Kevin
Giles has felt obligated to respond to the portion of my Trinity-Ekstasis that is devoted to critiquing his own work on the
Trinity, and as I promised, I have allowed him to present his response on
Tekton itself.
Click here for Sunlyk's original article. Click here for Sunlyk's response to what Giles offers below.
Kevin Giles Replies to Phantaz Sunlyk
The Orthodox Doctrine of the
Trinity: Who is Deceived?
Friends
in Sydney have written to me and phoned to tell me that the work of an American
university student, Phantazhew Sunlyk, has been put on the Anglican web site and
is being advertised. It denigrates me as a person, my work on the Trinity and
argues that the Son of God is eternally subordinated to the Father. I had decided to ignore Sunlyk’s work after
14 email exchanges with him because I found much of what he said to me
offensive, rude and his mind quite fixed. He wanted our debate to go on and on
for ever. I cannot, however, ignore his accusations any longer because my
protagonists in Sydney are using his material to justify their view that the
eternal subordination of the Son is historical orthodoxy. Phantaz taunted me, daring me to try and answer
him in the public domain. I now give him that answer because his friends in
Sydney are promoting his ideas among Sydney evangelicals. This response is thus
more directed to that audience than to Phantazhew Sunlyk.
If
my Sydney evangelical brothers are really interested in what the Bible and
historic orthodoxy teach on the Trinity I would have thought they might have
put B B Warfield’s wonderful essay, “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity” (Biblical Foundations, pp 79-116) on the
Anglican web site and advertised this. It was this exposition of the Trinity
that Dr Broughton Knox recommended more than any other when I studied under him
in the 60’s. He made it compulsory reading. I warmly commend it to the members
of the doctrine commission and to other Sydney evangelicals who would really like
to know what in fact is orthodoxy amid all these counter assertions. Warfield
argues that the Bible and historic orthodoxy do not allow in the eternal
Trinity any subordination in “subsistence” (the personal existence or being of
the Son) or in “operations” (works). He only allows for a voluntary and
temporal functional subordination of the Son “in the work of redemption.” He is a defender of a “co-equal” Trinity.
Like Professor Van Till of Westminster Seminary he believed that “a consistent
biblical doctrine the Trinity would imply the complete rejection of all
subordinationism.” (A Christian theory of
Knowledge, p 104)
.
In
this paper I make a response specifically to Phantazhew Sunlyk’s longest and
latest broadside against me and his
latest attempt to substantiate the eternal subordination of the Son. It is
called Trinity Ekstasis; A Theology of
God the Father and Responses to Kevin Giles. At Phantazhew’s request I include
his website address so that people can look up what he says for themselves. http://www.tektonics.org/guest/psekstasis.html.
I think very little of this is new work so if you have read other things by him
on his website or on the Anglican website you will have already discovered what
he thinks.
It
is to be recognised that Sunlyk, Moody, Baddeley and Doyle have been reading
one another for some time and so there is a cross fertilization of ideas. The
first three of those just mentioned are emailing each other regularly and
passing on to each other material. Because they often make the same
criticism of me it should not be thought that we have independent minds at
work. We have here rather a group of convinced subordinationists all reading
the tradition through their common set of spectacles, that I think are out of
focus and fogged. What everyone in Sydney needs to do is to get someone outside
of their closed theological world to read Sunlyk, Moody, Baddeley and Doyle on
the Trinity. A good place to start would be to ask any informed Roman Catholic
to read this subordinationist literature. Be assured I have submitted my work
to every informed trinitarian scholar that has been willing to read it. One of
my readers was the Roman Catholic theologian, Dr Anne Hunt, Rector of Aquinas
College, who has written four books on the Trinity. It should also be noted
that IVP did not publish my book lightly. They were very concerned that I was
accusing a large body of evangelicals of falling into heresy. They were not
going to publish something that was at best ill-informed or mistaken and at
worst deceptive and misleading. They sent the manuscript to four of the
foremost evangelical theologians in America who all endorsed it in principle
and some even in detail. (See back cover of the book for brief comments taken
from their reports). In addition IVP gave me Gary Deddo, who holds a doctorate
in Barth’s doctrine of the Trinity, as my editor.
So seriously do I take Sunlyk’s extreme
accusations against my integrity, and the less extreme but parallel accusations
that Robert Doyle and Mark Baddeley of Moore College have made, that I here
make an offer to the Sydney Anglican doctrine commission now in session
discussing the doctrine of the Trinity to put before them the manuscript of my
forthcoming book for them to check all references to their writings, other
scholars and the original sources. To be honest to the facts is one of my
highest priorities.
One
of the sad things in this painful debate is that I have been blocked from
making a rational reply to Baddeley and Doyle. The editors of the Reformed Theological Review (Harman and
A/B Jensen) would not allow me to write in answer to Baddeley although I
pointed out that he was factually wrong on most of his key points, nor would
the editor of the Southern Cross. The Briefing editor gave me 800 words to
make a reply to Doyle on the understanding that he would be given my reply to
refute and I would not be allowed to respond. Are my “friends” in Sydney really
interested in what is the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, or only in winning
so as to keep women subordinate? I have always thought that open debate is a
sign of maturity and of a commitment to truth and honesty.
Who is Phantazhew Sunlyk?
I
have never met him but this is what he has told me in writing. (I am sorry to
have to record the following but when someone calls you a liar (“deliberately
deceptive”) repeatedly and Australian subordinationists with a massive personal
agenda promote this character denigrating material no holds are barred. Phantazhew
was given this section to read and I have made the minor corrections he
requested.)
¨
He is an undergraduate
BA student at the University of Montana. He is a laymen with no theological
qualifications and no degree.
¨
For “the past several
years” he says he has “almost completely abandoned” himself in his study of the
doctrine of the Trinity. He writes, “The Trinity is what I live for – it casts
its light upon every aspect of my though; it possesses me.” (Trinity Ekstasis, p 122) This all sounds
a bit imbalanced to me. Phantaz ought to get a life for himself.
¨
Debating with people who
disagree with him about the Trinity he says makes him sick. (Trinity Ekstasis, p 116) From my many
emails with him I can see this. He gets so agitated that I once emailed him
saying, if you lived nearby I would fear that you would firebomb my car or
something worse.
¨
For some years he
published articles on a website on subordinationism under the name of Phantaz
Sunlyk, purporting to be a Roman Catholic scholar that supported the eternal
subordination of the Son of God. Now Phantaz Sunlyk has admitted that he is
Phantaz Sunlyk. It is was a pseudonym.
¨
Phantazhew Sunlyk cannot
unambiguously endorse the Athanasian Creed, a creed binding on all Catholics
and Anglicans. (Trinity Ekstasis, pp
117-118). After 14 email exchanges in which I got nowhere and was insulted in
every one I put two questions to him. 1.
