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QUESTION: What does it mean to say that the Father is in the Son, that the Son is in the Father, that the Son is in the Holy Spirit, and all other indwelling combinations? Is this indwelling an important aspect of the triune God?
ATHANASIUS ALEXANDRIA (c.296–373). Athanasius was a Christian theologian and bishop of Alexandria. He had an extremely colorful career that spanned 45 years and included five exiles. Athanasius is best known for his stand against Arianism and his insistence that the Father and Son are of the same essence (homoousios). His most impactful writings were probably his two-part work: Against the Heathen and The Incarnation of the Word of God. These were the first complete works of developed orthodox theology. As such, Athanasius is sometimes referred to as the Father of Orthodoxy. It should be noted that the Athanasian Creed is named after Athanasius but was almost certainly not written by him. Rather, it was likely written sometime in the fifth century.
READING 1: You write, beloved and truly longed for, yourself also in distress, that certain persons, having forsaken the Arians on account of their blasphemy against the Son of God, yet oppose the Holy Spirit, saying that He is not only a creature, but actually one of the ministering spirits, and differs from the angels only in degree. In this they pretend to be fighting against the Arians; in reality they are controverting the holy faith. For as the Arians in denying the Son deny also the Father, so also these men in speaking evil of the Holy Spirit speak evil also of the Son. The two parties have divided between them the offensive against the truth; so that, with the one opposing the Son and the other the Spirit, they both maintain the same blasphemy against the holy Triad. [Athanasius, First Letter to Serapion, ¶1]
READING 2: For the holy and blessed Triad is indivisible and one in itself. When mention is made of the Father, there is included also his Word, and the Spirit who is in the Son. If the Son is named, the Father is in the Son, and the Spirit is not outside the Word. For there is from the Father one grace which is fulfilled through the Son in the Holy Spirit; and there is one divine nature, and one God ‘who is over all and through all and in all’. Thus Paul also, when he said, ‘I charge thee before God and Jesus Christ’, realized that the Spirit had not been divided from the Son, but was himself in Christ, as the Son is in the Father. [Athanasius, First Letter to Serapion, ¶14]
READING 3: Again, as the Father is fountain and the Son is called river, we are said to drink of the Spirit. For it is written: ‘We are all made to drink of one Spirit. But when we are made to drink of the Spirit, we drink of Christ. For ‘they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ’. Again, as Christ is true Son, so we, when we receive the Spirit, are made sons. [Athanasius, First Letter to Serapion, ¶19]
READING 4: But if there is such co-ordination and unity within the holy Triad, who can separate either the Son from the Father, or the Spirit from the Son or from the Father himself? Who would be so audacious as to say that the Triad is unlike itself and diverse in nature, or that the Son is in essence foreign from the Father, or the Spirit alien from the Son? But how are these things? If one should make inquiry and ask again: How, when the Spirit is in us, the Son is said to be in us? How, when the Son is in us, the Father is said to be in us? Or how, when it is truly a Triad, the Triad is described as one? Or why, when the One is in us, the Triad is said to be in us ? Let him first divide the radiance from the light, or wisdom from the wise, or let him tell how these things are. But if this is not to be done, much more is it the audacity of madmen to make such inquiries concerning God. For tradition, as we have said, does not declare the Godhead to us by demonstration in words, but by faith and by a pious and reverent use of reason. [Athanasius, First Letter to Serapion, ¶20]
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