Athanasius' Initial Defense of the Term homoousios: Rereading the De Decretis
Athanasius begins to defend Nicaea's [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="01i" /] in the De decretis of ca. 353, pursuing two basic strategies. First, the term is defended as a necessary corollary of Nicaea's controversial phrase [inlin...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2004
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| In: |
Journal of early Christian studies
Year: 2004, Volume: 12, Issue: 3, Pages: 337-359 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Athanasius begins to defend Nicaea's [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="01i" /] in the De decretis of ca. 353, pursuing two basic strategies. First, the term is defended as a necessary corollary of Nicaea's controversial phrase [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="02i" /], a phrase which appears to be more fundamental to Athanasius. Second, however, he defends both [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="03i" /] and [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="04i" /] as necessary in order to preserve the sense of important scriptural terminologies that he takes to emphasize the Son's status as the Father's Wisdom and Word. [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="05i" /] thus functions as a cipher for phrases that are what Richard Vaggione has termed "basic dogmatic statements." In his account of Nicaea Athanasius also appears to draw on Eusebius of Caesarea's argument in his Epistula ad Caesarienses of 326. The skill with which he adopts and adapts Eusebius' arguments further demonstrates the subtlety with which doctrinal ciphers could be explored and deployed. |
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| ISSN: | 1086-3184 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of early Christian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/earl.2004.0035 |