Trinitarian Theology Flashcards
(42 cards)
Athanasius addressed the issues of what council, and what was the argument about?
Council of Alexandria in 362
Athanasias interviewed both sides of the theological debate; both sides were saying the opposite thing (using the term hypostases differently), but claiming the same thing
3 hypostases folks were trying to secure diversity and the one hypostases folks were trying to secure the unity of God but neither was refuting the other side
What did those who spoke of three subsistences (hypostases) mean to communicate about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Why did they “use such expressions”?
To establish that God is truly three; distinguishing the three
In addition to acknowledging “a Holy Trinity”, what else did those who spoke of three subsistences (hypostases) acknowledge?
Holy Trinity is One Godhead,
One Beginning
the Son is coessential with the Father
the Holy Spirit is not a creature, nor external, but proper to and inseparable from essence of the Father and the Son.
What did those who spoke of one subsistence (hypostasis) mean to communicate about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
“we use the word Subsistence thinking it the same thing to say Subsistence or Essence ‘But we hold that there is One, because the Son is of the Essence of the Father, and because of the identity of nature.”
When those who spoke of one substance used the word subsistence (hypostasis), they thought it was the same thing as saying what?
Essence
What did those who spoke of one substance believe?
that there is on Godhead and that it has one nature and not that there is one nature of the Father from which that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit are distinct.
What did Basil attempt to do?
- Basil attempted to define the problematic terms used to describe the trinity so that everyone could be on the same page.
- God is one OUSIA (essence) and three HYPOSTASES (properties)
We are here most interested in Basil’s discussion of how “divinity is one in this way”. In what is “the unity (between the Father and Son) thought to reside”?
The formula of essence (divinity)
How does Basil illustrate the “formula of essence/being”?
Light
“the Father is conceived of as light in his substrate, then the substance of the Only-Begotten is also confessed as light”
What distinguishes the Father and the Son from each other according to Basil? In what does their “difference” lie?
the distinctive features (or properties) that characterize each
What are properties of an essence “like” according to Basil?
Like marks or forms that distinguish what is common
Properties “distinguish what is common by means of individual characteristics.” What is an example of what is common to the Father and Son?
For instance, deity (theotes) is common
fatherhood and sonship are individualities
What is the distinction between ousia and hypostasis?
Ousia = defines unity/ the general characteristics Hypostases = defines particularities
Basil - In the case of the Godhead, what do we confess “so as not to give a variant definition of existence”?
“We confess one essence or substance..”
In the case of the Godhead, what do we confess “in order that our conception of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit may be without confusion and clear”?
we confess a particular hypostasis
What are the three “separate characteristics” that Basil identifies which enable us “to give a sound account of our faith”?
Fatherhood
Sonship
Sanctification
Basil - Fill in the Blanks
“Hence it results that there is a satisfactory preservation of the ____ by the confession of the _____ while in the distinction of the ______ regarded in each there is the confession of the peculiar properties of the _____ .”
Unity
one Godhead
individual properties
Persons
According to Basil, those who “identify (equate) essence (ousia) or substance and hypostasis” must fall into one of two possible errors. What are the errors?
- Confess only three Persons
- Error of Sabellius – the same hypostases changed it’s form tot meet the needs of the moment
Nazianzus says, “Monotheism, with its single governing principle, is what we value”. He then proceeds to state what monotheism is not and is in his way of thinking: how does he define it?
- Monotheism is when something converges towards it’s source; not just a movement ourward but rather an eternal coming back to the source; dynamic and timeless movement
Nazianzus explains what “the result is” of his particular understanding of Monotheism, what is “the result”?
The result is that though there is numerical distinction, there is no division in the being
Nazianzus - What are the “Christian terms” for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to which Gregory says we should “limit ourselves”?
‘the Ingenerate, “
“the Begotten,”
“what Proceeds from the Father.”
- This becomes standard after Gregory** 1 ousia, 3 hypostes, characterized by these properties
Nazianzus wants to provide a way of speaking about the timeless/eternal generation of the Son and procession of the Holy Spirit. “How is it, then, that these latter are not like the Father in having no origin, if they are co-eternal with him?”
Because they are from him, though not after him.
…for things which produce Time are beyond time.
Nazianzus - Who alone knows how the Son is begotten?
It is a way known only to the begetting Father and the begotten Son.
- It’s pointless to ask how He was begotten because it’s beyond our human vision
Nazianzus argues against the notion, which we find in Eunomius, that the Son and the Father must be different beings (have different essences) because one is unbegotten and the other is begotten.
• Why must the begetter and the begotten be the same?
it is in the na- ture of an offspring to have a nature identical with its parent’s.
