{"id":42280,"date":"2020-04-11T09:22:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T14:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=42280"},"modified":"2020-04-11T10:26:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T15:26:14","slug":"when-and-how-in-the-history-of-theology-did-the-triune-god-replace-the-father-as-the-only-true-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/when-and-how-in-the-history-of-theology-did-the-triune-god-replace-the-father-as-the-only-true-god\/","title":{"rendered":"When and How in the History of Theology Did the Triune God Replace the Father as the Only True God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’m excited to announce that my paper with the above title has been published<\/a> in the excellent open-access journal TheoLogica<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this paper I present what I think is a strong case that<\/strong> we see the idea of a triune God in both “Western” and “Eastern” sources just before and after what I consider to be the first (implicitly) trinitarian council, the one at Constantinople in 381<\/a>, in which the emperor declared the “Nicene” side in the long-running “Arian” controversy to be correct. But this, as I show, had evolved to include the idea that the sharers of the divine essence are (or are “in”) the same God, the tripersonal God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is in opposition to what I call the “Western misunderstanding narrative”<\/strong> which has been recently championed by Dr. Beau Branson, and by some other Orthodox scholars, including Dr. John Behr. In their view, the East held to “the monarchy of the Father,” in a sense where this implies that the one God just is (numerically the same as) the Father, and only some time in the Middle Ages did this “Western” misunderstanding creep in. They cite Augustine as one of the earliest who thought that the one God is the Trinity, rather than the Father. They’re right about that, but as I show, they are mistaken in thinking that this is a particularly “Western” view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an interesting dispute, which trinities podcast listeners will know from the episodes linked at the bottom of this post. This dispute shakes up the usual battle lines in theology. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n