If you are an orthodox Roman Catholic as you say will you please endorse
without reservations the Athanasian Creed and 2. give me one quote from any contemporary Roman Catholic theologian that
speaks of the eternal subordination of the Son in any manner whatsoever. Her could do neither so I refused to
correspond with him any more. It is simply not true that he refused to write to
me. He has sent me several emails since threatening to “expose” me if I do not
interact with him.
¨
As Phantazhew cannot supply
one quote from a respected Roman Catholic scholar that speaks of the eternal
subordination of the Son this suggests he has a closed mind. He is so sure that
the Son of God is eternally subordinated to the Father that support from
learned Catholic theologians is not needed
¨
Phantazhew admitted he had
never read T F Torrance, probably the
most significant protestant and ecumenical trinitarian theologian of the last
15 years. In his latest attack on me in Trinity
Ekstasis he says he has just started reading Torrance’s, The Christian Doctrine of God.
The Sydney theologians who teach the eternal subordination of the Son also have not been able to find one quote from any contemporary mainline theologian supporting their position, definitely not one Roman Catholic. Comments about differentiation do not count. Orthodoxy is united in holding that differentiation does not entail subordinationism. Sorry. (To appeal to Karl Rahner borders on the absurd and no quote from Rahner to support the claim that he teaches the eternal subordination of the Son can be produced). So what my Sydney “friends” have done is brought forth Phantaz Sunlyk as “the international expert” to prove that Kevin Giles is wrong, his motives evil and his repudiation of the eternal subordination of the Son one big mistake. This suggests an element of desperation among a few diehards in Sydney.
It is my view that Phantazhew Sunlyk’s views are entirely his own. They do not represent informed Roman Catholic opinion. Indeed I think he is in seriously mistaken in all his key ideas. To check on this one would only need to give his Trinity-Ekstasis to any theologically informed Roman Catholic.
(I accept that there a few comments in Barth that speak of a “subordination in God” but here we need to remember firstly that Barth is a dialectical theologian. On every issue he asserts opposing positions – the Bible is the word of God/the Bible is the word of man; Christ reveals the Father/ Christ conceals the Father; only those who believe in Christ will be saved/all will be saved. Secondly, that Barth speaks not of the eternal subordination of the Son but of a subordination “in God,” that is in the Godhead. The triune God is a God who stoops to save. And thirdly, Barth has a section in his Dogmatics (C/D 1.1, pp 381-382) repudiating “every from of subordinationism.” In my book I give an interpretation of Barth’s comments on subordination and I stand by these. See my, The Trinity and Subordinationism, pp 88-89. Nevertheless it is to be emphasised that my case does not rest on what Rahner or Barth say (Contra Baddeley). My primary historical authorities are Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Augustine, Calvin and particularly the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and the Second Helvetic Confession. It is these weighty secondary authorities that categorically oppose the idea that the Son is eternally subordinated to the Father that I draw readers attention to first of all.)
Phantazhew Sunlyk’s views.
Now to some specific matters. I naturally take offence at the repeated accusations that I have deliberately set out to “deceive” people, that I am “purposively deceptive,” and other similar comments, and all I have written is “worthless.” I may be dead wrong, and I may have misread the evidence extensively or in places but these statements are hurtful, untrue and mischievous. I am sorry to hear that what Sunlyk says about me is being put around in Sydney by those who should know better. Sunlyk also claims that I evade the questions he put to me in his many emails. I did write back 14 times in reply to someone who then wrote back immediately with other questions or other accusations always in a rude and offensive manner. It is challenging to debate with someone when you are very busy and have a full life who has nothing else to do but push his idiosyncratic views on the Trinity
In
regard to the Father as the one source
(monarche) of the being or divinity
of the Son Athanasius at the very best is ambiguous. Professor’s Meijering and
Torrance, two of the most learned Athanasian scholars, argue that he did not
endorse this idea at all. They note that when Athanasius uses the word arche to mean “source,” he either denies
that any person is the source of the Son, or he makes the Triad the source (arche) of all divinity. I give extended
quotes from Athanasius (and footnote them and the secondary authorities that
support my readings) in the third section of this essay where I include some of
my research on Athansisus.
I stand by my claim that unlike the Cappadocians Athanasius does not make the Father the monarche of the being of the Son, and in this I follow Torrance among others. If I am wrong on this, and that is doubtful, my position is a respected scholarly opinion. It is not a deliberately concocted idea intended to deceive my readers.
Sunlyk finds what I call Athanasius’ rule very difficult (see Sunlyk, pp 70-71).
Several times Athanasius says, “All that can be said of the Father can be said of the Son except for calling him Father.” This comment or rule is impossible for Sunlyk and all subordinationists to endorse or accept because it excludes on principle all that they hold dear. I encourage my subordinationist friends to think hard and long on these words of the great Alexandrine bishop. I ask them to accept this rule and end the division between us. These words sum up Athanasius position. The Father and the Son are fully equal in being, work and authority, and yet they are eternally Father and Son.
Sunlyk makes a lot of the book by Peter Widdicombe, The Fatherhood of God from Origen to Athanasius, Clarendon, Oxford, 1994, which I am very pleased he put me onto. Because I told him I read the book in one sitting he thinks this proves I am a born liar! I do not withdraw what I said as it happens to be true. Widdicombe’s main point is that at Alexandria under the initial leadership of Origen the idea developed and took root that the distinction between the first two persons of the Godhead was not between Theos and the Logos as with the Apologists, Irenaeus and Tertullian but between the divine Father and Son, correlative titles. There is no Father without the Son and vice versa. Widdicombe speaks repeatedly of the “priority of the term Father,” not of the priority of the Father. I only see two brief sections in the book on the monarche of the Father, in the sense that the Father is the source of the being of the Son, despite the fact that Sunlyk thinks I am misrepresenting Widdicombe and lying. In these two sections I think Widdicombe is mistaken and hasn’t researched the issue and shows no evidence of doing so. He has simply read Athanasius in terms of the Cappadocians. Meijering and Torrance both reject that Athanasius parallels the Cappadocians at this point, as I do. Strangely on page 175 note 57 Widdicombe footnotes the erudite Meijering on this very issue and Meijering denies what Widdicombe asserts. Widdicombe writes before Torrance had published his definitive studies on the early Eastern development of trinitarian doctrine.
