~lO.2

So ylith c?-.c Spirlt, as Hlth tho Son, tho Oappadoca.ans retained.

ou:::i:1 for bho common ccconcc, one nature, and used hypo::;t::tsi::: to express

tho dlfferenco, d:i.frercnti~. Their definitiull of the proper hynosta8is

of tho Spirit "is a vertlable circlo."J

If it be asked Hho.t is the differentia of the Spirit, the

ansvcr is 'Procession.' If it bo further asked. uhat is Procession,
the answer i:;:;'difference. "Its most peculiar characteristic
is that it is neither of those things i1hich vre contemplate in
tho Father and in the Son respectively.' ':']hatthen is Pro-
cession 7 Do you tell me lJhat is the Unbegotteness of the
Father, and I ~Jill explain to you the physiology of the genera-
tion of the Son and the Procession of the' Spirit • •• The
roal reason uhy Procession HaS made the differentia of the
Spirit 'tJ'as
that the Hord Has found in Scripture.!}

Thus, as far as ue are able to discern in our theologians' Hrit-

ings, they taught the on8 ousia, in and of the Spirit, thus identical to

the Son and Father but 0. distinct manifestation, hypostasiS, from Father

and Son, and not tim Sons from, nor of the Father. Houever , another jibe

in an attempt to destroy the necessary 'perfectness' of each hvoostases,

1'}regory of lJazianzu8, "Fourth Theological Oration," .QQ. cit., 190.

2Gregory of lTazianzus, "Fifth Theological Oration - On the Spirit,"

.QQ. .£ii., 195.
3Rees, QQ. cit., 154.

II-Ibid.;Hr. Rees is quoting Gregory of lJyssa and Gregory of

l1azianzus, respectively, Adversus Eunomius 1.22 and Oration XXXI, 8.
and i£, accomp'La.shed troul.d d0stroy the trinity, ~r;}s: "says my opponerrt,

that there springs fro:nthe same source one ,:rhois Son and one trho is not

2. Son • trha't • is th9re Lack i.ng to the Spirit trhi.chpr-event-shis

beins Son for if there llOre not something lacking he srou.l.d be a Son. 1

Is the 3piri t God? :·:ostcertainly. ~'Jollthen is he consub-

stantial? Yes, If ho is God ••• ~1e assert there is nothing
lacking - for God has no deficiency. Eut the difference of
manifestation • • ° or rather ° • • their mutual relntions one
to another has caused the difference in their names, For in-
deed it is not some deficiency in thG Son uhich prevents hi.:;
being Father (for 30nship is not deficiency) and yet he is not
Father • ~ • this is not d'...10
to deficiency or subjection of
essence; but tho very fact of being unbogotten or begotten,
or proceeding has given the nalileof Father to the first, Son
to tho second, and to the third, him of ullom ue arc speaking,
the Holy Ghost, that tho distinction of the three persons
:nay be preserved in one nature and dignity of Godhcad.2

It tras Gro,3ory of nyssa, hcncvcr , ';lhoprovided uha.t tras to prove

the acbua'l,definitive st.at.ement., He teaches that the .spirit

is out of God and is of Christ; He proceeds out of

the Father and receives from the Son ••• the Father being
tho cause • • • t1JO caused • • • one of them is directly pro-
duced by the Father through an intermediary o_. . the Father
is in no :ray prejudi£cd by the fact that He L~pirig derives
His being from Him L'oo£7 through the Son • • • It is clearly
Gro,3ory's teachint; that the Son acts as an agent, no doubt
in subordination) to the Father wno is the fountain head of
the Trinity, in the production of the Spirit.l}

1Crcgory of llazd.anzus , .QQ.. cit., 199.

:3As stated by the Cappadocians real subordination is Lackmg for

the settling of their entire dogma is in the homoousion of the Spirit and
Son uith the Father.

L1celly, .QQ... cit., 262, 263.

 Tho Cappadocians gave tho third memborof tho trinity, the Holy

Spirit, the definite placo and character ,,;·rhichhe notr possesses in

Eastern orthodoxy as being a hyPostasis in the Godhead consubstantial Hith

the Father and proceeding from the Father through the Son.

From.the days of Tertullian the typical formula had been

'From the Father through the Son.' 'Proceeding from the Father
is the most primitive filioquc clause,' Eastern orthodoxy; hotr-
ever, in the fourth cGntury the implication came 'the Son con-
jointly 1rith the Father tras actually productive of the Holy
Spirit. The East has remained fiercely and fanatically to this
form. 1

:Jo doubt, as uith 'unoriginatc' and 'unbegottcn,' or 'only-begotten'

and. 'generation,' there has been an over emphasis and oy.aggerated concern

for 'proceeding' and tho 'prepositional relation' betucel1 the persons of

the trinity.

But the Cappadocians vrere all profoundly convinced that the

time Has ripe to vindicate, 'trith Hhatever necessary reserve of
language the position of the Spirit in the unitJ~ of the divino
essence. They ~vere less conscious than Athanasius of the
religious significance of the IIo~o-ousios, and more moved by
the metaphysical motive to construct an intellectual scheme of
deity that uou~d correspond to tho baptismal formula and tho
Rule of Faith.

Tile Council of Constantinople (3$1) c::;tablished, ";·rnich proceedeth

f rom the Father," and did ::;0 upon the passages, II Corinthians 3: 17,

1J. !!. D. Kelly , Early Christian Creeds (2nd. ed, London:

Longmans , :Jrcen and Co., 1952), :353.
The ~'~8::;t8rnthoolo2Y ~ras: "T:Jhichprococdoth from the :?ather and
the Son," ~rhich ~Tith the eastern st2.t0:'1Cnt furnished th8 battle zround
no').r17 S878n centuries later r-esu'l, ting in the separation of eastern fro;:;:
':T8ste:rn Ch:ristcn::.lo::n.
~!
·t
£_., 1 :J-./.
r::P
 70

John 6:63 and John 15:26. Thr:y st and auth::>ritativc to this vcry day, as

the Council of Chal.codon (t~51) fixed. tD.~ tvlO natures in the Son, for

ort.lwdoxy.

Tho result hees boen abstract doctrinoD, constructed rather

mechanically by putting together .:;omcpassage.:> of Scripture
either in a too-literal fa3hion or in a too-scientific and
theoretical manner. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit h:1.8.suf-
I'er-ed frO,Tlsuch an approach, espec i.nl.Ly since it. was Lncl.uded
in the early creedal f'ormul.at.Ions mor-e for formal r-easons than
for experimental ones. So 1Je find. this ki.nd of treatment
extending from 13:1.8i1of Caesarea tIith hi::; exaggerated. concern
t.he prepositional relation among the persons of the Trinity,
to II. 13. S"rete (The Holy Soirit in thE:;:Je~v Test::l.l11ent)Hith
hi::; d.et2.iled exegesis of innumerable passages but uith no
resulting unified. viml.1

I Come , 2£. cit., 119.

 C]{l.PTS2. V

THEDOCTRInE
OF THETRIfJITI

I:ot the trinity but first the deity of Christ and the Holy

Spirit secondly ,Jere concerns in definitive t.heoloGYof the early Church.

"The basic attacks on Christian dogma are implicitly or explicitly on tho

Christological Lovcl.," 1 The :1icean formula is generally considered the

basic trinitarian ::;tatement of the church. Jut that is misle::tding

because "the decision of 1,Jicea is a christological one. ,,2 It may be

affirmed, houever , that the statement of lJicea provided tho first basic

contribution tOHard developing definitive trinitarian dogma, T]:18ro::;b.te_

merrt and enlargement of tho or-thodox I'ormul.a at Constantinople (331),

a'Lbhough it added the deit.y of the "Ioly Spirit to the f'ul.L deity of tho

':;on, "m'.s a christ.ological ct at.onent., "-'"

,
Althotl[;h the council of Concban-,

of the .s;;irit uas fo!'[nally endor-sed, Uith a definitive formula tror'ked out

on the Son and one on the Spirit, one fOi.1

th::; trinit;:r tras inescapable.

And the final discussion of trinita:dan c.bctrine, of nccecci.ty, [[lust have

mmited the dcve'Lopment,of the idea of tho Spirit.. "Trinitarian symbo'Lc

1P8.ul Tillich, S,ysteinatic Thoolog:.::. Exi.stonc2 8.n1 t'n8 Christ

(2nd. cd, : ChicaGo: Tho Univorsi ty of Cl1icazo Pres::;., 1958), II, 1Jj.

2Ib~ '1
~., 1"2
"t'_. JIbitl.

