Comments on: Divine Persons and Attributes

By: Kyle Strobel

Kyle Strobel — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:41:29 +0000

Edwards accepted the filioque clause, so his depiction was constantly focused on having the Spirit emanating from the Father and Son together as a bond of love – similar to Augustine. That is an interesting way to do it though.

By: cyberpastor

cyberpastor — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:28:09 +0000

Hi Kyle

I agree that Edwards is on to something. THe Cappadocian Fathers hammered out a notion of particular personhood that was very firmly grounded in what we might otherwise call a notion of dynamic mutual constitution. So Basil referred to the notion of Sonship from the Father as “alone only begotten received from unregenerate light.” (Ep.38.4.32) When we add this to the appropriation of “formative cause” to the Son – the Father being the originating cause and the Spirit being the perfecting cause – of creation, we get an appropriate sense of the nature of divine personhood both transcendently and economically. (De Spiritu 16)

I have to say I prefer these kind of categories to the tradition of appropriating cognitive metaphors as these only ever seem to dissolve the actual notion of personhood and personal agency as they are portrayed in Scripture.

By: sakirkland

sakirkland — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:17:13 +0000

Interesting post. Do you think that this take on the attributes could be enriched in terms of our understanding of the way in which the three persons ‘person’ each other, if we adopted Weinandy’s thesis (a hobby horse of mine) that the ‘Father begets the Son in/by the Spirit’? I’ll just quote a section of his stuff which I think could be interesting here. Then again, I could be completely off track in taking about processions in a post about attributes :)

“The Spirit (of Love) then, who proceeds from the Father as the one in whom the Father begets the Son, both conforms or defines (persons) the Son to be the Son and simultaneously conforms or defines (persons) the Father to be the Father. The Holy Spirit, in proceeding from the Father as the one in whom the Father begets the Son conforms the Father to be the Father for the Son and conforms the Son to be the Son for (of) the Father.”

By: Kyle Strobel

Kyle Strobel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:44:04 +0000

Oliver, we should talk about this. I have read it and I have a slightly different take. I’m trying to figure out when I can make it down your way – it would be good to grab some coffee. Maybe in January? I’ll let you know.

Sincerely, kyle

By: Oliver Crisp

Oliver Crisp — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:38:52 +0000

Kyle,

Have you read my paper on this in Engaging the Doctrine of God, ed. Bruce McCormack? I think Edwards has a somewhat unique take on this matter because he divides the attributes into real and ‘meer modes or relations.’ I’d be interested to hear your comments on the paper.

Best,

Oliver.