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In this period the documents which express the faith of
the Church can easily be reconciled with the later
definitions of the Council of Nicaea, which state the
doctrine of the Trinity more explicitly. The writings of
many ante-Nicene Fathers, however, with their mingling
of faith and philosophical theory, are correct in their
statement of the substance of the mystery, but the
explanations they offer often contain inexact expressions,
some of which seem to incline to Subordinationism, and
others seem to favor Sabellianism or Modalism. We see
here how the evolution of dogma is the progressive
unfolding of the same truth, from the indistinct and
concrete concepts to the more defined and distinct
concepts.
We should not be surprised to learn that the early
Fathers used such inexact expressions since they were
confronted with the problem of refuting heresies which were
mutually opposed; to show the real distinction between the
persons against the Modalists they sometimes made use of
expressions tainted with Subordinationism, and when they
were intent on safeguarding the unity of God they
sometimes weakened the distinction between the persons.
Theologians have at all times carefully distinguished
between the documents of faith proposed by the Church, in
which tradition is found without any admixture of
philosophical theory, and the writings of the Fathers
which were more or less exact in their use of abstract and
philosophical terminology.
The faith of the early Church about the Trinity was
expressed chiefly in three ways: 1. in the manner of
baptizing, 2. in the various Creeds, 3. in the
doxologies.
1. Baptism was conferred by a triple immersion and with
the invocation of the three divine persons. The manner of
baptizing is given in the Didache (VII, I ff.):
"Baptize in this manner: after you have said all these
things, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost with living water. Pour water on
the head three times in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost." The same instruction is
found in Tertullian, writing against Praxeas.[101]
Praxeas was a Patripassian, admitting the existence of
only one person, the Father, who had become incarnate.
In his reply to Praxeas, Tertullian wrote: "We
immerse not once but three times at each of the names and
for each of the persons." Further, the sign of the
cross expresses three mysteries: the Trinity, the
Incarnation, when the hand descends to the breast at the
words "and of the Son," and the Redemption by the form
of the cross.
2. The faith of the Church in the Trinity is expressed
in various creeds. St. Irenaeus tells us that in the
second century the catechumens before they were baptized
read or recited a certain rule of faith or profession of
faith in the Trinity, which declared, "In one God,
the almighty Father, who made heaven and earth and sea,
and all that are in them; and in Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy
Ghost, who by the prophets preached the ordinances of
God."[102] This belief was developed in later
creeds which can be found in Denzinger.[103]
3. The faith of the primitive Church in the Trinity is
also enunciated in the doxologies, which were in use from
the earliest times. Many of them are found in the
epistles of St. Paul, who in the beginning or at the
conclusion invokes and glorifies the three persons of the
Trinity.[104]
Later, we read in the Acts of the Martyrdom of St.
Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, that at his
execution St. Polycarp exclaimed: "Lord God
almighty, Father of Thy blessed and beloved Son Jesus
Christ, I bless Thee,... I glorify Thee through
the heavenly and eternal high priest Jesus Christ, Thy
beloved Son, through whom there is to Thee with Him and
the Holy Ghost glory now and in future ages.
Amen."[105]
As early as the second century the Church used the lesser
doxology, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and
to the Holy Ghost," still recited in the Divine
Office at the end of each psalm, and the greater
doxology, "Glory to God in the highest," in which the
Church's faith in the Trinity is expressed in greater
detail. In the greater doxology we have an example of
that sublime contemplation which assuredly will dispose us
to an intimate union with the Blessed Trinity no less
than many scholastic treatises on the Trinity. Often
when celebrating Mass the priest recites this doxology in
a mechanical manner as something prescribed by the
rubrics. It is, however, an instance of profound
contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity of great
antiquity, for Pope St. Telesphorus (128-39)
commanded that the Gloria be recited on the feast of the
Nativity of our Lord.[106]
The greater doxology begins with the song of the angels,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men
of good will"; then the one God is adored, "We adore
Thee, we glorify Thee"; the in we adore, "God the
Father almighty," our "Lord Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son
of the Father," and finally the Holy Ghost,
"together with the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the
Father. Amen."
Many contemplative minds have not found a more beautiful
expression of this mystery, and yet it is often recited
mechanically as something already well known and worthy of
no further consideration or contemplation. The result is
a kind of materialization of divine worship. The great
antiquity of this greater doxology shows how vivid was the
early Christian's faith in the Trinity, even though he
spoke rather inexactly when he treated of the mystery in
abstract and philosophical language.
In spite of some inexact expressions, the teaching of the
ante-Nicene Fathers can easily be reconciled with the
later definitions of the Council of Nicaea. At all
times they held fast to the doctrine expressed in the
earliest creeds concerning one God in three persons.
Among the apostolic Fathers, St. Clement of Rome in
his two letters to the Corinthians[107] says that the
Father is the Creator, the Son is more excellent than
the angels and is God Himself, and that the Holy Ghost
spoke through the prophets. We find like expressions in
the epistles of St. Ignatius Martyr to the Ephesians
and to the Magnesians.[108] All the Fathers
believed in one God in three persons, and those Fathers
who opposed Modalism clearly asserted the real distinction
between the persons. Thus St. Hippolytus,[109]
wrote: "It is necessary that we confess that the Father
is God almighty, and Jesus Christ the Son of God,
God made man, and the Holy Ghost, and these are really
three."
Tertullian (213-25)[110] asserts the unity of
substance no less clearly than the Trinity of persons.
He says: "We should guard the sacredness of the economy
(i. e., the sacred doctrine) which teaches that there
is unity and trinity, three directing, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. Three, however, not in
status but in degree... of one substance and one power,
for it is one God from whom these degrees, these forms
and species, in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost, are derived." It was difficult
to find the proper abstract terms; the words "degree,
form, species" are quite inadequate to express abstractly
the distinction between the persons.
In asserting the distinction between the persons, the
ante-Nicene Fathers generally avoided the language of
the Subordinationists. Some, however, like Origen
(202-54), leaned somewhat to Subordinationism,
saying that the Son was in some manner inferior to the
Father, and the Holy Ghost was inferior to the
Son.[111] Misled by his philosophy, Origen seems
to have come under the influence of Philo, and in his
attempt to confute the Modalists he made use of inaccurate
expressions and merited the criticism of later
writers.[112]
Similarly St. Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen's
disciple, fought Modalism with such zeal that some
thought he had fallen into Subordinationism, but in his
Apologia addressed to the Supreme Pontiff he stated his
position more clearly. On other occasions these Fathers
taught that the Son was begotten and not made: Origen
speaks of the Son as eternal and homoousios,
consubstantial with the Father.[113] They did not,
however, at all times avoid the use of Neoplatonic
expressions which implied a necessary emanation and some
subordination, something between eternal generation in
equality of nature and free creation out of nothing.
Therefore Pope St. Dionysius in 260, condemning
the Modalists and Subordinationists, wrote: "Neither
is the admirable and divine unity to be divided into three
divinities, nor by the language of division is the dignity
and supreme greatness of the Lord to be
diminished."[114]
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