Basil of Caesarea: Against Eunomius
Overview
Basil of Caesarea is considered one of the architects of the Pro-Nicene Trinitarian doctrine adopted at the Council of Constantinople in 381, which eastern and western Christians to this day profess as “orthodox.” Nowhere is his Trinitarian theology more clearly expressed than in his first major doctrinal work, Against Eunomius, finished in 364 or 365 CE. Responding to Eunomius, whose Apology gave renewed impetus to a tradition of starkly subordinationist Trinitarian theology that would survive for decades, Basil’s Against Eunomius reflects the intense controversy raging at that time among Christians across the Mediterranean world over who God is.
In this treatise, Basil attempts to articulate a theology both of God’s unitary essence and of the distinctive features that characterize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—a distinction that some hail as the cornerstone of “Cappadocian” theology. In Against Eunomius, we see the clash not simply of two dogmatic positions on the doctrine of the Trinity, but of two fundamentally opposed theological methods. Basil’s treatise is as much about how theology ought to be done and what human beings can and cannot know about God as it is about the exposition of Trinitarian doctrine. Thus Against Eunomius marks a turning point in the Trinitarian debates of the fourth century, for the first time addressing the methodological and epistemological differences that gave rise to theological differences. Amidst the polemical vitriol of Against Eunomius is a call to epistemological humility on the part of the theologian, a call to recognize the limitations of even the best theology.
While Basil refined his theology through the course of his career, Against Eunomius remains a testament to his early theological development and a privileged window into the Trinitarian controversies of the mid-fourth century.
Key Features
- Contains Basil of Caesarea’s first major doctrinal work
- Presents Basil’s Trinitarian theology
- Opens a window onto the Trinitarian controversies of the mid-fourth century
Top Highlights
“Such is the situation. There is not one name which encompasses the entire nature of God and suffices to express it adequately. Rather, there are many diverse names, and each one contributes, in accordance with its own meaning, to a notion that is altogether dim and trifling as regards the whole but that is at least sufficient for us. Now some of the names applied to God are indicative of what is present to God; others, on the contrary, of what is not present. From these two something like an impression of God is made in us, namely, from the denial of what is incongruous with him and from the affirmation of what belongs to him.” (Page 105)
“As for me, I too would say that the substance of God is unbegotten, but I would not say that unbegottenness is the substance.” (Page 107)
“It is to be expected that the very substance of God is incomprehensible to everyone except the Only-Begotten and the Holy Spirit. But we are led up from the activities of God and gain knowledge of the Maker through what he has made, and so come in this way to an understanding of his goodness and wisdom. For what can be known about God is that which God has manifested [Rom 1:19] to all human beings.” (Page 113)
“So, then, what I have said makes it clear that in the case of both ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ the names do not communicate substance but instead are revelatory of the distinguishing marks.” (Page 136)
“So, then, it is clear to all that, where the same one is designated both ‘angel’ and ‘God,’ it is the Only-Begotten who is revealed, manifesting himself to human beings from generation to generation and announcing the will of the Father to his saints. Consequently, when he named himself He Who Is before Moses, he is understood to be none other than God the Word, who was in the beginning with God [Jn 1:2].” (Page 156)
- Title: Against Eunomius
- Author: Basil of Caesarea
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 122
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Pages: 222
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Eunomius, Bishop of Cyzicus, approximately 335-approximately 394
- ISBNs: 9780813201221, 0813201225
- Resource ID: LLS:GAINSTEUNOMIUS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:51:39Z
