Part 15 (1/2)

Ch. 22. What else is this voice but the Word of G.o.d, who is also His Son?

Not as the poets and writers of myths talk of the sons of the G.o.ds begotten from intercourse with women, but as the Truth expounds, the Word that always exists, residing within [_endiatheton_] the heart of G.o.d. For before anything came into existence He had Him for His counsellor, being His own mind and thought. But when G.o.d wished to make all that He had determined on, He begat this Word proceeding forth [_prophorikon_], the first-born of all creation, not being Himself emptied of the Word [_i.e._, being without reason], but having begotten Reason and always conversing with His reason.

(B) The Doctrine of the Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity followed naturally from the doctrine of the Logos. The fuller discussion belongs to the Monarchian controversies. It is considered here as a position resulting from the general position taken by the apologists. (_V. infra_, 40.)

(_a_) Theophilus, _Ad Autolyc.u.m_, II, 15. (MSG, 6:1078.)

The following pa.s.sage is probably the earliest in which the word Trinity, or Trias, is applied to the relation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is usual in Greek theology to use the word Trias as equivalent to the Latin term Trinity. _Cf._ Tertullian, _Adv.

Praxean_, 2, for first use of the term Trinity in Latin theology.

In like manner, also, the three days, which were before the luminaries(54) are types of the Trinity (Trias) of G.o.d, and His Word, and His Wisdom.

(_b_) Athenagoras, _Supplicatio_, 10, 12. (MSG, 6:910, 914.)

Athenagoras, one of the ablest of the apologists, was, like Justin Martyr and several others, a philosopher before he became a Christian. His apology, known as _Supplicatio_, or _Legatio pro Christianis_, is his most important work. Its date is probably 177, as it is addressed to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.

Ch. 10. If it occurs to you to inquire what is meant by the Son, I will briefly state that He is the first product of the Father, not as having been brought into existence (for from the beginning G.o.d, who is the eternal mind [_Nous_], had the Logos in Himself, being eternally reasonable [???????]), but inasmuch as He came forth to be idea and energizing power of all material things, which lay like a nature without attributes, and an inactive earth, the grosser particles being mixed up with the lighter. The prophetic Spirit also agrees with our statements: The Lord, it says, created me the beginning of His ways to His works.

The Holy Spirit himself, also, which operates in the prophets we say is an effluence of G.o.d, flowing from Him and returning back again as a beam of the sun.

Ch. 12. Are, then, those who consider life to be this, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die [_cf._ I Cor. 15:32], and who regard death as a deep sleep and forgetfulness [_cf._ Hom., _Iliad_, XVI. 672], to be regarded as living piously? But men who reckon the present life as of very small worth indeed, and are led by this one thing alongthat they know G.o.d and with Him His Logos, what is the oneness of the Son with the Father, what the communion of the Father with the Son, what is the Spirit, and what is the unity of these and their distinction, the Spirit, the Son, and the Fatherand who know that the life for which we look is far better than can be described in word, provided we arrive at it pure from all wrong-doing, and who, moreover, carry our benevolence to such an extent that we not only love our friends shall we, I say, when such we are and when we thus live that we may escape condemnation, not be regarded as living piously?

(C) Moralistic Christianity

The moralistic conception of Christianity, _i.e._, the view of Christianity as primarily a moral code by the observance of which eternal life was won, remained fixed in Christian thought along with the philosophical conception of the faith as formulated by the apologists.

This moralism was the opposite pole to the conceptions of the Asia Minor school, the Augustinian theology, and the whole mystical conception of Christianity.

For additional source material, see above, 16.

Theophilus, _Ad Autolyc.u.m_, II, 27. (MSG, 6:27.)

G.o.d made man free and with power over himself. That [death], man brought upon himself through carelessness and disobedience, this [life], G.o.d vouchsafes to him as a gift through His own love for man and pity when men obey Him. For as man, disobeying, drew death upon himself, so, obeying the will of G.o.d, he who desires is able to procure for himself everlasting life. For G.o.d has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one who keeps these can be saved, and obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption.

(D) Argument from Hebrew Prophecy