The one thing that upsets Sunlyk more than anything else is that I do not endorse the monarchy (sole rule) of the Father, or that the Father is the monarche (sole source) of the being of the Son and the Spirit. He comes back to this matter time and time again. (He really lets his hair down on this on pp 91-94). All subordinationists want to give some priority to the Father so that the Son then stands under him. This involves separating and dividing the Father and the Son and invariably when this is done their relationship is described as “asymmetrical.” Doyle and Baddeley also attack me for questioning the monarchy of the Father. The Cappadocians make the Father the monarche (sole source) of the being of the Son and the Spirit but they do everything they can to eliminate subordinationism. The divine three are one in being, one in operations/works/functions, one in authority and they interpenetrate one another. They insist that there is no hierarchical ordering in the Trinity although they teach that the divine three work in an orderly manner. However many of the most scholarly studies by Western theologians point out that conceptually this view of the Father can lead to subordinationism. So Prestige, Torrance, Pannenberg, J Thompson etc. Sunlyk claims that if any Western theologian questions the monarchy of the Father he must be a contemporary Protestant (Trinity Ekstasis, p 94) This is simply not true. Edmund Fortman, a learned orthodox Roman Catholic commenting on just this issue says, “This approach is entirely orthodox and has many advantages, but if ineptly handled it can easily involve subordinationism” (The Triune God, 282). He expresses my views entirely. The Catholic theologian L Boff (Trinity and Society, p 83) makes exactly the same point and with a little work I could find other Catholics questioning the theological merit of the idea that the Father is the monarche of the being of the Son and Spirit. Without reading Torrance Sunlyk says, “I can see no reason why Torrance would take issue with the doctrine of the monarchy of the Father as it has been and will be presented in this study”! (p 114). For Torrance’s own views see his Christian Doctrine, p 137, 181, Trinitarian Faith, p 241 etc. I have always been of the opinion that it is best to read someone before saying what they must teach!
Neither the Nicene Creed nor the Athanasian Creed teach the monarchy (sole rule) of the Father, or that the Father is the monarche of the Son and the Spirit. The Nicene Creed Catholics and Anglicans confess and the Athanasian Creed speak of the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Athanasian Creed gives no priority to the Father, (“such is the Father such is the Son .. “ and, all are “co-eqaul.”) Sunlyk’s claim that the Catholic Church is about to endorse the monarchy or monarche of the Father is a bit far fetched – the Pope change the Creeds!
If any one wants to read a truly wonderful introduction to the doctrine of the Trinity where the monarchy/monarche of the Father is not endorsed they should read Leonard Boff, Trinity and Society (Orbis 1986). Boff is a Roman Catholic theologian. Boff in the steps of Athanasius begins thinking of the Christian doctrine of God not with the Father but with God as triune for all eternity. This would be my approach that I learnt first from Torrance.
Evangelicals committed to Biblical authority should not readily endorse the idea that the Father is the sole source of the being of the Son and the Spirit if for no other reason than scripture can speak of Christ sending the Spirit (Jn 16:7) and of the Spirit as “the Spirit of God” and the “Spirit of Christ.”
Evangelicals of Reformed persuasion such as me are also wary of this idea because Calvin condemned it. He insisted that Christ was God in his own right (autotheos). Calvin argues that to suggest that God the Father is “the essence giver” is an awful heresy. See Institutes, 1.13.19,21,23,25,26. He gives more time to rejecting this idea than any other aspect of the doctrine of the Trinity
Sunlyk’s arrogance knows no bounds. He not only is certain that I am deceptive and a liar but he also thinks R P C Hanson is dead wrong on key issues (see Sunlyk pages 32 and 34). Hanson is a scholar’s scholar. On the points he disagrees with Hanson I think Hanson is completely right. What particularly upsets him is Hanson’s claim that the Son does not become incarnate “because of his position in the Godhead.” Like Doyle and all subordinationists Sunlyk believes that it was only the Son who could become man because he is the subordinated Son for all eternity. Sons do the will of their fathers: all sons are subordinated to their fathers. Hanson and I think that Athanasius is totally opposed to that idea. He will not allow that God can be defined in human categories. Sunlyk accuses me not only of dishonestly quoting the primary texts but also the secondary literature. With Hanson he says I fail to note that he says the term homoousios must have had some “derivative force” . (Sunlyk, p 89). First, it is no sin not to quote from a book something you do not agree with and here we are to remember Hanson’s book is a doorstopper (931 pages). I immediately went to Hanson to check on Sunlyk’s accusation and found no problem at all with the words set in context (See Hanson, The Search, p 441). Athanasius argues that all sons are one in being (homoousios) with their father. In a passing comment that Hanson does not develop he simply notes what Athanasius’ argument assumes that sons derive their identical being from their fathers. I do not find in Hanson any suggestion that Athanasius thought the Father was the sole source (monarche) of the being of the Son.
Sunlyk also accuses me of dishonestly using Torrance and LaCugna (pp 73) in support of my point that in the Cappadocians the title “Father” can be used of both the Godhead and of the person of the Father. He admits earlier he has not read Torrance and when I looked up what LaCugna says it seems to me she is saying unambiguously just what I claim (God for Us, p 71 and 73). Who can’t read a text objectively Sunlyk or me?
Another charge Sunlyk makes is that I read the doctrine of the Trinity from my feminist perspective. In doing this he cleverly tries to turn the table on me. In reply I simply point out that my primary sources for my presentation of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity are all pre-modern. It is my argument that in a patriarchal context orthodoxy developed a doctrine of a “co-equal Trinity,” excluding hierarchical ordering. For Phantazhew’s benefit I quote Aquinas, “ in the divine persons there exists indeed a natural order but no hierarchical order.” (Summa Theologica, 1, 108). It is not I who introduce novel terminology and ideas taken from the post 70’s case for the permanent subordination into discourse about the Trinity. No orthodox text on the Trinity knows anything about equality and permanent role or functional subordination, or of divine differences being based on differing functions. If I had my way I would rather that debate about the doctrine of the Trinity and the status and ministry of women were kept completely apart. It is the evangelical subordinationists who first connected these matters in an attempt to bolster their case for the permanent subordination of women.
One of the silliest things I find in Sunlyk, and in Doyle and Baddeley, is the repeated charge that I am, or I border on being, a modalist. I am weak on divine distinctions. Behind this charge is the fact that all subordinationists border on tritheism, the opposite error to modalism. Subordinationists all stress the differences so as to set the Father above the Son in some way. So when they see me stressing the equality of the persons they see a threat to their own position. I have a whole chapter on this in my forthcoming book. Orthodoxy from the time of Nicea has always given more stress to equality and unity than difference. It has consistently recognised the perennial heresy is subordinationism. Orthodoxy affirms divine differentiation without separation or division in the Godhead: subordinationism stresses differentiation and divides and separates the Godhead. A read of the Athanasian Creed proves my point. All but one clause on the Trinity stresses the unity and equality of the divine persons, only one clause mentions their differentiation on the basis of differing origins. For Catholic opinion on all this no better authority than Thomas Aquinas can be quoted. He said,
“To escape the
error of Arius we must not, in speaking of God, use the words ‘diversity’ and
‘difference’ lest we should compromise the unity of nature; we can, however,
use the word ‘distinction’ on account of relative opposition. Thus if we come
across a reference to diversity or difference of persons in any authoritative
text, we take it to mean ‘distinction’.” (Summa
Theologiae, 6, p 89).