71
 '??
I ,~

Th'3 theolocic;}l sLo.to!i1'?nt c:t Const.arrt'i.nop'l,e UO.8 tho.t of the

that of Athan:tsi'.'_s."2 That '\Thich uas differo::1t ';JaS the anGlo of a::?proac:l

ouc i.a, Issuinz froD! th'3 hO::180'-13i::m::;' tr<lclition, it is ::;00:'lin2:1;; nrrtur-aI

T' ::l8,
.

:In thr::ir thir:1:ing, incvit2.bly 1 cd tho:"', to th0 one; undividcc~o1l8L, of tho

Son and Spirit.

dogma 18a<.iing to or-thodoxy, one being 3astcml, tilC 0thcr'}osl:.e:cn. The

Cappadoc i.ans" triYlitctrian f'ornul.a is one ousi.:<. in thrr.)o h·rDost.~:.:»D, Gui:.

1."1."C;OSt2.S23 nh l.ch c0unuc:d 1,ain:[u11y 1i1:o 1:.:11'8"" OU.3io., or tlu'oe divino

in order to stay- clear of .:::0.0

e111.::ni::;,11.

:'voidini:.: the chur.;e of Sa'oolliani3:il 'oJ eDlpilatical1y declaring

tin'eo J.i.::;tirJ.ct hypo st.ases ti1Cy fell shoi-t , in ell8 eyes of many, of uphold-

Tims t:n8./ ~l8ro left open to tIle charge of 'o8in;;

polyLheistic and suffered the taint of Arianism. It is astonishlng the

1Tillich, se- cit., llf':;. ~.

O{' .',t
ll_., 2[-:>
u_;, 2;/1
V'i'.
 73

pl',..dll.clIl:~ :J.ppo.l'sntly c'Lcar for, ..ul.as ;" 1 Thlc crcat.Ion of firm tcr;uinology

alJ.J. L;lO J.oflui l:.ive fOl:';/lll.ln trao poc.:;lblo because of the conversion of tho

i.).'C::~l:. hoJ.j uf humcoll.:;;i.an:; bo Lhe hOll10011.sian position, fir.:; t. the Son awl

t:.:E.iUof l:.~~o:Jpirll:.. :;0 shull tl'Y n;'/\I to set forth tho syc t.em of thought

lhi.:; fi:clIl t:.ol'miuology dccLar'od in 0. chr ono'Logy formod from our O1m ana'Ly-,

Tho os:::;onco of their doctrine is that tho supremo beinG is ono

uiviUG Qu::;io existinG in a Godhead simultanooucly in throe moles of

o:d .abcucc, 7athor, .s01l and Spirit, the throe hyoosto.soc., and that one or

.111 of tho lottor equal::; Lho ono divino ousin., God.

3vo:t:·yt:.hiH~ that tho Fatlicr is i::; soon in bho .son, and overy-
thin;,.; th::. t:. the Son is bolollL,;S to the Fabhcr-, The Son in :Ii:J
(;nth'o t.y o.bic1o::;in tho Fabhcr , and in rcburn possesses tho
Fa~h()l' in ont.irc:t,), in lIilllCdf. Thua the hyposbasos of tho Son
iz, co to speak, tho forlil and prosont.at.Lon by Hhich the Father
i:.; kncun, and ~ho F<lt.hor'::; hypoabases is recognized in tho form
of. ~ho ~on.2

llcr o uo have the docbr'Lno of the co-Lnhercnce of t.ho divine

pcrconc , or ac l'it uas Laber cal.Led 'porichorcsi3.'!! 3 In other uords ,

the OnO oucl.a can be :::.:J.id.to exist undivid.ed in dlviclod per-sons, "one

in di".J'or::d.l:,y. J.ivor:;c in unity, Hhel'oiu is a mo.rvcl"!{- Gregory of IJysso

1Uarnack, .2.l2.. cit., 260.

23a8il, "Epistle XXXVIII," .2.l2.. cit., 11}1. 3K811y, 100. cit.

I'
'GroGory of IJazianzus, "On God, '.' Library of :::hristian Classics,
.2.l2.. cit., 136.
 7',-r

~rr18n :J(" see them together He can count them. Yet the
nature is one, united. in itself, a unit completely indi-
visible, trhi.ch is nei.thoi- increased by addition nor diruished
by subt ract.Lon, being and. refaaining ecscntially one, insepa-
rable even \illen appearing in plurality, continuous and. entire
and. not divided by the individuals uho share it.1

:Jez.t, one must comprehendtheir meaning in tho use of the word

"Codhcad.." This undivided ousia, uh.i.ch is the nature of deity, is in

three per-cons, uhich is the Godhead, i1!lich does not refer ever to God's

nature in unity nor diversity.

Host people think that the "..Jord"Godhead" refer;_; to God's

nature in a special r;Jay• • • His nature cannot be named and.
is in8ffable • • • the divine nature • • • is not siGnified
by any of the~e terms. Rather is same attribute dcc.Lared by
uhat i.s .said.2

To our theologians if 'Godhead' referred to the divino nature

that uoul.d force them to speak of 'gods' and. forbid. t God.,:3 ":Jo have

fairly Hell proved. ••• that the Hord 'Godhead' does not refer to a

nature but to an operation. Ill} If the three hypostases, Father, Son and

Spirit, the Godhead, referred to the divine oucia, then there Hould of

necescity "08 three gods. But if the divine ousia is thought of aoS exprc3s-

ing itsolf in the att:cibutes, or operat.Iona, of Fati18l', COll and. Spirit.,

one God is firmly cst.abl.Lshed, "From tilis it is clear that tho divino

nature is not signified by any of these (,01'£118. Ratllcr is SOL:lC 8.ttribute

declared by Hhat is said.1I5 :101'8in thoir moanin(!;given to Godhoad,

viz. the t.hree rwoostases.

1Gregory of ~Jyssa, lIOn :Jot Three Gods," .QQ. cit., 258. 259.

_j~.,
')

260.
h.'{oostases.
 75

To cxpl.ai.n hotr the one substance can be sim.ultaneously present

in t1ll'OOpersons, manifestntions, divided yet '..l.ndividcd, they appeal to

tho o.nalogy of a universal and its pnrticulars. "In each of these terms

~10 find a par-t.Lcu'l.ar ideo. \lhich by thought and expression ~TC rightfully

.:1.ttributo to the divine nature, but 1<l11ich

does not express uhat that

nature ossentially is.,,1 !:I ::;ho.ll date that ousia has the same relation

to hypostases .:1.Stho commonhas to the particular. ,,2 GrGgory of :Tyssa

illustrate::; in tho folloHing manner:

Thoro arc many trho have shared in the same nature--disciples,

apostles, martyrs • • • but tho "man" in them all is one •••
Luke is a man, as is Stephen. But that does not mean that if
anyone is a man he is therefore Luke or Stephen • • '".> Yet the
nature is ono ••• appearing in plurality ••••• ~

:Je say of gold, uhcn it is inado into smal.L coins that it is

one and that it i::; spoken of as such • • • ~']hilo 17e speak of
many coins • • • He find. no multiplication of nature of gold by
reason of the number of ::;tarters.lf

"In tho so.me mo.nncr, in the matter in question, the term ousia

i::; co:-nmon,.. • • uhilo h-[posta:Jos is contemplated in tho special property

of !i'o.therhooQ, Sonship or power to so.nctify. ,,5 So, according to Basi.L

the p.:lrticularizing charactoristics of the universal 0.1'0 "paternity,"

"scnslri.p, II and "sanctifying potzer ," Also, the particulars arc defined

0.::; 'ingcneratcncss,' 'gcncro.tonoss,' and. 'procession,' 'unbcgotten,'

'beGotten' o.nd. 'omission' according to the theological jarGon of the

other Cappad.ocians.

2Dasi1, "Epistle CCXIV," Q12.. cit., 25'}.

