Unknown God, known in his activities : : incomprehensibility of God during the Trinitarian controversy of the 4th century / / Tomasz Stępień, Karolina Kochańczyk-Bonińska.

• Superior document: European studies in theology, philosophy, and history of religions ; volume 18
• VerfasserIn: Stępień, Tomasz, 1969-
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Peter Lang,, [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: European studies in theology, philosophy and history of religions ; volume 18.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 pages).

This book deals with the 4th-century Trinitarian controversy, which had a profound impact on negative theology. Eunomius claimed that we can know both the substance (ousia) and activities (energeiai) of God, whereas Cappadocians demonstrated the incomprehensibility of God's essence, and the possibility of knowing his external activities.

Table of Contents

Cover; Preface; Acknowledgments; Contents; Abbreviations; 1. The origins of Christian Negative Theology; 1.1 The ambiguity of the Holy Scripture concerning the knowledge of God; 1.2 Philo of Alexandria transcendence and negative theology; 1.3 The apologetic usage of negative theology in the 2nd century; 1.4 Clement of Alexandria the unknown Father revealed in the Son of God; 1.5 The incomprehensible Father in Origen; 2. Incomprehensibility of God in the First Phase of the Arian Controversy; 2.1 The knowledge of God in Arius; 2.1.1 The problem of Platonism of Arius 2.1.2 Monad and Dyad the problem of creation2.1.3 Creation ex nihilo? The problem of a "non-being"; 2.1.4 The attributes of God from Arius' perspective; 2.1.5 Negative theology of Arius; 2.2 The transcendence and knowledge of God in Athanasius; 2.2.1 The knowledge of the image of God; 2.2.2 Knowing God from the creations; 2.3 Positive and negative theology reconciled in Marius Victorinus; 2.3.1 God as non-existent above existents; 2.3.2 Negative theology in speaking of God as the One; 3. "You Worship What You Do Not Know"; 3.1 "Ingeneracy" as a positive attribute and the essence of God 4.3.2 The Church Fathers and the sources of Eunomius' methods4.4 The knowledge of the Unbegotten substance in two ways; 4.4.1 The first method from substance to activity; 4.4.2 The second method from activity to substance; 4.5 Basil of Caesarea on language and comprehensibility of God; 4.6 Gregory of Nyssa on knowing the activities and the essence of God; 4.6.1 The ontological status of God's activities; 4.6.2 The criticism of the second way of Eunomius; 4.6.3 The activity of generation and other activities of God; 4.6.4 Activities and incomprehensibility of God.