I can only say it once more, I unequivocally believe in the real and eternal distinctions between Father, Son and Spirit. I believe that the Son is the divine person who became incarnate but I see nothing in scripture that demands that he alone is the only one who could have become incarnate. To think that it is necessary that the Son as a son takes the servant’s job offends me. In the one text that may bear on this issue, Phil 2:4ff, the Son has equality with God and voluntarily chooses to become man and die for our salvation. I notice that Warfield (“The Biblical Doctrine”, p 111) suggests that any subordination seen in the Son or the Spirit is due to “an agreement between the persons of the Trinity .. by virtue of which a distinction function in the work of redemption is voluntary assumed by each.”
I
am sorry, I think there is one sillier comment in Sunlyk than the one just
mentioned. More than once he accuses me of being a “monarchial modalistic
tritheist.” This sounds a very nasty heresy. The trouble with this is that
modalism (there is only one God who appears in three forms or modes) is the
exact opposite error to tritheism (there are three eternally distinct Gods).
One can be a modalist or a tritheist but one cannot be both. If one could then
there could be round squares!
Phantazhew
Sunlyk makes numerous other charges against me and I am happy to respond to any
of them but I think I have said enough to show that most of what he says is
driven by his passion to subordinate the Son to the Father, and sadly, ill will
to someone who differs from him. He does not seem to be able to differ from
another Christian on a theological matter without attributing the lowest of
base motives, deception, to the other person. Until Phantazhew can get beyond this
he will never be a scholar and I suspect never publish anything in print. He is
doomed forever to the Internet where he can say what he likes.
Part 2. The Athanasian Creed.
My most basic thesis is that what the
1999 Sydney Doctrine Commission asserted and what Sunlyk, Baddeley, Moody and
Doyle teach is directly contrary to the Athanasian Creed that all Anglicans and
all Roman Catholics are bound to endorse. The 1999 doctrine commission
members called this creed “a standard authority for Anglicans” (para 9), and I
would agree but add that I think it gives authoritative guidance to all
Christians who claim to be orthodox, and members of the one catholic/universal
church. I think this creed settles every issue in contention. This creed
clearly rules on the key issues in debate.
¨
Modalism
and tritheism are excluded absolutely. There is one God and three persons. “We
worship one God … neither confounding the persons: nor dividing the substance.”
“So the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there
are not three Gods but one”
¨
The
Father is given no priority. “Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such
is the Holy Spirit.” This is the first of many statements seeking to exclude
subordinationism in any form – the perennial heresy.
¨
No
derivative subordination is allowed. The Father is not the source of the being
of the Son or the Spirit. This creed does not make the Father the monarche of the Son and the Spirit.
¨
No
subordination in the being of the Son
or the Spirit is allowed. The substance/being of God is one.
¨
No
subordination in authority whatsoever is allowed. All three persons are said to
be equally “almighty” and “Lord”
¨
The
persons are differentiated by only one thing besides their personal identities:
the Father is “unbegotten,” the Son is “begotten,” and the Spirit is
“proceeding.” Neither in this creed or anywhere in the tradition does differentiation
imply subordination.
¨
And
to sum it all up this creed says, “In this Trinity none is before or after,
none is greater or lesser than another … [all three are] “are co-eternal
together and co-equal.” If we can agree
to affirm this clause without caveats we have nothing to argue about
¨
The
Son is “only inferior to the Father as touching his manhood.” (that is while he
was in the “form of man,” as Augustine teaches.) “As touching his “Godhead”
(which is eternal) he is “equal to the Father.”
The one time Oxford professor, Leonard
Hodgson, says the Athanasian Creed is the only one of the ancient creeds
"that explicitly and unequivocally states the full Christian doctrine of
God,” and this creed he adds, “express [es] rejection … of all subordinationism."[1]
Similarly, J. N. D. Kelly, another Oxford professor says, in the Athanasian
Creed “the dominant idea (is) the perfect equality of the three persons.”[2] Thus
to confess this creed is to reject the idea that the Son is eternally
subordinated to the Father in being, function or authority and to agree that
this is what the Bible teaches when read correctly. I ask, How can this creed be read to teach the eternal subordination of
the Son in any way?
As I have mentioned Sunlyk like all
subordinationists has huge problems with the Athanasian Creed. He cannot
endorse what it teaches although he claims to be an orthodox Catholic. On p 118
of his Trinity Ekstasis, he tells us
for Catholics “the Athanasian Creed itself
(theologically) [is] subordinate to the Nicene Creed.” In contrast Edmund
Fortman, a Roman Catholic scholar of impressive learning says the Athanasian
Creed’s “dogmatic value in the Western church [is] equal to that of the
Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds.” (The Triune
God, 161). He speaks of its formulas as “balanced” and “elaborate.” Sunlyk
speaks of the creed as “ambiguous.” (p 118)
Part 3. What
Athanasius says.
I now enclose the section from my forthcoming book in draft form on Athanasius and subordinationism. Informed comment and criticism citing any thing in Athanasius that I might have misunderstood or read incorrectly will be gladly received. Be assured I do not want to misread my sources, let alone be deceptive. I want informed and objective scrutiny of my work. Please help me if you can as you will be the first readers of what I have written here.
Athanasius was one of the greatest theologians of
all times.[1]
His theological acumen is breathtaking. In opposition first to Arius and then
to the later “Arians” he pioneered a way of understanding the Trinity that
modern day scholars now recognise for its brilliance. He was the first to give
the “model” of an eternal “co-equal” Trinity where the three divine persons are
differentiated yet profoundly one, and the Son and the Spirit are not
subordinated to the Father in being or function. This was largely due to his
profound grasp of scripture and his revolutionary insight that to understand
the Bible rightly a well thought out theologically-based hermeneutic was
demanded.[2] Much of his "Four Discourses Against
the Arians" is taken up with the exposition of the many biblical passages
the Arians quoted in support of their case. [3] He judges their hermeneutic to be selective,
"devious" and "irreligious." [4]
Two passages he came to see offered the key to grasping what he called the “scope”
of scripture, the overall story line we might say: the prologue to John’s
Gospel, especially verses 1 and 14, and Philippians 2:5-11. The first passage
teaches that “the Word was with God” and “the Word became flesh,” and the
second that the Son “was equal with God but emptied himself.” These two texts give what he calls “a double account of the saviour” – one
temporal and one eternal.[5]
He gladly accepts that there are many passages in scripture that speak of the
Son’s obedience and subordination to the Father. These he holds emphasise the
reality of the incarnation. They highlight the Son’s voluntary and temporary
subordination for our salvation. In his eternal being, however, there could be
no subordination at all.
