Abstract
Arian disputes, which troubled the life of the Church in the fourth century, gave birth to a new heresy, one that concerned the person of the Holy Ghost. In 359, St. Athanasius the Great (died 373) wrote to his friend, Bishop Serapion of Thmuis, that some of those who had abandoned Arianism were teaching that the Holy Ghost was just a creature, a subordinate spirit, similar to the angels in all respects but his rank. That was why, he concluded, this heresy (Pneumatomachism) had to be condemned, for “as the Son cannot be separated from the Father, the Holy Ghost cannot be separated from the Son, for this would break the unity of the Holy Trinity.” He was not only a defender of the Trinitarian unity; he also taught about the origin (causality) of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, and because He is characteristic of the Son, the Holy Ghost offers himself through the Son to the Apostles and to all those who believe in him.1
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Notes
For information related to the personality of St. Basil the Great, see I. G. Coman, “Personalitatea Sfântului Vasile cel Mare,” in Sfântul Vasile cel Mare: Închinare la 1600 de ani de la săvârşirea sa (Bucharest: EIBMBOR, 1980), 24–50;
V. Ioniţă, “Viaţa şi activitatea Sfântului Vasile cel Mare,” Ortodoxia 38 (1979): 16–27;
W. D. Hauschild, “Basilius von Caesarea,” in Theologische Realenzyklopädie, vol. 5 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Verlag, 1980), 301–13.
See Y. Courtonne, Saint Basile: Lettres, vol. 1–3 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1957–66). For the Romanian version, see Corespondenţa Sfântului Vasile, col. “Părinţi şi scriitori bisericeşti,” vol. 12 (Bucharest: EIBMBOR, 1988), 115–625, with an introductory study on their classification and content by Rev. Prof. Dr. T. Bodogae, 95–114. 10. He hoped to convert his Arian adversaries to Nicene Orthodoxy by refraining from overusing the controversial term of the same essence. See
I. Rămureanu, “Sinoadele de la Sirmium dintre anii 348 şi 358: Condamnarea lui Fotin din Sirmium,” in Studii Teologice 14 (1963): 266–316;
C. Voicu, “Problema homoousios la Sfântul Atanasie cel Mare,” in Mitropolia Olteniei 13 (1963): 3–20.
See C. Corniţescu, “Învăţătura Sfântului Vasile cel Mare despre Sfântul Duh,” in Ortodoxia 38 (1979): 108–14; Şt. Alexe, “Dumnezeirea Sfântului Duh la Sfântul Vasile cel Mare,” in Sfântul Vasile cel Mare, 131–57.
J. Meyendorff, Teologia Bizantină, trans. A. Stan (Bucharest: EIBMBOR, 1996), 225–26.
See D. Stăniloae, “Fiinţa şi ipostasurile în Sfânta Treime după Sfântul Vasile cel Mare,” in Ortodoxia 38 (1979): 53–74; D. Stăniloae, “Învăţătura despre Sfânta Treime în scrierea Sfântului Vasile «Contra lui Eunomie»,” in Sfântul Vasile cel Mare, 51–69.
On Eunomius, see I. G. Coman, Patrologie, vol. 3 (Bucharest: EIBMBOR, 1988), 479–82.
Cf. B. Bobrinskoy, Împărtăşirea Sfântului Duh, trans. Măriuca şi Adrian Marinescu (Bucharest: EIBMBOR, 1999), 37–38.
I. G. Coman, “Elementele demonstraţiei în tratatul ‘Despre Sfântul Duh’ la Sfântul Vasile cel Mare,” Studii Teologice 16 (1964): 294.
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© 2016 Nicolae Chifăr
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Chifăr, N. (2016). The Contribution of St. Basil the Great to Combating Pneumatomachism. In: Dumitraşcu, N. (eds) The Ecumenical Legacy of the Cappadocians. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-50269-8_8
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