 ..,1'
IV

:rltllc.c-CO til8
110rUC ou:.:;ia and llYlJOstaSQ:; had corcuonl.y be an
uce1 2.~ t~n8 ':;api)2;.ucl!1D..lis
:::lll',:;r(j"::"tilC
• :J.i3tirl~1..li0[lCd "L:1C.c:
r'},-,"'''''y 1 '''-l.·1 .,t'-
••.
L ..._.._;./_·.
1)-ll'+'~c;"1'1-"Y
-t.".J_ \...O,..LJ..
.:..,I(_1.u
':-C:"'l'~-'
.....
u '-f' "'O,:·.i-"r'''~.!. '\--,..
c;J,"""Ioo,J J..J~~O--'.·.1'·'u-
I..IV '""" .... v ... ~~._.,1..1 ....,;u~..::.J'>J..;

J.LL:1. cuc i a, 2 Ous.i.a ~J::;.G tl\catecl, 110"18vc.:r. :ca:col:r equal, to

ll.Y'i.)o.:;!:.ace:. 32.::;11 found it po::;:::;iblc to speak of t.i13 t:i.'illity
as Lln'ee ousLa, but O~1 intcrn::.l charactcridics or relatione
__ v. _ +,11'1"
l·::1'!-·~'l:"'r~ v. ""'.. 0 n ri~'''''-'<..l!
.~~- ohy SJ. u~. J
. cal

'.Thai;.the CappadocLans really meant and .finally clearly

said 'J2.:::; th;:;i;.thcl-llrce: hypostases 8112.1'c1 an id::l1tity of
eSS;:;l1C8. TilOl'8 1:81'0 not thr(:8 gods :lith commondivinity,
bu .c OL18 GO'd' ~jl.·cn·.;.nr88
" I' d ,.,.
1:10< CS of nz.s oea.ng ,
I', I

tl18 OLl2llCCS and uhe:roin t.h0 ::'rinity Li.cs, c,cy:.:rt..J.llizcdth3 theology of

Tho tcrr:l hoaooucacn utu: adopted t.o e::cc.l·ipatc. • :D:J.picc.::r:

The: con junctd.on of bho 30n ',JithLho Fathor is uithout ti:.:lC and
uitllOut intern'J.l • •• The ]oly Spirit, too, ic iltlC,100::"c)i ;;i~h
Lllc Fat.118J.~ atL:l 3011. • T11iD -C01"11 CO~CJ."'8C·~:;tllS er;COl~ of
Sa:JGllius for it l'eUOV8S the idoa, of tho identity 0: thE:
lv)osc.a;:;es, 2..n.dintroduce;:; in po:cfcctio11 tho id:::a of P8r,:;0~1;:';
• T:w Hord £lOS the::cc:ore an ez:ce11snt ar!d or~hodo:: usc,
c.lc.rirli.ng as it, dOGS OOtIl tile pr'OI) 81" c11arac-ccl" of ~::o 11ypo:;tr.l.SCS
2,.ad :JcGcin._; .forth tho invaribility of the natura.)

Thc onen8S3, a;_;~IOll as -(:no foundat:Lor., of orthodo): trinitar-

J.:J.l1J.sm lie8 in hor:looL18ioQs, identity of ::mosc.ar:,coj t:1("; trinit.y ::;prings,

" .
C11:.LS; t.l1Ctrinity lies in trw tlu'oc hypOStOS83;

2Richard.30n, QQ.. ill., 6.5.

'1
,I. •• J. 1:011y,

!!'SpisUe CII," QQ. cit., 155, 15C.

 77

And trhen ~Je are taught that the Son is of the substance of
the Father, begotten, not made, let us not fall into the
material sense of the relations. For the substance was not
separated from the Father and best.otredupon the Son, neither
did the sUbstance engender by fluxion, nor yet by shooting
forth as plants their fF<.lits. The mode of the divine beget-
thought.1
ting is ineffable and inconceivable by hu...'1lan

In other trords, the "hOl-17"cannot be articulated. It is just a

plain fact of the Holy Scriptures and human experience that God has

expressed himself as Father, uho begot the Son, and sent forth the Holy

Spirit through the Son. "He must not ••• contaminate our intelligence

vIi th corporeal senses. ,,2

It is merely the statement of a necessary paradox that the

one God exists as both beyond and related inaccessible and
encountered. the difficulty ••• ~arises ••• from try-
ing to derive one mode from the other.J

.\11d,of course, the Cappadocians ran squarely into this difficulty.

For upon stating that the Son vIas derived from the Father and the Holy

Spirit from him also inevitably came the concept of a second ousia and then

the third ousia. But they wou'Ld have nothing to do 'tuth this reasoning

stating dogmatically that three distinct subsistances of the one ousia

did not malce another substance any more than Peter, James and John make

another, though three, than 'man.' "Those who accept three hyPostases

think themselves compelled to confess an equal number of SUbstances. I

have therefore, that you may not fall into a similar error, vlritten you, ,,4

Basil wrote to his brother.

3Richardson, loco cit.

l}Basil, "Epistle XXXVIII," .QQ. cit., 137.

 78

To meot til: second pr'ob'Lc,nscellll,lint;from 'derived' that Son and

3piri·t., oven if of tli;;: S'-l.WO subsbance , had to be lees than the Fc:th8r

:2;).311 said, "Pct.cr 18 no :-:101'0 lnor lcs§.7 r:19.11 than .Andre:]or John or

ISy w.ain-CaininGany of tho three persons to be inferior to the

other, 110 overturn the who'Lo trinity. ,,2 l!T::verythin2 that tho Father is

is seen in the ;:)0:1and ev-cryt.hin~ that Son is belongs to the Father

.. • nJ But this doctrine of co-anhercnc e pr'ecLudes in any degree

tho t:1roe divine persons, distinct and ind.ividual. So illlcro do He go

:Icnce, as tho ~Jord embraces all that are included under the
same n8.1:18
, thero is need of some mark of distinction by uhich
tro nay recognize not nan in general but Peter or John. There
0.1'0 other nouns :lhich stand for a particular object and denote
not the oth~r nature but a separate thing ha7ing nothing in
common, so far D.S indivicluJ.lity goes, :lith others of the same
kind, like Paul or Tilne>thy.!.}

The Cappadocinns noul.d have not.hi.ng bo do '\lith God bGinz three

persons (-or03000n) and ·chose persons ooing n8roly "f'acea, II "masks, II 0:::'

"roles, II as 3a'oellius bolievcd. "If then you t ranarer to theology tho

distinction you have in human affair,::; bet-;.reensubstance and DyPosi:.ascs

you "Jill not go H1'Ong.1I5

But hen could our theologians insist on this cc-anhei-enco,

abao'Lut e equality, one essence, "Evol'ything that tho Father is is seen

2Gregory of ::azianzLls, "On tne Holy Spirit," 2.2.. cit., 313 ff.

J3a3i1, QQ. cit., 141. _.

l}Ibid

.5I'oid. Of course, this advice \'JaS adverse to IIHe mist net cont.anu-
nat e our:rnIelligencc "lith corporeal senses," as ue satr earlier ;!llen
discouraging att8~llpts to articulate and compr-ehend 'be.:;etting. t
 79

in the :on," et c, , and at t:10 saue timo not strerve from the dogmatics

of "a separate thing :1D.vingnothing in commonso far as individuality

goes uith other::; of the SaD18 kind," for they even insisted that the same,

and all, acti-.;ity and operations H'3re commonto the three. A urri.ty of

substance of nocescity resultcd in a unity, oneneS3, of Hill, thougnt,

operat.ion or activity, too. Their theory is that the unity of the oU8ia,

or Godhe ad , folloHs from the unity of divine action disclosed in rovel,a-

tion.

For, 'if trc obscrve ," ~Jrites GreGory of lJyssa, a single

activity of Father, Son and HoLy Spirit, in no respect dif-
ferent in the case of any, ve are obliged to infer unity of
nature • • • fr'o~ilthe identity of activity. ,,1

Those ,;-![WSO operations arc identical have a single SUbstance.

~'JeS2..~1 the explanation of the single substance of the three persons of

the trinity, a:11 absolute equality, is the illustration of Peter, James

and John and common subct.ancc, "man." The Cappadccd.ans" articulation

of the onenOS8 of act.ivity, or operation, is based upon Scripture.;; such

as: "Lot us make r:1Cl.!1 in our imago;,,2 "'iinatsoevsr' the Father docs, the
,..,
Son does lil~c,;ri3',).I!.J

:Je do not Learn tho.t the Father docs somebhang on his

otrn , in trh l.ch tho Son does not co-oocrat.e, Or again that
the Son ac t s on Ili::; otrn ~7ithout the" Spirit. l~

~1emus t avo.i.d thin:cing that this t akes ony absolute supremacy

array from the ?at.her. "Rat.h ar does every operation trhi.ch cxt endc fr01:l

1r:clly, ; .L
30.1'17 Christi~:m D:)ctrines. 00. -=.!:...
C
...:-
, 266.