The human frailties seen in the incarnate Son Athanasius attributes solely to his human nature. He writes
“When he is said to hunger,
and to thirst, and to toil, and not to know, and to sleep, and to weep, and to
ask, and to flee and to be born, and to deprecate the cup, and to undergo all
that belongs to the flesh … these affections may be acknowledges as not proper
to the very Word by nature, but proper by nature to the very flesh. …
The Word himself is
impassible, and yet because of the flesh, which he put on these things are
ascribed to him.”[6]
This explanation of the incarnation enabled Athanasius to reject the
Arian argument that the limitations and weaknesses of the incarnate Son were
proof of his eternal subordination to the Father and to avoid the idea that God
himself could suffer. Later orthodox theologians would follow his lead by
insisting that the human characteristics of the incarnate Son should not be
read back into the eternal Trinity but they would embrace more strongly than
Athanasius the full humanity and the full divinity of the one Christ. It was,
however, only in the mid twentieth century, mainly thanks to Karl Barth, that
orthodox theologians came to accept that the God of the Bible can suffer.
In direct opposition to the
Arians who held that God could not make direct contact with matter, let alone
with human flesh, Athanasius proposed what T F Torrance calls a “breathtaking
understanding of God.”[7]
He argued that the God of Christian revelation while distinct from the world
unceasingly and creatively is present in the world he made and loves. In the
incarnation God actually assumed humanity while not giving up his divinity in
any measure. What this implied was a God who could have communion and contact
with creation. Epistemologically it meant that physical human beings could
actually know God who is immaterial through Jesus Christ. This knowledge was a
knowing of the very being of God because to know Jesus constituted knowing the
Father. He says, "For this is why he who has seen the Son has seen the
Father, and why the knowledge of the Son is knowledge of the Father."[8]
Also in direct opposition to the Arians Athanasius conceived of the Christian God as triune from all eternity, developing and correcting Origen’s teaching, and restating that of his mentor Bishop Alexander (d 328) who had first opposed Arius. He says God is “not a monad first who afterwards becomes a Triad,”[9] and we “Christians acknowledge the blessed Triad as unalterable and perfect and ever what it was.”[10] However, it was the Father-Son relationship that Athanasius concentrated on because this was what was at issue with the Arians. First of all Athanasius insisted on calling the first person of the Trinity “Father.” He particularly disliked the Arian designation of God as “the Unoriginate” (Gk agenetos), a title they equated with “the Unbegotten” (Gk agennetos). Athanasius could accept that from his “works” (i.e. creation) God may be called “the Unoriginate,” but not in relation to the Son. He says this designation of God is “unscriptural.” It is more “pious” to use the language of the Bible and speak of “Father” because this word envisages a Son.[11] If God is Father from all eternity, and he is, then it follows that the Son is also eternal. The Father cannot be the Father without the Son and the Son cannot be the Son without the Father. On this basis he thinks it is absurd to argue that “once the Son was not,” as the Arians did. If there was a time when the Son was not there must have been a time when the Father was not and this is an impossible. To put it succinctly for Athanasius the Father and the Son are eternally correlated. The Father never stands alone or works alone. Pannenberg states that “Athanasius’ most important argument [was] that the Father would not be the Father without the Son (Contra Arian 1.29).”[12]
The word “begotten” and “offspring” are for Athanasius helpful terms to use of the Father-Son relationship because they “signify a Son … And beholding the Son we see the Father.” [13] He, however, rejects that these human words when applied to the Son suggest he is created by the Father. This does not convince the Arians. They want to understand the terms “Father” and “Son” in the way these words are understood when used of human fathers and sons. For them the word “son” indicated that Jesus must be different from the Father and less than the Father because all human sons are less than their father. Athanasius quickly dismisses this argument by pointing out that human sons are in fact one in being with their father.[14] Athanasius will not allow that it is possible to define divine relations in terms of human relations. Although he does not use the words “analogical” or “metaphorical” he is arguing that human language used of God should not be taken literally, although it conveys truth. [15] More than once in answer to the Arians literal understanding of the terms Father and Son used of God he says, “God is not man.”[16] Contemporary evangelicals follow the Arians when they want us to believe that because human fathers have authority over their sons so the divine Father has authority over his Son.[17] When evangelicals argue this way biblical revelation is made secondary to human reasoning.
How Athanasius relates to
the much debated idea that the Father is the monarche is significant. The first part of this word “mon” (a contracted form of the Greek
word monos) means “only,” or, “sole,”
or even, “isolated by itself.” The Greek word arche means “source, “origin,” or “authority.” [18] Robert Doyle thinks Athanasius uses the word
to indicate that God the Father is “the eternal monarch” - the sole ruler.[19]
This term he says defines what Athanasius meant by calling the first person of
the Godhead “Father.” The Son stands “in subordination to that monarchy.”[20]
This claim seems highly unlikely because for Athanasius the Father and the Son
can never be divided. There is no Father without the Son. The two are
correlatives, always conjoined. In every case where I found Athanasius speaking
of God ruling the Son rules with him. The Father and his Logos or Wisdom conjointly rule[21]
When we consider the Athanasius’ use of
the particular Greek word monarchia
Doyle’s thesis completely collapses.
According to Muller’s concordance[22]
Athanasius only uses the Greek word monarchia
four times, and none of them indicate that he ever thought of the Father
ruling alone, let alone ruling over the Son. In the first usage he is quoting
Bishop Dionysius with approval for repudiating those who “divide” “the divine
monarchy” which is “a Triad” for all eternity.[23]
In the second instance he says,
“So the Father and the Son
are two, yet the Monad of the Godhead is indivisible and inseparable. And thus
too we preserve one beginning (arche)
of Godhead and not two beginnings, whence there is strictly a monarchy (monarchia).[24]
The only other two uses of
this word by Athanasius appear in his diatribe against later Arian teaching
written in about 360. In both cases the word appears in quotes from those with
whom he differs sharply. The first is uncontroversial. The Arians opposing
Marcellus’ modalist teaching speak themselves of the Father and the Son
conjointly sharing the divine monarchy. [25]
However, they then go on to speak of “the Father alone” as “head over the whole
universe wholly and over the Son himself, and the Son subordinated to the
Father … such is the divine monarchy towards Christ.” [26]
Athanasius sees this teaching as directly contradicting the rulings of the
Council of Nicea dividing the one Godhead and setting the Son below the Father
in authority. Repeatedly he calls such teaching “blasphemy.” He such phrases
“match the Arian heresy”[27]
What is to be noted is that what Athanasius cites as heretical teaching word
for word matches what Doyle claims Athanasius teaches and he endorses!
Peter Widdicombe also thinks
that Athanasius taught the monarche
of the Father, but this time in the sense that he is the “sole source” or “sole
beginning” of the being of the Son and the Spirit. For Athanasius, he says, the
Father is “the font of divinity.”[28]
Again I dare to dissent. Athanasius does not use the word monarche to mean the one source or sole beginning and it would seem
that he does not have a developed and consistent understanding of the Father as
the arche (source, or beginning) of
the Son and the Spirit.. He frequently uses the word arche in reference to the Father and the Son but in every case the
debate he is engaged in, or the point he wants to make, determines how he uses
the word.
