The concept of nature is front-loaded. Nature is what things are in their origin. Hence physis sometimes means “birth.”
Hence too Arius: If the Father is ungenerated and the Son begotten, then they must have distinct natures.
Athanasius and the Cappadocians deny the premise. True, the Father is ungenerated in every sense; He is not even begotten. The Son is ungenerated in the sense that He is eternal; but He is begotten. He originates from the Father, while the Father originates from none. Yet, they are the same nature, and same substance, homoousios . Origin does not determine nature.
Breaking the link between nature and origin, Trinitarian theology opened the possibility of a back-loaded, eschatological ontology.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
How the State Failed Noelia Castillo
On March 26, Noelia Castillo, a twenty-five-year-old Spanish woman, was killed by her doctors at her own…
The Mind’s Profane and Sacred Loves
The teachers you have make all the difference in your life. That they happened to come into…
History’s Pro Tips on Iran
Nothing in human experience compares to the wars of the last 120 years. Their scope has grown…
