Unknown God, Known in His Activities
eBook - PDF

Unknown God, Known in His Activities

Incomprehensibility of God during the Trinitarian Controversy of the 4th Century

  1. 254 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Unknown God, Known in His Activities

Incomprehensibility of God during the Trinitarian Controversy of the 4th Century

About this book

What can man know about God? This question became one of the main problems during the 4th-century Trinitarian controversy, which is the focus of this book. Especially during the second phase of the conflict, the claims of Anomean Eunomius caused an emphatic response of Orthodox writers, mainly Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. Eunomius formulated two ways of theology to show that we can know both the substance (ousia) and activities (energeiai) of God. The Orthodox Fathers demonstrated that we can know only the external activities of God, while the essence is entirely incomprehensible. Therefore the 4th-century discussion on whether the Father and the Son are of the same substance was the turning point in the development of negative theology and shaping the Christian conception of God.

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Yes, you can access Unknown God, Known in His Activities by Tomasz Stepien, Karolina Kochanczyk-Boninska in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Ancient & Classical Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Preface
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Contents
  5. Abbreviations
  6. 1. The origins of Christian Negative Theology
  7. 2. Incomprehensibility of God in the First Phase of the Arian Controversy
  8. 3. “You Worship What You Do Not Know”
  9. 4. Ousia and Energeia (Substance and Activity)
  10. 5. The Development of Negative Theology in the Latter Half of the 4th Century
  11. Conclusion
  12. Bibliography
  13. Index