When he is opposing the
Arian argument that if the Father and the Son are both eternal they must be
brothers, as if they were “generated from some pre-existing origin or source (arche)” he replies, “the Father is the
origin (arche) of the Son who begat
him.”[29]
Later opposing much the same idea he says, “the Father’s essence (ousia) is the origin (arche) and root and fountain of the Son.” [30] In this debate he speaks of the eternal Father as the origin of the eternal Son to avoid allowing that there
is anything prior to God, but to make
one of two eternal divine persons the source of the other is very difficult, if
not logically impossible.[31]
In the context of his wider
debate with the Arians what Athanasius wants to exclude absolutely is Origen’s
middle Platonist premise that a cause is always superior to what is caused. On
this premise the Son does not fully participate
in the divinity of the Father. Athanasius entirely breaks with this idea. Time
and time again he insists that the Son fully participates (the Greek words are methexis, metousia, metoche) in the divine life.[32] The Father and the Son are one in being (homoousios). Meijering says, “Athanasius
is completely opposed to any hierarchy in God”[33]
… which he regards as “idolatry.”[34]
It is thus of no surprise to
find that at times Athansisus denies that the Son has an arche. After agreeing that all creatures have a beginning in time he
says the Son has no such beginning. He writes, “The Word has his beginning (arche) in no other beginning (arche) than the Father whom they allow
to have no beginning (anarche), so he
too exists without beginning (anarche).”[35]
And then to complicate things
yet again he introduces the revolutionary and visionary idea that the whole
Godhead is in fact the arche of the
three persons. He says,
"We know of but one
origin (arche), and the all-framing
Word we profess to have no other manner of Godhead, than that of the only God,
because he is born from him. … For there is but one form of Godhead, which is also in the Word. For thus we
confess God to be through the Triad."[36]
Later in his "Synodal Letter to the People of Antioch"
he reiterates this point. He says, there is
“A Holy Trinity but one Godhead and one beginning (arche),
and that the Son is co-essential with the Father … while the Holy Spirit [is]
proper to and inseparable from the essence of the Father and the Son.”[37]
Then in the “Fourth Discourse Against the Arians,” probably not written by Athanasius,[38]
yet reflecting his teaching, we read
“For the Word, being Son of
the One God is referred to him of whom also he is; so that the Father and the
Son are two, yet the Monad of the Godhead is indivisible and inseparable. And
thus too we preserve one beginning (arche)
of the Godhead and not two beginnings (archai),
whence there is strictly a monarchy (monarchia).
And of this very beginning (arche)
the Word is by nature Son, not as if another beginning (arche), subsisting by himself.[39]
In these passages Athanasius speaks of the Godhead as the arche, rather than the Father alone as
the arche. [40]
Torrance says that for Athansisus the monarche
“is identical with the Trinity.”[41]
We have already noted that Athanasius breaks with Tertullian and refusing to
speak of the Father alone as the ruler of all (Lat. monarchia), and that he breaks with Origen refusing to allow that
causation involves subordination and now we see he differs from the
Cappadocians in making the triadic Godhead, not the Father alone, the arche of the Son and the Spirit
In trying to get our minds
around all this Athanasius most fundamental insight offers the key. For him the
Father is never alone. The Father cannot exist without the Son, nor the Son
without the Father. Father and Son are correlatives. He says, “When we call God
Father at once with the Father we signify the Son’s existence.”[42]
R P C Hanson says, “in the Father we have the Son: this is a summary of
Athanasius’ theology.”[43]
Frequently he draws on biblical images to illustrate this unbreachable
correlation between the Father and the Son. The Son “is the Father’s image and
Word eternal, never having not been, but being ever, as the eternal Radiance of
a light which is eternal.”[44]
To the Arians who say, “there was a once when he was not,” Athanasius replies,
they rob the Father “of his Word like plunders” suggesting that “he was once without Radiance, and the
Fountain was once barren and dry.”[45]
The imagery of God as a fountain is common in Athanasius. It is his argument
that if the fountain is destitute of Life and Wisdom (identified as the
Son) “it is not a fountain.”[46]
In his earlier writings
Athanasius uses a number of terms[47]
to denote the ontological unity of the Father and the Son, not needing to rely
on the word homoousios (of one being
or substance) that was so important at the council of Nicea (325). In his
“Discourses Against the Arians” written probably between 339 and 345, he only
uses the word once. It was only when this word was repudiated in the 350’s by
Athanasius’ opponents that he came to see it must be defended at all cost to
guarantee the apostolic faith. In reply to those who objected to the term, homoousios, seeing in it the danger of
modalism which collapsed the distinctions within the Godhead, Athanasius argued
that the term spoke both of the unity of being of the one God who is eternally
a Triad, and of the eternal distinctions of the three persons – only differing
things or persons can be said to be homoousios.
His insistence on this term to sum up the "scope" of scripture
discloses not only his theological concerns, but also his epistemological
concerns. This word emphatically signifies that in and through the Son (and in
the Spirit) God communicates himself. How
we know and what we know of God the
Father is through the Son. In Athanasius “the whole Godhead” is complete in the
Son as much as it is in the Father. God is God the Son as much as he is God the
Father. From this follows what we might call, “Athanasius’ rule” because he
repeats it many times, “the same things are said of the Son which are said of
the Father except for calling him Father.”[48]
Athanasius opposed Arianism
principally because it presupposed a
difference in being between the Father and the Son. Right at the heart of
Arius’ theology was ontological subordinationism. For Arius and his followers
the Son could only be called God in a secondary sense. In reply Athanasius
argued that to deny that the Father and the Son are eternally one in being is
to deny what is essential to Christian faith and salvation.
"For must not he be
perfect who is equal to God? And must not he be unalterable who is one with the
Father, and his Son proper to his essence? …
For this is why he who has
seen the Son has seen the Father, and why knowledge of the Father is knowledge
of the Son."[49]
Athanasius will not allow
any disjunction between the Father and the Son. The two texts he quotes the
most are Jn 10:30, “I and the Father are one,” and Jn 14:9, “He who has seen me
has seen the Father.” For him the unity of the three divine persons was so
profound that it implied their coinherence, or mutual indwelling.[50]
Building on the words of Jn 14:11, “I am in the Father and the Father in me,”
he reasoned that at all times there is a complete mutual indwelling in which
each divine person, while each remains what he is by himself as Father, Son or
Holy Spirit, each is wholly in the others as the others are wholly in him. He
did not use the word perichoresis, it
had not yet been coined, but it was he who developed the conception of the
coinherence, of the persons of the Trinity. This insight was later recognised
to be yet another of his many important pioneering contributions to trinitarian
theology. Once this complete coinherence of the persons of the Trinity is
recognised it follows that the works of the divine three cannot be divided.
Because the Father is always in the Son and the Son is always in the Father
their works are one.
