Set 4 Doctrine of God Early Church to Nicea

1. Pittsburgh Theological Seminary TH01 Introduction to Theology Term III 2011-12 Set 4Doctrine of GodEarly Church to Nicea

2. Tertullian Around 200 in Carthage, (now Tunisia) http://www.tertullian.org/

3. Tertullian (ad Praxeas) • Word eternally immanent with God; yet distinct from (persona). • Tri + unitas = Trinitas. • Three Persons, One essential unity or substance, distinct in the economy of salvation. • Spirit is fully and expressly divine. • Tended to think of divine substance as material substance of the highest sort.

4. Origen • About 182-251 • Alexandria, Egypt

5. Proposes that both Son and Spirit are eternally generated. • Further, that they are "homoousious" or of one substance with the Father. [First to use?] • Yet they are different from each other in hypostasis (confusion of terms; for Origen, a distinct being? Or best seen as hierarchical, a downward unfolding of Being? • Strictly, prayer should only be offered to "the Father"., but acknowledges that the church prayers to Christ and allows for private prayers to Christ.

6. Origen On Prayer: "Just as it is not right for one who is exact in his prayers to pray to one who himself prays, but only to the Father whom our Lord Jesus taught us to call upon in our prayers, so we must not offer any prayer to the Father apart from him." (On Prayer XV.3)

7. Origen continues: "To the Father alone must prayer be made, to whom I also pray. This you learn from Holy Scripture. For you ought not to pray to a High Priest who was established on your behalf by the Father and who received the office of Advocate from the Father, but rather through a High Priest." (XV.4)

8. Arius (c256-336) • Transcendence of God, the One, the unoriginated, unique, indivisible, unchanging • Jesus Christ is a creature, not God, not an emanation of God, not of the divine substance • Christ is the highest of all creatures, but capable of suffering and change • “There was when he was not”….Christ is a creature before all time, through whom time and all things are created • For more, see http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/arianism.html

9. Arius’ writings… “We know one God—alone unbegotten, alone everlasting, alone without beginning, alone true, alone possessing immortality, alone wise, alone good, alone master, judge of all, manager, director, immutable and unchangeable, just and good…who begot an only begotten Son before eternal times, through whom he made the ages and everything.”

10. “…he [Christ] was created by the will of God before times and ages…” “Thus there are three hypostases. God being the cause of all is without beginning, most alone; but the Son, begotten by the Father, created and founded before the ages, was not before he was begotten. Rather, the Son begotten timelessly before everything, alone was caused to subsist by the Father. For he is not everlasting or co-everlasting or unbegotten with the Father. Nor does he have being with the Father…”

11. Advantages of Arianism • Jesus Christ is really tempted, really suffers, and really dies. • Jesus Christ could be seen as mediant, standing mid-way between God and creation • SUPREME CREATURE, and yet a • CREATOR • Biblical support?

12. Psalm 2: 7: I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you. Hebrews 1:3b: When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4: having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. 5: For to what angel did God ever say, "Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"?

13. Prov 8:22: The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. 23: Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24: When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25: Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth; 26: before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. 27: When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28: when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29: when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30: then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always…

14. Council of Nicea, 325

15. The Nicene Creed We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, visible and invisible;

16. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from True God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and dead;

17. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.AMEN.

18. The Anathema But to those who say, There was when He was not, and, before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or wo assert that the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change—these the Catholic Church anathematizes.

19. Athanasius (293-360). Born and died in Alexandria, where he was bishop though often in exile

20. Athanasius: Some Key Points • Life-long controversy with Arianism • Developed sophisticated arguments against Arianism • Based in large part on the doctrine of salvation: If Christ is savior (capable of transforming our very nature, and not merely our inspiration or one who offers satisfaction for forgiveness of sins), then Christ must be divine

21. God is eternally with the Word, which is eternally generated. • Both are eternal in their distinct identity, the Father as Father, the Son as Son. • God is never God without the Son, but is always God the Father of the Son and with the Son. • The Son shares the Father's nature (homoousios) but not as portion or division. One being. • The Son is distinct as Son, and this distinction is eternal, not merely in the economy of salvation. (Moves in the direction of saying: Father and Son are two persons, but does not use “hypostasis” or “prosopon”). Rather, concentrates on the relatedness as the distinction.