262.
God to cre:::>.ti::lr.2':-3. is de::::i;:rn::.tcdc.ccO::,·elin3
to our dif.fc::,·in;:; conceptions

It is our concludon that the

It is :~r ·L~li:-.; r8;~.S8n.t11:?t the ~·rordof t:18 operation is

root eli vi.'J::r~. CL.':1or.:_::
t:·l') },)orsons Lnvo'lvad, For the action of
each in ~nJ :-ntte.t' 1.:.; not sSf.i::.r:.lto and inuivic.ualizd.. But
~!!11<':tt CCCU,1"0, TJ[letl18l" in ~"C;r8r8rlce to Qed's prov Ldence for
us cr to tho govcrmaonb and constitution of the umvcr-se,
occur's t,11rou.gll tac t:'rll"CO Por~o115, and is not three separate
trlil.~bS • •• 3ut t.ll0UJll hie t ako for ~r3.ateJ that trlE:rC ax's
Lh r ae POL'::G!l[; ctlHl 11:1..1108, :18 do llot ilaagil1C: that till'OC dif-
i'el'c:nc liv-.;.;; ':':~l'0 cil\1tltcd :'lS--0nc I'ron each of Lhen, l1alhcr
it:. i~ ell·:; 52'.1....3 life ur.lich is p:::'oQllccdby the Father, prepared
by t:1C:: .3J{~, ~lt~cl dO)C:ild::; on l:.:-18 \Jill of the Holy Spirit.
T1:1U:,,; t~lc; ;lCJly T~clrilt,;:r bl~.i:r16S to effect Gver:l opcrat.i.on i11 a
cl!;li12 .s: ~JCJ.j. J

T:18I'3 i::; HO act.ivity brough t to compl.et Lon, be :j.t "s83in6t"

"ju:l6i~.lg,:I "s[;.vin;;t" irdividually, ~eparat8ly nor "apar-t I'r om joint

supo.rva s i.on, II!} Tl1US, as tllO threo hyoos t.ases cannot '08 vLeued nU:lleri-

cally UeCu.UC8 (If !'iclont.it;:r of es scnc o;" the action of the F2.thcr, that

of tile Son awl Lh:lt of the Spirit cannot '00 vi.etred as throe actions

because of joit!'!;. cud sLmlt.::.noously oper at.Lon of the three persons in

every act Lon begun and cOJllpleted. Horo and heroin only cO~:18S clear'

tho "rj_ean~ngof trw Cappadocians' phras6t u::verything that the Father is

is seen in the: Sontt: etc. 3ut primarily, it is in this oneness of being,

(though tno uno::::;ottonnoss t oogOt.tClllJ.CSS, and proceeding being forever

 31

inarticulate) -Chat tho :.osolutE:HOSSof the three Porsons accomplishing

evoryt.:'ling jol:ltl;;r l'OGts. In this manner lie see the ii'ather on the cross,

tho Son as Creator, and tho Holy Spirit also tl1cre and doing.

Jut 30d uho :J..8 0701' all is the Savior of all, :1hilo the S~n
brings sal.vat.Lon to ef'f'ec t by tho grace of the Spirit. Yet on
this account, Scripture docs not call them three .saviors, although
sal.vat con is rcccgru.acd to cone from the holy Trinity. '.. 30d
is ono, because no dist.inction of nature or of operation is to
be observed in the Godhead ••• it awaits of no plural siGni-
ficance.1

~Jo have it is the Father only ~lho is "unbegott en, II

It is the ':on only who i.::; "begot t on, II It is the Spirit only .ino

"proceeds. II Though their nature is identical and all functioning is in

oneness, tnoGE:distinctions cannot be taken from each, nor given to the

ot.her-, It. tras only the "on'Iy begotten" on the cross, though ue see an

identical aubscanc e to the Father and. Spirit there and all three uilling

and carrying out the action. It ,las only the 'proceeding one' decendang

upon the church at. ?enteco::.;t, though he is of identical substance uith

Father and .son and could nob have been Hithout the other b:o nor could

he have boon dcc endang uithout the co-operation of the:rl. It uas the

Father only who uas "unbegot-t.en" but he neither created nor saved tho

tror'Ld nor c:::;tablishod the Church separately from the Son or :lpirit, U:lO

tccr o "of'" the ousia of the Father God. So, because of the one ousia and

oneness of operat.ion tl8 cannot say there are three Gods, rather one ~

in throe hYDosLace:::;, uhich is revealed to man by the three h,yoostas8S in

one ous i.a, "If vIC use number ue must use it reverently. II) He ~laS

,.,
..i::Jasil, "On tne Holy Spirit, 11 .QQ. cit., !;.I~.
 32

point.inG ou c tl.l.~::' "\111iL: each 0: tho persons is dcs.l.gnat.od one, they can-

Trw 1'8:1:';011 .rol'~hi::; is th2.~ t.he divine nature ~Jhich They-

:Jllal~8 l~ ~:L;li)10 ."'::r!:l ill":.::i'Tlisiblc. l~s1rcsory of ::azi:J.llzU3
.!~2tl:tr::5 iL i::.; 'a',:,;:;olutcl.'l si!ilplc and indivisible oubst ance"
tilld.i~li:;lo18 21U ur!lfol·~;1~JitllOU:' l)o.rtc. .' III OC11Gr
l:101'Q8 t:'18:r have trall:::;.fcrrcd. t11Gir enphas i.s rl~O...i 11101"0 miner-
i(;al un.i,[,:;(:.0 UIl::"::'y of nature, :'l.::i2rius S8,YS • In
lli~3~;(;1' to -Lilac') trho upbrrri.d us :rith trithei.s:r., let it be;
said "l;.:i:.rt :10 ;Ivr'siliy 0;:1':: ::iod, OUI) no t in nu.ubar out in
!"'J.D:GUrc. tt ~.:l~t,C"flCl'" i::; deccl"io8U as OUQ ill 0. mere numer'Lc al.
c enac i;:; 11.:;,t; one ::C8211y, and i;:; not si!rlplo in nature: but
07cr:;Ol1':': £oc831"izo.:; that ::iod is .siraple and. Lncompoai.t e,
-:::'u'':,the cc;coll::.ry of tJ.liG .sL'plicity Ls that trithC:i::;',l is
unt:li:-lb:tulo.1

Tl10 C2.);.lpad.ociD,.n:::
e:::t::-::,lished tho orthodox doctrine of tho trinit.y

~lholc: U{.vJ.1'~eJ. sclo.:;tal!c3,

Tlw ooin::; Lncompo ai.t e , i.:;
idontical ;Jith '::'1.18 ;lho1e LU17a:L'ieu be'i.ng of each Per-son
tI18 iJ:dividLl2.1ity is only thc 1.~E..ll.(18r in uhich tile
identical cube c:.mcc '1.s obj.:;ct.ivcly prcs811tccl ill eaCll
~ ')
sevora 1 r3r30D::;.~

1"r,"
hv":' 1--
J, .Q_.".
v c'~t
~.,

(2aJ. cd.. London:

""'11,
t..:...'r'T.
 CO~!GLu.sIon

• r"
;,"tV
elC~'lcLltof G111' 1::;-

llallc'LJJ.:iid. of L:-l'301oG~T.,! •I

'I'llon 2.~u.ll1,!! it is i12.rJ. to doubt tll2.t 30::[10 hand of :;)ivine

1 .,
Gud.danc c :12..::; 8.5
"I ,
a Go.!-CL·:m •
·[,.11'02.U
..1.'
runnang cnrougnout
'I r
• n?._ Th.e truth of :'lr.
7an ;:;U80£1t.3 a.:;;scr~ioIl is 1101'0 apparent upon compr'chend'ing the fullnoss

{lith :·rh1cll heretics and Fathors alike appealed to tho :Jm'JTestament for

"They could do so for chi.s reason, chat :~o,r TC5talllcnt

reflection on tile Il2..tl_U·<) of God. trac in a fluid state, aicin to their otrn

Trini t al'i an dogmas, orthodox or unor bhodox,

1Canon J.. D. Rl.char-daon , Ibrvard TJ.18010[;ioal :2e7io:l, Tho Doctrine

of t!10 Trinit,/, X:::}~!I(April, 19!1J)p 126.

3c. J.. D. Richardson, £2.. ill., 110.

 are not GO 00 fo ....
mcl ozp1icit nor i::lp1icit ~·;ithin the pages of the

The::;::; ,?i>:lical '::21;.01'i213, of cour-se, aro not yet a doct.r-Lnc,

E"len Jarth clc2.rly iu.::i:::;tc that litho doctrine of the Trinity
is a :,l"Ol-:: of >t1~1:'; cburch ;" i11 ~'::lic~1 -t,!-P3church makes "an
"'n..,ly".-;;_.~:I v"J.-~ l·"~'rnl "';"i""1
c,.. -__.._ """ U v_vl "c att
'"'""'~
V't/ v est
..... ed
,- .. C'c",·jntu"'c
~.._}J~"r ...; • 1 .,.Jl.I ..I-~ ...

