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Speech about the Trinity: with special reference to Novatian, Hilary and Calvin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
The question of the relation of language to being in general, and of theological language to the divine being in particular, is no new question. It was one which confronted the early Church Fathers in a very pressing fashion when they came to deal with the theological formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity. Heretical teaching caused them to wrestle with the problems and to discuss what is involved in the use of human language to set forth divine realities. At a time when the problem of theological language is very much in the forefront in present day discussions, it is immensely helpful to turn to the Fathers and to see how they dealt with these questions and to endeavour to learn from them.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1973
References
page 385 note 1 Moore, H., The Treatise of Novatian on the Trinity (London, 1919), p. 15Google Scholar. All quotations from Novatian in this article are from Moore's translation, the references being given in parentheses in the text. Likewise references to Hilary's De Trinitate and Calvin's Institutes will also be given in parentheses after the initial citation of these works.
page 386 note 1 Hilary, , On the Trinity, I. 19Google Scholar. All quotations from this work are from the edition of Sanday, W. in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (Oxford, 1899)Google Scholar.
page 387 note 1 For a discussion of the composition of De Trinitate see Borchardt, C. F. A., Hilary of Poitiers' Role in the Arian Struggle (The Hague, 1966), pp. 39ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 387 note 2 Cf., for example, Hilary, On the Trinity, 4.2 and 1.19 with Novatian, On the Trinity, Ch. 2 and Ch. 6.
page 388 note 1 Institutes, I. xiii. 29. All quotations from Calvin's Institutes which are used are taken from Battles' translation in The Library of Christian Classics (London, 1961)Google Scholar.
page 389 note 1 Cf. also the opening paragraph of Ch. VIII.
page 389 note 2 For a discussion of this aspect of Calvin's theology see, Dowey, E. A., The Knowledge of God in Calvin's Theology (New York, 1965), pp. 24–31.Google Scholar
page 390 note 1 Hilary's words (I. 18) are also alluded to by Calvin in I. vii. 4.
page 392 note 1 For some examples see Dowey, op. cit., p. 243.
page 394 note 1 Cf. also for similar expressions IV. 2 and VII. 29.
page 394 note 2 Torrance, T. F., Theology in Reconstruction (London, 1965), p. 50.Google Scholar
page 396 note 1 Torrance, op. cit., p.51.
page 397 note 1 II. 2, quoted in Institutes, I. xiii. 5.
page 398 note 1 Augustine, , De Trinitate, V. 9.Google Scholar
page 399 note 1 Cf. XI. 49 for a succinct statement.