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QUESTION: What do you think that “begotten” means when the Bible describes Christ as the Father’s only begotten Son? What do you think that “proceed” means when the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father?
THE CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS. The Cappadocian Fathers are Basil the Great (330–379), Gregory of Nyssa (c.335–c.395), and Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390). Basil the Great was a gifted leader and politician and was appointed to the archbishop position of Caesarea, even though the Emperor at the time favored Arian and semi-Arian candidates. Basil was good friends with Gregory, who he appointed to the bishop position at Nyssa. Gregory of Nyssa was best known for his beautiful and often poetic writing, and for his five orations given before the Council of Constantinople defending orthodox trinitarianism. And last there is Basil’s younger brother, also with the name of Gregory, who was the most brilliant of the Cappadocian Fathers and was appointed to the bishop position of Nazianzus. The Cappadocian fathers were best known for defending orthodox trinitarianism through sophisticated philosophical and theological arguments and for ultimately prevailing at the Council of Constantinople.
BASIL READING: They say that it is not suitable to rank the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, because He is different in nature and inferior in dignity from them. But it is fitting for us to respond to them with the apostles’ words: “We must obey God rather than men.” When the Lord established the baptism of salvation, did He not clearly command His disciples to baptize all nations “in the name of the/Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”? He did not disdain His fellowship with the Holy Spirit, but these men say that we should not rank Him with the Father and the Son. Are they not openly disregarding God’s commandment? […] But no one is so shameless that he will deny the obvious meaning of the words which clearly say the Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. So let our opponents be silent; as for us, we will follow the words of Scripture. [On the Holy Spirit, Ch. 10, ¶24]
GREGORY OF NYSSA READING: We regard [the Holy Trinity] as consummately perfect and incomprehensibly excellent yet as containing clear distinctions within itself which reside in the peculiarities of each of the Persons: as possessing invariableness by virtue of its common attribute of uncreatedness, but differentiated by the unique character of each Person. This peculiarity contemplated in each sharply and clearly divides one from the other: the Father, for instance, is uncreated and ungenerate as well: He was never generated any more than He was created. While this uncreatedness is common to Him and the Son, and the Spirit, He is ungenerate as well as the Father. This is peculiar and uncommunicable, being not seen in the other Persons. The Son in His uncreatedness touches the Father and the Spirit, but as the Son and the Only-begotten He has a character which is not that of the Almighty or of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit by the uncreatedness of His nature has contact with the Son and Father, but is distinguished from them by His own tokens. His most peculiar characteristic is that He is neither of those things which we contemplate in the Father and the Son respectively. He is simply, neither as ungenerate, nor as only-begotten: this it is that constitutes His chief peculiarity. [Against Eunomius, §22]
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS READING: You tell me what is the unbegottenness of the Father, and I will explain to you the natural history of the Son’s generation and the Spirit’s procession. Then both of us will be raving mad for prying into the mystery of God. And who are we to do these things? – we who cannot even see what lies at our feet, or number the sand of the sea, or the drops of rain, or the days of eternity, much less enter into the depths of God and provide an account of that nature which is so unspeakable and so utterly above our reason? […] On the contrary, the expressions “being Unbegotten” or “being Begotten” or “Proceeding” have given the name of Father to the first, the name of Son to the second, and the name of Holy Spirit to the third, of whom we are speaking here, of the Holy Ghost. Thus is the distinction of the Three hypostases may be preserved in the one nature and one dignity of the divinity. […] The Three are One with respect to the divinity, and the One is Three with respect to the properties. [Theological Orations, Book 5, ¶8-9]
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