What this last point makes
plain is that Athanasius not only rejects any suggestion whatsoever that the
Son is subordinate in being to the
Father, but also any suggestion whatsoever that the Son is eternally
subordinate to the Father in function,
role, or work. He is as opposed to ontological subordinationism as he is to
functional subordinationism because he clearly saw the latter implied the
former as the Arians never tired of pointing out. In contrast to his opponents
Athanasius never speaks of the Father commanding and the Son obeying. For him
the Father and the Son share a perfect unity of will.[51]
The idea that there is "chain of command" within the Trinity would
have been an abhorrent thought to him. Grudem may claim that Athanasius teaches
the subordination of the Son to the Father in role and function, [52]
and Robert Doyle that the Father is “the one ruler” set over the Son[53]
but nothing could be further from the truth. Athanasius simply cannot conceive
of such a division between the Father and the Son. They are one and they work
as one. R. P. C. Hanson says that for Athanasius, “As the Son acts so the
Father acts inseparably.”[54]
Time and time again the Alexandrine bishop insists that what the Father does
the Son does and vice versa. He writes:
“Wherefore through the Son does the Father create and in him
reveal himself to whom he will, and illuminate them … For where the Father is,
there is the Son and where the light, there is the radiance, and what the
Father works, he works through the Son, and as the Lord himself says, ‘What I
see the Father do, that I do also’; so also when baptism is given, whom the
Father baptises, him the Son baptises.”[55]
“When the Son works, the
Father is the worker, and the Son coming to the saints, the Father is he who
comes… Therefore also … when the Father gives grace and peace, the Son also
gives it.”[56]
“What God speaks, it is very plain. He speaks through the Word and
not another, and the Word is not separate from the Father, nor unlike and
foreign to the Father’s essence, what he works, those are the Father’s works.”[57]
In these quotes we should note
that Athanasius, following the New Testament, thinks of the divine persons
working together cooperatively, symmetrically and in an orderly way. “Through
the Son does the Father create;” “he works through the Son,” and he “speaks
through the Son.” It was, however, in The
Letters of St Athanasius Concerning the Holy Spirit that I found the only
fully trinitarian expression of this motif. “The Father does all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit. Thus the unity of the Holy Triad is preserved.” [58]
This patterned working or functioning in no way implies a division or
disjunction between the Father, Son and Spirit, let alone the subordination of
the Son and the Spirit as this last quote indicates, as does the following.
“For the Father having given all things to the Son, in the Son still has all things; and the Son having still the Father has them; for the Son’s Godhead is the Father’s Godhead, and thus the Father and the Son exercise his providence over all things.”[59]
In recognising that the works of the Son reveal who
he is Athanasius once more demonstrates his profound grasp of biblical thought.
He clearly saw that in the Bible what God does reveals who God is, and in
particular that the works of the Son reveal that he is equal God (Jn 5:36,
9:3-4, 10:25, 10:37, 14:10). In enunciating this principle Athanasius perfectly
captured Biblical thinking. This unity of being and action between the Father,
Son and Spirit, first spelt out by Athanasius, is a constant theme from this
point on in the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. On this basis it is held that
to eternally subordinate the Son or
the Spirit in work/operation/function by necessity implies their ontological
subordination. If the Son (and the Spirit) on the basis of his personal
identity alone must always take the
subordinate role and always be obedient to the Father, then he must be a
subordinated person, less than his superior in some way. Athanasius’ denial of
the eternal functional subordination of the Son does not entail a denial of or
confusing of the eternal distinctions between the Father and the Son (or the
Holy Spirit). For him, "They are
two, because the Father is Father and is not also Son, and the Son is Son and
not also Father.”[60]
For Athansisus it naturally follows that if the
Father and the Son are inseparably one in being and work then they must be one
in all the divine attributes, including omnipotence.[61]
So he writes. “For he ever was and is Lord and sovereign of all, being like in all things to the
Father.”[62] “He is Lord
of all because he is one with the Father’s Lordship.”[63] “For though the Word existing in the form of
God took a servants form, yet the assumption of the flesh did not make a
servant of the Word, who was by nature Lord.”[64]
Widdicombe concludes,
“The Son possess the divine attributes (things) in the same way as the Father possesses them, because he is the proper offspring of the Father’s being. He possesses them not in a transferred sense, but fully and properly.”[65]
To bring this discussion of
Athanasius own writings to a close I quote one last passage that sums up
eloquently his complete rejection of any subordination whatsoever within the
eternal Trinity or any hierarchical ordering. He holds that none stand nearer
to God than the Cherubim and Seraphim yet no one has ever suggested that in,
"The first utterance of
the word, Holy, their voice is raised aloud, while in the second it is lower,
but in the third, quite low, - and that consequently the first utterance
denotes lordship, the second subordination, and the third marks a yet a lower
degree. But away with the folly of these haters of God and senseless men. For
the Triad, praised reverenced and adored, is one and indivisible and without
degrees (aschematistos). It is united without confusion, just as the Monad also
is distinguished without separation. For the fact of those venerable living
creatures (Isa.vi; Rev. iv.8) offering their praise three times, saying 'Holy,
Holy, Holy,' proves that the three Subsistences are perfect, just as in saying
'Lord', they declare the One Essence. They then that depreciate the
Only-Begotten Son of God, blaspheme God, defaming his perfection and accusing
him of imperfection, and render themselves liable to the severest
chastisement. For he who blasphemes any
one of the Subsistences shall have no remission …"[66]
There is no uncertainty or
ambiguity. In Athanasius we find the most thorough repudiation of the idea that
the Son is in any way eternally subordinated to the Father. For him, without
any caveats, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in being,
action and authority. In answer to the Arians Athanasius completely rejects the
idea that the Trinity is to be understood as a hierarchy in any form. He could
not allow any diminution in the Son's divinity, majesty or authority, neither
in who he is or in what he does. Many times he repeats the principle, “The same
things are said of the Son that are said of the Father, except for calling him
Father.”[67] He does not
think of the Father as "first," the Son "second” and the Holy
Spirit "third." Indeed it may even be argued that for Athanasius the
Son is "first." It is the Son who reveals the Father and it is the
Son who is the savior of men and women. He is the "fullness of the
Godhead."[68] As far as
Athanasius was concerned the Arians did not merely “overemphasise the
subordinationist elements in the NT,” as the 1999 Sydney Doctrine Commission Report states,[69]
they undermined the very foundations of Christianity. By arguing that the Son
is different in being from the Father
they impugned the full divinity of Christ, the veracity of the revelation of
God in Christ and the possibility of salvation through Christ.[70]
In Pannenberg's estimation,
“Athanasius vanquished subordinationism, insisting that we cannot think of the
Father as Father without the Son and the Spirit. He left no place for causally
related graduations in the fullness of the divine being.” [71]
Phantaz Sunlyk's response here.
[1] Helpful introductions to Athanasius’
theology include Hanson, The Search,
421-458, Widdicombe, The Fatherhood of
God, 145-171, A Petterson, Athanasius,
London Chapman, 1995.
[2] My primary source is P. Schaff and H. Wace
(eds), The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers
of the Christian Church, (henceforth NPNF)
4, St Athanasius: Select works and Letters, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1971.
