Life of St Athanasius the Great and Account of Arianism

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128 Pages (Part I)

Page 50

The objections felt to the word homoousion at the council were (1) philosophical, based on the identification of ousia with either eidos (i.e. as implying a 'formal essence' prior to Father and Son alike) or hule; (2) dogmatic, based on the identification of ousia with tode ti, and on the consequent Sabellian sense of the homoousion; (3) Scriptural, based on the non-occurrence of the word in the Bible; (4) Ecclesiastical, based on the condemnation of the word by the Synod which deposed Paul at Antioch in 269.

All these objections were made and felt bona fide, although Arians would of course make the most of them. The subsequent history will show that their force was outweighed only for the moment with many of the fathers, and that to reconcile the 'conservatism' of the Asiatic bishops to the new formula must be a matter of time. The third or Scriptural objection need not now be discussed at length. Precedent could be pleaded for the introduction into creeds of words not expressly found in Scripture (e.g. the word 'catholic' applied to the Church in many ancient creeds, the creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus with trias teleia, &c. &c.); the only question was, were the non-scriptural words expressive of a Scriptural idea? This was the pith of the question debated between Athanasius and his opponents for a generation after the council; the 'conservative' majority eventually came round to the conviction that Athanasius was right. But the question depends upon the meaning of the word itself.

The word means sharing in a joint or common essence, ousia (cf. homonumos, sharing the same name, &c. &c.). What then is ousia? The word was introduced into philosophical use, so far as we know, by Plato, and its technical value was fixed for future ages by his pupil Aristotle. Setting aside its use to express 'existence' in the abstract, we take the more general use of the word as indicating that which exists in the concrete.

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