T!~e dC'lelop:lcmt of trinitarian thO'..lt;ht and the rcsultin;; dogmas

. . .,
.L !l_:?0 l' t. cu, :rouover, "the proble:n uae not

Lnvont cd, '::>c:t lI2.':; 3ct by 'el18 Christian exper.l onco, ,,2 tre {lish to keep

in the f01'8~1'O'J.l1dof 0'..11' !.linds aluays. This i."1)ortcd doctrine has not

been :1ithout. itD bencf'Lt s, It has saved ':;hrisCianity I'rom a return to

pagand.sm, It hac Given, s i.nc.e t:18 days of his flesh, timely assurances

that Go'l ~la3 in and l'Q:::;pon::;iblcfor Jesus Chris t of history; therefore,

constantly sottinG forth t:1C t rut.h that salvation does not hinge upon

nan al.one , TllOSC doctrinal forlll'J.latio!ls have repeatedly hal.ped in deepen-

ing and PSl'':';ol:''ling the individ1.l2.l' a and the church's experience of tho

threefold e~:p2r::'cnce set forth in bi.bl.Lcal, revelation. The latter has

been ac comp'Llshed cspoc i al.Ly "trhen the doctrine 112.3 been used as an aid

to faith and no!;. as tho object of faith or legalistic test of orthodoxy, "J

and ~1:1envo::.'oal1y ascor+ed adher-ence to church-sanctioned or-thodoxy tras not

made tho requici'c8 .for recognizable C:1ristia11 sincerity.

3ut. since definitive formulatio::J.s have been repeatedly ;nad0 the

tosts of orthoda:::y and .:::;incerity of Christi2..Yl livinz, deepening and per-

c01""ving tho Christian individ'.lal and Church h;;lS not been accomplished,

20. R. D. Richardson, .QQ. cit., 112.

")
. .;..
--Colao, .Q.Q. ~.,
po rhapc , no t in p:::·(;do:ain~lc8. A cz.r·2ful ~reighing of tho toto.l hi::;torioal

account; :'1.:.1:::;::::; one Qt:.8stion "lcry little the evaluation of a brand new con-

t.ompoz-ary o.u:t1101': ":J:18n God becane t.~13 property of specialized thoologian::>,

generD.lizcd ped:Jler:::; :'0:)1: IIim 07e1' and redesigned Him for 1:10.SS consumption.,!1

I~ist.0rJ i:: full of the origin and gro:rth of cults during tho t:L-ncsof heated

tlleolo2:icnl and definitive

CO~1tl'OVc;rcy for.ulUlatio!ls, and thi.::; is true cs-

peci;;'lly ~1i.lCn 1:.:1>'3 individual Has r-cqui.rcd to embrace the Labt er- or suffer

anat.hcnat ization.

Tho 3.naCiled8.30: tho early church, and today, have tended to stop

or Dirdol' intcllectuo.l inquiry. The doctrine of tho trinity itself ~ras

frD.lileclby tile intellect. ~Je say, "Let, tho intellectual passion for
-'; e- •
....'" . question forever conclusions in

theology and practic~.l Christian living as it is done in the field of

science and per-cnn.LaLl.y atte.01pts to restate old truths in nO:1and better

:·:ight not the Ions period of intellectual squalor ~;rhich

,lC call the Dark Ages perchance have been avoided, and the
Lrrt e'l.Lec bua'L pas si.on of inquiry Hhich brought, it to an end
not been cast out Ir.i.th the l!estol~ian heretics? It 1m3 in
obedience to insistence on correct thinkin6 about these
y,lysteries, rather than 0:1 the primary importance of disci-
pleship, th2.t they ~rerc expelled from the Roman R'11pire.2

All of the questions arise again in modern theology and scholars,

teachers, st.udont.c , believers arc branded liberal, conservative,

eva:1gclical, fundS'.!llcntal or hereLical. As one looks at the ecumem.cal.

1·,~':)rt~·
..i«: ..:...n '"
.. ""'rt'TJ t '1"",
..J •• •• rv:\,·r Shape of American Religion
(:) ,;,........
... 1.."",
,:.,I,/.:.l. (::ml Yorl(:
Harper and !3rothcrc, 19.59), 37.

2C. .it. D. ::::'ichc.rc1son,

bi~otr7, bittCl':183S and division of tile f'our'bh century and succoeding

,...\,
v
c,.,.

S:>uncil, the S·r:mgelico.l Councils, and the rival:::; of each ac one :)Q'll~ld:.:;

'gold0n thrEnrl' in cent.ur-Les past.

T;lis is a no..; day of intellcctual inquiry and iJill go ucr.h. J..:l

history :';'8 such if those ~)reGontly involved can Co.U80

'4..
1..... to • ..
r:U]8 aoov e
'!

t.l:1'J. conquer tctlptations to be sual1o:rcu up in m::tori;:lisll, 2cncrJ.1iza-

t:10 te;;mta-cion to cl']:::;t.aliz0 Christian doctrine in order to survive.

Arno'Ld SO;:18 :1:::3 filtered it out

in an E!ZC G1.1
orrt 8UYil::::.ry.

:1.G·:;cnt t:rCllds. • cl:.i:JS to cli~cGr11 ei~.(,·lt di~ti118t

'~o-"i
;._J v_ oneu.
u ...... !'~I (1 \ r""J0"'t-i
..._/ '-".,_ -." '-v
'"1'" ~_".-f'o:r'~'';
v_~..-nl w..:. ...........- c.... on
~·)0r>'ill~'I.;
._.v' _V.I,. v,_../.

(J .. J,~illic, :~.. 8. :·:~Si.f.fcrt, :D. c. 1·~acirrtos11. 1.T. Pauck:

(?)
..... '1" ~r:1l,1a
c.; ,l',iv..;...C Ll,1...I0 1 r'
..-r,·'"
Io-J.) \ .. :".,,1. ,., Tr""rl~"n'
l'...d~.,- ....,v .. f (3)
. m"-- L1,'l'''''''~
.,...·....... ............ an ~.I.- ....
~..

( ',)1";'-'''''''';l-y''
.......... 1.1.(. "" ••. ""'or'l'"
: •. of' .,..,..",-,1..,-1-;0'''\
-...'oJ,
1, '-1' ~ v __ / (-::
_ ..,
-. ","\11
_10 ...• , ,.,
,.) ~:T..,.,..1-"",:-~
J.4,..-.~~ ·,

~T ,T n"'t',L,,,,-, ,J " • ..:~

....... ,,~<,,:_. __ :........; ...
"n)'
~u'._'-._.,
.. , (I.)
-( " d('f'c>n('~'T""
(,......"..._v~ ..,,).:.."v .10",1-1':1''''-'
~ ......v .L.I.>..I, c",,.,t,.,!,,
,,: .. -1.10. .., -

;Y1--:" i,.... '\"""""""'!'''I~'ler)' (r-;\;

I.
_ .....~ _4"- ''''M.~
, ....~J.{ ...,..,:~v~,~
.... , .. '~..
",f'
--.../.• ~
Jn~"(",
........... '-"-"'
!'f":"
........:;.1
~~,.!".; ......
,,,,(,,,V.l..v~ '" ~.~.............J. , .... \')C"'~u"l
~t>J .. _ ....

, • .., ,. • 1 e (..!... .....

1 I)1':!..nc1.1J
2.: :), 1)n1.J...osop!'11.Ca_ • 'T"nor~l-co,n,
I· D ~aj/er3/;
~ \
(f,\
'>oJ/ UlY,,'c,f1
."',1... .......... c,""'.l.'··c,
""'vv "'_(r'''lcl''''''''';(lt'll'' ",-uVt,.)
;"" _\..1_
t-"'(1";
J.( .. ... c...
(""I· c) •
l-"~oll"l , '-A 0Cf"1",t,'i
,1 .....n
U"'I~""_""'.'" _i..U _ ..........
: ........ 1;,..