20 On the Arian use of the Bible and the
orthodox reply see R. P. C. Hanson, The
Search for the Christian Doctrine of God, Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark,
1988, 824-849. In relation to the key texts from John’s Gospel see
particularly, T. E. Pollard, Johannine
Christology in the Early Church, Cambridge, CUP, 1970.
[4] “Four Discourses”,
1.1-5 (pp 306-308)
[5] Ibid, 3.26.29 (p 409).
[6] Ibid, 3.26.34 (p 412).
[7] “Athanasius: A Study in the Foundations of
Classical Theology,” in Theology in
Reconciliation, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1975, 222.
[8] “Discourses”, 1.10. 26 (p 327). His basis for this claim is Jn 14:9,
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” which he quotes incessantly.
[9] Ibid,
1.6.17 (p 316).
[10] Ibid, 1.6.18 (p 317).
[11] Ibid,
1.34-35 (p 326).
[12] Systematic
Theology, I, translated by G W Bromiley, Grand Rapids, Eerdamns.,1991, 273.
[13] “Discourses”, 1.5.16 (p 316).
[14] Ibid,
1.8.27-28 (p 323)
[15] Ibid, 2.18.34-35 (p 366-367: “On the
Councils”, 42 (p 472).
[16] Ibid, 2.28. 33 (p 367)
[17] Robert Doyle, “Are we Heretics? 14, asks,
“If the Father is not the final locus of authority, how indeed can he really be
a ‘father.’” Then he says, the “Father is a real father and the triune Son a
real son. Neither names are metaphorical.”
[18] It is true that
Tertullian used the Latin transliteration of this term (monarchia) and that he
subordinated Son and the Spirit to the Father but when he spoke of the monarchy of the Father he always spoke
of the Son and the Spirit sharing in the one divine rule See “Against Praxeas”,
in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 3, eds A
Roberts and J Donaldson, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1973, 4. (p 599) and my
discussion of this matter in chapter XX
[19] Ibid,
13.
[20] Ibid.
[21] “Against the Heathen,” 40.2, 4, 5 (p 24),
“On Luke 10:22” (p 87-90), and “Defence of the Nicene Council”, 30 (p 171).
[22] G Muller, Lexicon Athanasianum, Berlin, de Gruyter, 1953, col. 921.
[23] “Defence of the Nicene Definition”, 5.26
(p 167)
[24] Discourses, 4.1 (p 433). It is generally
thought that the fourth discourse reflects Athanasius’ ideas but it was not
written by him.
[25] “Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia, 26 (p 463)
[26] Ibid, (P464)
[27] Ibid,
4 (p 452)
[28] The
Fatherhood of God, 175, 255.
[29] “Discourses”, 1:5.14 (p 314).
[30] “Councils”, 45 (p 474), cf. 51 (p 477).
[31] Hanson, The Search, 435 n 65, says, “It is doubtful whether the word
‘cause’ can have any meaning when applied to two eternally existing divine
persons.”
[32] On this concept see R Williams, Arius: Heresy and Tradition, 215-229 and
Widdicombe, The Fatherhood of God,
189-192. For a good discussion of this see “Councils, 51-52 (pp 476-478)
[33] Orthodoxy
and Platonism in Athanasius: Synthesis or Antithesis, Leiden, Brill, 1974,
129.
[34] Ibid,
131.
[35] “Discourses”, 2.57 (p 379).
[36] Discourses”, 3.15 (p 402) cf. “Discourses”, 3.1, “Synodal Letter”, 11 (p 494),”On Luke 10:22, 6 (p 90), “Statement of Faith,” 1-4 (pp 84-85).
[37] 5. (p 484).
[38] Hanson, The Search, 418.
[39] “Discourses”, 4.1
(p 433)
[40] See further on all this, Meijering,
“Athanasius”, 8, and in more detail Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God: One being Three Persons, T & T
Clarke, Edinburgh, 1996, 183, and The Trinitarian
Faith, T & T Clarke, Edinburgh, 1988,
78-79, 241-242. Hanson, The Search,
434-435, comes to the same
conclusion
[41] The
Christian Doctrine, 183.
[42] “Discourses, 3.6 (p 397).
[43] The Search, 426.
[44] “Discourses”, 1.13
(p 314).
[45] Discourses”, 1.14 (p 315). See also most
of 1.20 (p 318).
[46] “Discourses”, 1.19 (p 317).
[47] For a list of these expressions see
Hanson, The Search, 437.
[48] “Discourses” 3.4 (p 395), 3.5 (395) see
also 3.6 (p 396); “The Councils”, 3.49
(twice) p 476.
[49] Ibid,
1.35 (p 327).
[50]
This is a much repeated motif see especially 3. 2-6.
[51] “Discourses”, 2.2
(p 349). He here describes the Son as “the living will of the Father.”
Athanasius does not say that the Father and the Son have one will but he does
insist that they are one in being and work which implies just this. See ibid, 3.10 (p 399)
[52] Systematic,
245.
[53] “Are we heretics? A Review of the Trinity and Subordinationism by Kevin Giles,” The Briefing, April, 2004, 13-14. Doyle adds that the Son defines “himself in subordination to that monarchy” (sole rule of the Father). In other words, he is by definition the subordinated Son.
[54] The
Search, 427.
[55] “Discourses” 2.4 (p 370).
[56] Ibid,
3.11 (p 400).
[57] Ibid,
3.14 (p 402).
[58] Translated by C R B
Shapland, London, Epworth, 1951, Epistle 1. 135
[59] “Against the Arians,” 3.36 (p 414)
[60] Ibid,
3.4 (p 395)
[61] Ibid,
1.21 (p 318), 1. 33 (p 325), 3.4 (p 395), 3. 6 (p 396), “The Councils”, 49 (p
476).
[62] Ibid,
2.18 (p 357).
[63] Ibid,
3.64 (p 429).
[64] Ibid,
2.14 (p 355), 2.50 (p 375). For Athanasius the designation “servant’ can only
be applied to the human form of the Son.
[65] The Fatherhood, 204. Several times in quotes from Athanasius the
word “properly” (Gk idios) has
appeared. This is an important and much used term in his writings. He uses it
to underline the co-essential unity of the Father and the Son. On this term see
Widdicombe, ibid, 193-203, and
Petterson, Athanasius, 145-146.
[66] “On Luke 10:22”, 6 (p 90).
[67] “Discourses” 3.4
(p 395), 3.1 (p 395), 3.6 (p 396), 4.3 (p 434), “Councils of Ariminum” 49 (p
476 twice), “On Luke 10:22” 3 and 4 (pp 88-89).
[68] Ibid,
3.1 (p 394).
[69] Para 22.
[70] So Athanasius argues. See “Discourses”,
1-10 (pp 306-312).
[71] Systematic Theology, 1, translated by G W Bromiley, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1991, 275. So also Meijering, “Athanasius”, 11.