22. Some terminology • Ousia: substance or being • Homoousios: of the same substance • Prosopon: mask or role • Hypostasis: a distinctive substance, a real individual, or a substance in its distinctiveness. • Origen uses “3 hypostases.” • Arius uses as = to ousia, saying the God and Christ are distinct hypostases or beings. • Nicea: 1 ousia, 1 hypostasis.

23. Trinitarian Formulas • God: one ousia • 3 Prosopon (Origen) • 3 Persona (Latin west, from Tertullian) • But 3 hypostases? Slow in coming • Key questions: • ONE WHAT? • and THREE WHAT?

24. So, at around 350, orthodox Christians believed… • God is one ousia and one hypostasis but three distinctive relationships. • They would say something like: “God is one ousia or hypostasis, eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who though distinct are homoousios.” • Rejected Arius, who said: • “Thus there are three hypostases.” • Also rejected…

25. From a Previous Slide: The Anathema at the end of the Nicene Creed “But to those who say, There was when He was not, and, before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change—these the Catholic Church anathematizes.”

26. Comments from Athanasius "The Son is of course other than the Father as offspring, but as God He is one and the same; He and the Father are one in the intimate union of their natures and the identity of their Godhead...thus they are one, and their Godhead is one, so that whatever is predicated of the Son is predicated of the Father." (contra Ar 3.10f).

27. "If the Son as offspring is other than the Father, He is identical with Him as God.” (contra Ar 3.4).

28. "With the Logos comes all other creatures, including time. How then could the Logos come 'once' or how could there be a 'before'?" (Rusch 76) Then, "It is distinctive of men to reproduce in time, because of the imperfection of their nature. God's offspring is everlasting, because of the continual perfection of his nature." (Rusch 77).

29. "The holy and blessed Triad is indivisible and one in Itself. When mention is made of the Father, the Word is also included, as also the Spirit Who is in the Son. If the Son is named, the Father is in the Son and the Spirit is not outside the Word. For there is a single grace with is fulfilled from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit." (cf JNDKelly 258: Ad Serap.1.14)

30. What about the Holy Spirit? Fully consubstantial with God. Athanasius’ Argument: As the sanctifier of the creation, the Holy Spirit is not a creature but is the creator and redeemer. [General principle: a creature cannot save creatures.] If so, then Holy Spirit is divine. And since God is one, the Holy Spirit is consubstantial. Co-active with the Son and therefore co-essential.

31. Athanasius on the Holy Spirit “If the Holy Spirit were a creature, we should have no participation in God in him.” “Who will unite you to God, if you have not the Spirit of God, but the spirit which belongs to creation?” Letter 1, ad Serapion (about 360).

32. Note anti-Arian argument (but this time used against a splinter group known as the Tropici) “If there is a Triad, and if the faith is faith in a Triad, let them tell us whether it was always a Triad, or whether there was once when it was not a Triad. If the Triad is eternal, the Spirit is not a creature….[But] If he is a creature, and the creatures are from nothing, it is clear that there was once when the Triad was not a Triad by a dyad. What greater impiety can man utter? They are saying that the Triad owes its existence to alteration and progress; that it was a dyad, and waited for the birth of a creature which should be ranked with the Father and the Son, and with them become the Triad.” Letter 3-4, ad Serapion

33. At around the time of the death of Athanasius (c. 360): • Continued conflict over these matters • Tendency to emphasize the unity of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit are God… • Less ability to distinguish the “persons” of the Trinity: the Father and the Son are different… (etc.) • Rise of the Cappadocians as theologians of the Trinity