Dan O’Connell

What happened to those divers in the Maldives was truly horrific!

Hit me with a reality about church or theology

Gregory of Nyssa’s 𝐴𝑑 𝐴𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑖 (“On Not Three Gods,” to Ablabius), written around 380–383 (some scholars suggest closer to 390), is a concise but philosophically rich defense of Nicene Trinitarianism. Responding to Ablabius’s query about why Christians confess three divine Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) yet insist there is only one God—rather than three Gods like Peter, James, and John are three men sharing one human nature—Gregory argues that the term “Godhead” (θεότης) primarily signifies a common operation or activity (surveying, beholding, providence, and bestowing life), not the divine essence itself. In God, unlike in humans (where individuals act separately), the divine operations are inseparable and unified: every act originates from the Father, proceeds through the Son, and is perfected in the Holy Spirit, forming a single, indivisible motion of the divine will. He further emphasizes the divine nature’s infinity and unnameability (making plural enumeration inappropriate), distinguishes the Persons by relations of origin (the Father as uncaused Cause, the Son as directly from the Father, the Spirit through the Son), and maintains the unity of essence while preserving real distinctions. The work rejects both tritheism and any subordination that would deny full divinity to the Son or Spirit.

eisegesis vs exegesis