(7) tile s,jlntheGis and compl::::t.ion of eh,) doc t.:chi.al GystC;Li~

(:1. Plt;t.it1s01', J. ':.n:l2.lo, I:. :·:iclclcI:l, L. :Iodt;:,;o..l:lj 3.ricl
(0) ~J.18 ir:1..;l,:::cli<lCOiml)lic2,tioil ~ind. so identic.:::.l :litll th0
con(,of1(, of l'c-l(JlatioH (Jart.h). 2

1Claude :leIch, The Joctd.n8 of tho TrinH,'l in 8oDtc::LlJor:u'

(:kl'J 'York: Charles 3cribncl"sSons 1')52), C:l(_;'P~. 2-0, p. 125 ff.

2Come, .Q.£. cit., 1!~1. ",Jit;'wut uoubt, the :ll(J':;C cl'c;ativ(; al:;k:l;iP-C,
:::inco !I,u:_:;u;;,:;tino, [,0 st.ate t:lG doctrine of the Trinity fror<l '8iiJlical Vi8,J-
puird" £12.3 Deen "laue by ::2.1'1 ::::0.1'(.:1,11 loia., 143.
 ,') .. ...,
.J(

"
"r, '7 , v:')

diffe.J:3nt and tho l·c:s\.~lting cf::ect is tuo definitive fOr'.i.I.ulas. ;.~8 t11'';88

1:;.:0 alt.el'!12,i;.ivcs co.ac to light in classic trinital'.i.ani~Ll "Lhey 113.ve

created an unresolved t enai.on in tho mind. of the church up Lo trio

:1.thanasius cot forth thc pr'Lnary vision of a one-natured thre8-

fold :Jod; tho Cappadoc Lanc, a Li.kc-riabur'ed (not ho.eoeousa.on, but

homoous i.on) triune Gol. For Ath:.:.nasiuc ths l'lJstel'Y 1103 in I:.::"inity and

knoirs the one God; for t110 Cappadcc i ans tho thl'88 per sons of God. ;;8 lenoir,

and Lhe mys tery lies in God's unity. 1'0 At.hanas.lus , Gol is pE.:rsoHnlin

his unit.y, therefore, ther-e is a blur aaong tho distinctions of the three

persons; fo1'::'110 Cappadoci.ans , ths threo hypostases arc: personal :::li10

Lhoir unity ic abstract, an impersonal substance. Houovcr-, in relation

to tllis last comparison, lye have dcc i.dcd ~lith 3ethUl18-Baker ~lho flatly

asso:cts3 that. in clas::;ic;;~l usage 'person' (p1'osopon or parsonu) "never

means ~Jhat "per son" means in modern popular usage • It. al~r:...tys

11oid. JJethune-Baker, cit., 234-235.

clesi;;notQs st2.t.~::;, or charu.ctol', or part, or funct.ion; attention is fixsd

on tho chaz-actel' or func tion ro.t::'cr than on the subject. n1 Hence;

The ccnc ept of a "social Trinity" ljodgsoiJ (a perfect

communi.Ly of tllr08 "Per sons" ) appears to be a pr edorai.nant.Ly
specu'Lat Lve f'ormul.at.Lon , based. on the modern concept of
personality read back into the classic doctrine. Certainly
the Di'alical l'efsrences to Fat.her , Son 2mJ. rIoly Spirit •••
makes L:1C concept of Jod as a committee: of three couplet.ely
unt.en2:.ole.2

To continue: on :;it:o. the persistent difference of emphas i.s in

classic formulation as pointed out in ;.thanasius and the OappadocLans ,

for t.hose Hho insist and agree that trinity is integral to the Christian

faith, in act and in revelation, "this basic problem of difference has

not been r0so1vecl • • • although fifteen hundred years of theology have

developed netr t.erminologies of Christian faith. ",3

'de say three persons, not that He Hish to say it, but
that 118 may not. be reduced to silence.4

:3ither the unity is s,mllovwcl up in diversity, or the

diversity is overcome by the unity. The long struggle to
find a £,itting t·myto bring together these ttro symbo.Ls ,
both necessary as they are has issued in nothing but futility)

,-
:·:r. Van Duson assertsO that there are "Ln contemporary theology

i:.hree reint.erpretations of the Trinity of morc than usual

,.,
1;:::;:.__.
T'oJ.·d , 2")1'
..J r. 2""o"1r~
...., .1. ... _, on
~. cJ.·t
_., 1/"1.
'f"'f. JIbid., 142.

!}st. Augustine, Tile IJicene and Post-:Jicene Fathers, First Series,

cd. by Philip Schaff, .5 vols. (.3uffalo: The Christian Literature
Co , , 18(7), III, "On the Trinity, II 7 :6.
,-
91. °'1'''1 Duson, g_o. 1'(," - 1o~
.5Cyril Richardson,
- -
OD. cit., UJ. _ _ ~J.'t
.::.__. , v .... C7.
l
 A

orig·lnali.ty and );)(.);/er.!!I ·oil'"

.l ......... ~Ol.le, one he identifies \lith l{ilrl

barth end rsl<J.t33 it Lo ~iugLl::;tine and back to Athanasaus , the other

he as,:;ert.:; 1::; the dh~;::;ct cont.rJ.dition and-c-al.Lgns on that side Leonard

:Ioclgson, 8HglicClni::;.:1 a.id the Cappadoc i.ans , strangely,!w makes the

third roi.o.tsl'f.!rotation that of Dorothy Sayers calling it "the most ori;;i-

nal, and s'J..;gcst.ive • • • of t:12 Trinity in those latter YC3.rs. '.:2 To us

it is synonymous and. just equal to CO:1l8, Barth, Augustine, and. Athanasius

and t.oday "s Dr. :1arry :::ncrcon Fosdick. l'~r. Van DQ3Cn citesJ the latter

person and his portrayal of Theodore J.oos(;velt by himself in his Autobio-

gr.:1oh] <.;.;:; an approach tc trinity today. :·Ir. Fosdick presents :':r. Roosevelt,

the public figure, the sportsman, and the boyi.sh, nn.schfevous pl.ayaat.c,

~Jhich :JJ.3 Tl18odore :Zoos8vel t 7 Cne Flight have • • •

ImClI ~Joll one of these "persons'! and never suspected
that tI10I'8 :r8.S ano thcr , t:-ro others. The three avenues
••• lead. to throe different Theodo::."eRoosevelts; no,
Hot "Lhr'ce lj£::.l.'~on.s,
n but one person in three scoar'at e
!;l~:lCS of opcr at.Lon Llli1'J. cXistence§l.!+ •

lillQ ,rith this alternative :11'. 'fan I}.lsen t akes his stand, for he says:

"OUl:' ana'Log Lcs 3J.10ul:1 be drawn, not from a multiplicity of persons,

not • • • of I'acuL tics or functions ui thin each person, but f1'01:1 the

fawiliar reality. . . of a :lhole person in his manifold exper'Lence

and c;:pl'os.sion." 5
Appar-ent.Ly ovory .st<::.ge of trinitarian I'ormul.atLon from che third.

century on "to LllO pr escni, clay spccul.at.Lon regarding the Godhead has moved.

~
1IbiJ., 164. ':'Ibid., 166. "
,)Ibid., 17.3-175.
...
"
"Tb.l.d , , 17J. )Ibid. , 17.5.
alon:; ::':H::;':;C [;;;0 c.ltorn::l.civo::: :!c've set forth. 'I'o us the nyst cry is not

:10:; all t.nus;:: divin':) 'o8:Ln;_;:s C2!l 00 Oi18, but hOI; the one God can l:lanifest

himself iIl C::l Wa~(1 ~lay::; and still '0:: tlle bot.al, self. And the incarm.tion

i.::; tho focal l..;oilll:. But appears to us t.hat vre j'J.st

shall 11.:'..'10
to ta::o tIl':;; incarnation "God in tao flesh" seriously, viz.

like He :10.'1(; :;oriou31y t.akoa ::1'. ::ison ...

hoirer , the boy of Kansas, tao

soldier, ~m:ltn.o presid,:;ut seriously. ~lc shal.L }13.V8 to align ourselves,

~
a t .U~-i
~!..L .... <'
u ., .....~ '1.1-v,
!!"-'_.l 'T'; +i-
,J_'_V~.1. "1'"
.:. __ • I"I,,~,.....,.,..
V.JJ. ..l:-"'" ,!;).L '''''''"enJ·..,t
u ,",' _t..J ... ; on1
lie... _..,. Ln out.Li.nc,
..L.J.1..I.l. _ ',T'.'1·;C'11
~,.L. .<-:0, ''''.'11S
_ '-"

the most s8n.si'ole :J.~:.:l unclerstancla'ole approach to understanding trinity

to date. 'Inc ecs::mtio..l characteri::;tics ilC shall sunu;~arizebriefly:

(1) F.:'..thor,Son, <lad Holy Spirit are 'throe modes of

8xistsnc8.' They 2.1'0 not three rathcr distinct parts of
God, '.rho, in his 0~lCn8;:;S, hovers unseen behand or above
:nis sUlX'J:'J.tcmanifostations. Tho one God is fully pre-
sent and ac t Lvo in o.ny and all of his modes of being and
action.

(2) Til:: i:.hrccfoldncss of ?athcr, Son, and Spirit is

threofoldness in th.3 structure or pattern of the one act
of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit and thorofore the
structure of all divine activity an:l tho Jein;.s of God.
Fath'c:r, 30n, and Spirit point lilcrely to the cO:llplexit:7
of r-cLat.Lono that tl10 one God ;-,laintains bcttreen hi:nself
and man, Lhuc :rit1:1i::1 hi!ilS81f -GOllilil:;clf.

(3) T}10 trinitarian formula can be applied in three

i:ays: (D.) to the nodos of God's approach to US; ('0) to
tho mod8.s of God's 'oDing-in-rclationshlp to us; and
(c) to the w'Jdcs of tho being of the one '.-Thorelates
11il.1301f t o us. Thc8£[lphasis falls upon the second 'out
tho ot!1er tHO a2'0 lo::;it.imato and calleu for under certain
circ'lt:fls tD-IlCO':;.

(4) :Jod is tho absolute 'other one' to us. He is the

one U~'10 confronts u.s ~Jith hblself. God is til'::': ono 1/1:10
lmites him:-;elf to us and us to him801f. It is the snne
on0 in all thres rclo.t:.ion8~j_ps 3.nd he is relatl?Q to us
in all three Hc.WC cin'.11to.noously.
 91

(5) :ted is a pOl'sen to ue ln~he modern sense of the

nord in tho totality of the total rclationships, Father,
SOil. ::mdSpirit. If only one level of relationship Here
)rl~'iul;.'l1ncd, God tlould. di::;appoar.

'C) SOno cry out "our Heavenly Fnbht}l;' as the one

from tihomiTO have comoi "0 C1u'istt our Savior," as the
came one: "ComoHoly Sph'lt," as tho somo one to come
and COl1U1l'lU'lC Hith us, 1

~Je do not agree vrith Hr. Cyril Richardson when he says, "the terms

Father and Son are unfitting to express God in his beyondness over against

God in hie relations ~·1iththe woz-Ld, ,,2 T:Te

do agree I'lith him in answer-

to the question, ":'Jhydo tre sometdraessay the Father does this and the

Son does that and the Holy Spirit this?"

Such ctatomont::;;no the Scriptures mnkothem muct not

be taken at their face value. They arc symbolic, not
literal • •• Taey arc not only important to make but
1'.11::;0
necessary to make in order to dravTour attention
to the i'act that there i:; a Trinity. ;'rithout them no
should. be in danger of nc;;lcctinz the docbranc of the
Trinity nlto[;othcl·.:3

Though Hr. Richardson is not o.s cloo.r o.s Hr. Como.o.udoften

nmblguouc and :i.t1cotwistonc, iro thinl{, he io ol:H.Hmllnlly on our dde of

understanding, for he says: "In literal truth it is tho viholc Trinity

doing something • • • ITe say the Father • • • though it really belongs

equally .:Imlil1.div16ibly to the uholo 'l'l'init:r.1!4 Andhe quotes

!l.uiju:Jtinofor support Vlhoremarked thn.t uhen ne ::lay"tOm,' FD.thor,tour

address is not to tho Father nlol'lo, but to tho iiholo Trinity.";;

1This is not Sabollianism, championed 011ceagain in Frederick

Schleirmacker.

2Richardoon, QQ. cit., 69. )Ibid., 75.

5Ibid •• Augustine, Do Trinitate, 5.11.12.

 92

In the light of the foregoing atte~;'lpts to sot forl:.h trinity

understandably, -:T8 irou'Ld not agr08 uith :':r. H. ~:heolcr Robinson's r-emark

that "tho fourth centur'j doctrine in its historical interpretation is

much more intelligible than some modern attempts to defend it. ,,1 ~-re
trcu'Ld agree hoartily uith othor a3s8rtions by previously cited author,:;2 -

and. consider thor:1a most adequate and fitting summaryto our study:

The classical doctrine of the trinity fails to satisfy tho Christian

men of today not because it says too much, it does verbally, but b8causo

it says too little. TiTe

have richer categorics and an ampLer' experience

of tho Hor;: of the :Ioly Spirit. ~..§:. and h.ypo~rl:.Q:_s~~

__are inadequate to

our larger concept of '3piri thood. ' 'E'1at is nny the typical modern

nttcmpts to defend the classical doctrine fail to bring conviction or to

inspire enthusiasm. Its underlying philosophy is S1..1.porcedod;

our expcri-

once cannot _')') run into the mould of these conceptions Irithout serious

loss. ::0 Christian doctrine ~Jill bo satisfactory -vrhichdocs not conaerve

the religious values as faithfully as did I:.hefourth century. Tho classical

doctrine has great '.symboliC' ~rorth, and is rightly felt to safeguard

reliGious values that are vital to Christian experiencc• ,Ie arc only at the

beginning of the fOnllulation of such a doctrine that's clear and needed. but
'.10 have ccen of
,t " 1 t J_'
ndi, cat.o t·hn :)~t'n 0_[ n:--proc.':lc'n
·1:.0 J_'l"
.•
J_ sooms pOSSJ_08 0 u. ''';0. v - - '-'" -:::" -

tho ancient doctrine there tras no period in "hich the uorlc and personality

of the :101y Spirit for;:lccl tho central subject of debate.

-,--------.----~---------------~--------------------------
1Robinson, QQ. £it., 255.
2See Arnold Come, HumanSpirit and Holy 8nirit, QQ. ill·, 1959.
Ala o, Henry P. Van Dusen. ~niri t I Son and Fatho.!:. .QJ2. ill·· 1959.
 93

rcrll.upG ire :l;;:coo \lith Hr. Cyril 2icho.rJ.con tho.t bho trinit.arian

symbol:::, ?athor,)on ~mel=':pil'it ho.vo not and do not o.clcquatoly set forth

trlnity and tho.t. vc oUijht to :;oaroh for nOlr and. better vlOrds to express

our r~tiLh nnd O:i:pcrJ.onco of Goel. Bu.t '\1'0 cannot go along ';lith: "It is

c1ol,.lbtf\).lthat IJh0ro i::; any real value in thinking of those • • • tho Lorms
• they introduce much
Rather they bcclouel it • •

ar,'lblzui~y."1 ',Jc OUiS1rt nob 1.>0 c1errogatory, or ncea~ive, in the uco of

t.:1CDO trinitarian symbol:>, at least until the arrival of proven nell and

bCt.tCl' onos nave COHlO into being. Again, it is perhaps unlikely that

theso hoped for nml discoveries vlill not como. Tho Incarnate God used

the term::.:, seemingly ao adcquo.tc. He spoke "Father," "Son," and "Spirit"

1:.0 t cach and give undC.<l;'G t.::mclillL:of Joity. llc sOClilOel

to be in tho Spirit,

spoko by tho SpirIt, tau~ht by the Spirit. rerhapo thio, andohis \lord,
io OU1' approach for today to ncrVI anel botter understanding of the trinity

in C~1l'istio.n c;c,P0rience. Tho Spirit is Goel, and oven Christ, in the

"\Jorld and us toelay.

n" d .... 2"?"

1~c~cno.r'son, QQ. ~., ), _0.
 SIJLI03nJ2iIY

PrimarY'Sourcos

Libral'''I of Christi.'1n Cl1.ssico. J:dited b-y Eduard nOC!l';

..... _
n 'r~v>dy.
; U.L

Arius.
Philadelphia: Tho :Testlllinistor Press, Vol. III, 195L}.

Augustine, Aurelius Saint. nicenc and Post-lJicen8 Fathers. First Series.

Edited by Philip .schaff. lICiJ York: The C~rictian Liternt.uro
Co., Vol. 1886-1890. v.
the Great, Saint. ::icBne and Po:::t-1Ticone Fat~. First ·Series.
Basil :J e'7Jr 70 r~(
: The Chrictia11
2dited bJ Philip .schnff and ::1onry ~.rJ.ce.
Literature Co., Vol. 'lIII, 1395.
Library of Christian Clc.s.sic3. 'Sditod by Edml.rd
Gregory of Eazianzen. Fhilac13lphin: Th9 ''!ostminist8l' Pross, Vol. III,
Rochie Hardy.
195Lr.
l'Jicen::; and Post-:Jicene F::rthe1's. Zdited by Philip Schaff and
Henry ~JaC8. l:OIJ Yorl:: The Christian Literature Co., Vol. VII,
1891.1-.
Cl1ristian Glassics. ~dito·clby E:h·rard. Rocha,c
2r1'8g01'Y of !;:lssa. Li01>8.r7 of The TJestminister Pross, Vol. III, 1951+.
::a1'dy. Phil:d.8lpilia:
'8dited by Philip Schaff and
m.cen0
:In::J.p03t_ITicenc Fathers.
The C':1risti2c11Litero.turc co., 701. V,
T10.nx"y ~l8.cc. ::i-31T Yor1(:
189J.
Tile !J.1t8-~~icene ?::lthcrs. Z::litsJ tJ Alex::'.nd3:r':\.ohe1'ts and
I!:l:?poly-tus. 2)0l1,')11~0~1. J'Jff:Jlo; T:18 Christian Liter2.turc ce.. Vol.
v,
J~llC:S
'V) I'
1O'J.).
::d.ited by lLlexanclcr J.::>oorts and.
IrenD-ellS. The ChristiD.n Literature Co., Vol. I,
J 8.iJ13S Dorl~11:l::;011. Buffalo:
1~385.
':ditcl 'oy !:.le::an::lcr J.ober>t.s and James
Chri::::ti:m 1ite!'2.tU!'O ce., 701. T!,
Jon~ls18Qn. 3uffalo:
<4 ,~ r:
<...'1
i 'J,):';.

0"
/(
 T"),~.L.."1'rA."""
'-"...,. J. I_..._
v ... ....;.. '-''''''''or
...,,~.";lo...., ,.

'sOC811d

Al~rlold 3.. Jlil1<l::ll ':;oi~cic

~iai3t0r ?ro3~, 1957.

~'~dol.pli. Ou:tlil1C.s cf ·t:'18

'T'r ... r .. t , .,..., ~'\' ~y :"'::rill
,,:..l'lO:·: ..:....l...'CC!l8.i..i.. ;...:J~l"or.:.:
1957.
~ ,
LQO.:JC1.X·l:. ..
':'rinity.
Co., :Old., i)·'to.

%cOlldSdHion.

::1.1:'1"17 Ciu'is tL'.:l ]joe ~.L'in(;;:;.

P lAo1ls;l8!'S, 1953.

A :Tieton of Chrlsti<.tl1 TllOu;,ht. ~"Ld.i G.nd

C;11~l-'los:e:ciU[L;,r' 3 SOIlS, 1')]2, 'role I.

1;(;~lilLa[l, :.lo8rc :Ic;nr',:,r. L "'~an:.wl oJ: CllUrch lIi::;col'Y. AnciGnt and •.~eC:i(:val
7Iis tOl'f. ~8vi::;:ed and ::luarg ode .?ili1ado1phia: .we Jl!l8l'ic.:an
Japtist Pub1icatio~1 .3ocieLj, 1)L;-7, 701. I.

:~rc3tib8, : • .l.J. :::Iodin Patrist.ic Tl10Ur:ht. SGcond Z'dition. London:

.3oc.:iety for ?ro.:llotl!lg C?l.ristictn ;:~l1o:J1(;Jg8, 1952.

nee::;, Tnoiila.s. Tho Holy Spirit ill T(lO;lt'-£it and :3zpG.cion8C-.

C1.1ar10.:;Sc:!'itner's Jons, 191.5.

';'J.~
• .J.. "'.1-··~,,1~·"-1
v, "-_ v.oJ v L, (";;""'1
.., J. J_ i'"
.J •
T"le ··-·oc;··";
.::;.:£=-';....:J.,~.::: "of __
. ..;::.:;.".L;;..::. ~:.::!~j.;;0~::;,;;, .;.,~-:"
V;;,;,;.~~ 'r'l.'·irl~jt7.
-.;;;.;-;;,;.;;.;;-;,.,;.,
..l..
iIashvi11e
Abingdon Pross, 1953.
Robinson, ~I. :;i:18cler. ':'1'10 C;'rdstian ':::;x()o:cienc8 oJ: the ~Iolv Soirit.
::0:; YOI'k, London: ]al'per and .iJroti:wrs, ?u~)lichel';:;, 192~~ •

Sanday, :1i11ial1l. Christologies Ancient Clnd ~·loderl1. Oxford: .At the

Clarendon Press, 1910.

Sayers, Dorothy L. Tho E:nDOl'Or Con.scJ.ntine.

::31'0 thers, 1951.

The Irina of tho i·laker. ~Je~J York: Harper and Jrothers, 19!;1.
 ~"'.," ~ ,. ... r:" • ' • ,...~ ..
... .!..!.L..J..l.~_;. ';:;.L C.Cl'..:.: 'J_U1."J..:~ t:.lau. '",,~i;,_~~\;n.
:-- ... ..,..
"l(JI. ..!..J..J...

,-, ..
':""::8 ~)LLC 6 ,

~ ,
":"':.J8~8, I.L.:a':'l'JT J:J.l'cl:J.j·_ .~rp .,." ...
.Lil8 ~.'.O~'/
Ll(;~j_llct!. awl '-',. r.:.. _, L(;Ildo,n:
'-..IV., .J...J ..... u. 'I )12.

T~;,e :I01:I S;:.;il"lt J..[l tbe; .~e~t T8~·~:::.lll2l1t. - '

.GO!.LU0!':.:
... -,
CL.uel ::J::.;., J...J'C::..!.., 1919.

~~ill:,-\;i!, 7"w.L:;,r.:; ~,.::u.Cli:,ic-TI1801ovy. ~xi;;b?!1cC (pc] til" Pbrill.']e(;vnd

I1i1lJl'8Ssio.ll. C:liC2g0: T~lC:UnL d'cit .7 :..;f Chicago P1.'e33, 1~'5c.;. ifol. II.
r

T[c;_n DiJ.::.;e:U., ;IciLcj' TI. ~L~J~),tt 301'J. _?n.·t!~Ic-;r. lJu~: Io~ck: Cha,cles
C'::;
SCI'ibflG .. 30f10, 19:;:J.
vi...:.:.;..;.:~-8. r.,
ThGclO;_·;jr.

....•• , r.......
L,
I

~< (..<.1. GIl J.1.'l.ll:J.C

'101. 1.

. r ~ .,.... ..
.wl.,l.J...l21Jl.
":Jel J a~:l(;S II~~~0tiuG~:.
::II, 1)J2.
.

_I
..., ..
,
:::!:LL..d,
,., ,

vJ..-"00r...~, .,
H

.,....,.....,...
..L..L...L.,

:-~j_C:Lc~1:'_c1DJrl, Ca:10fl~) J. '~~T:'lE;J(.<:t:Ci.(L;; of the Tl~i~'.Llttl,;~

=-~2v·i·~~.[. "!01. ;':1:::'11, .A;_;l·il 1:;::'})~
~., ., .,
~~;l1.L.i:"':'. :Sictioll<J.l~r{ 01 S}l.cistio.l!
:.l.Oc':;.L··CLD£l,l. .3diL8cl Dc1r:-/ill:l.LUil ,']~:iiLll 21"ld II:;;'-:J..!'J ~~r ac 3. LO[lC.OLl;
JvLli'l ~)~U.Cl~at/'·~lul. I, 1(]77.
_.-__ !~C:!·~"i~~.J:"~;-0.~ ~:8_zi;;.~·lZl)
..D, ,. 'p~i_C-:'j_')[l:'-I_:-C·'l. of _!h:;:_i.:;"t.i::'.11 5iQ£~~.T)h~r.
~"Jj_-t?~.' ~)~/~-;iJ~li"~n 2;.i~it,11 "'_.~r' T~?~"lr~r 'f'To_r;-;. '!"_!rJt"!.r3.0i1: ·J(J(~rl=::urr~.~r,
'T 01... I, F~77.

____ .. "('~r~~0!:"t/ of ~;~l0':;':'.," D~h..~~tj_0n?~·~rof 81--1r;hstt2[1 3:hSGr~.f)lQ.

Sd1:s'yJ 'by 1Til1i:or: S:~lit~·! 2.fld H13::1r:l 'J~,C? L(Jwbn: John :Iurl~2.Y,
'Jo1. It 1 ,~j77.

.'~-J..L_":

... ..,"1_ ••
......
ell C~(J{l. 1) 1:;;•