Autor: Murray, John

Buch: The Problem of God: Yesterday and Today

Titel: The Problem of God: Yesterday and Today

Stichwort: Athanasius; Realismus der Bibel

Kurzinhalt: If, then, everything that is true about the Father is likewise true about the Son, except that the Son is not the Father, it follows that the Son is all that the Father is, except for the Name of Father

Textausschnitt: 42a It was this conviction of the realism of the word of God-that it is a real word with a real meaning-that sustained Athanasius in working out the celebrated formula which explained the sense inherent in the dogma stated by the Council of Nicaea. His study of the Scriptures disclosed to him, as to Basil later, a general proposition. All the affirmations made by the Scriptures about the Father are also made about the Son, with one exception. The Scriptures never say that the Son is the Father. In particular, the Scriptures affirm about the Son what they affirm about the Father, that he has as his own the two powers that are uniquely divine and proper only to God-the power to give life and the power to judge the heart of man. If, then, everything that is true about the Father is likewise true about the Son, except that the Son is not the Father, it follows that the Son is all that the Father is, except for the Name of Father. (Fs) (notabene)

42b This was the Athanasian rule of faith, based on the Scriptures, which the Council of Nicaea had stated in a dogmatic formula, as we shall see. The point at the moment is that behind the Athanasian rule lay the universal patristic conviction that, to put the matter in our technical terms, a realist epistemology and ontology are implicit in the conception of the word of God which the Scriptures exhibit. The word of God is true; therefore it expresses what is. (Fs)

43a In the third place, it follows that the Arian form of the pre-Nicene question, whether the Son is God or a creature, was entirely legitimate. The reason is that it was stated in ontological categories that were undeniably scriptural. If the Old and New Testaments affirm anything at all, they affirm that the Creator is God and that the creature is a creature. These affirmations are not a matter of religious experience but of ontology. These two categories, Creator and creature, are classifications of being. They define things that are and that are radically distinct in the order of substance. It was therefore legitimate to state the problem of the Logos in these ontological terms. (Fs)

43b In the fourth and final place, because the Arian ontological question was new and had not been explicitly answered, because it was inevitable and had'to arise, because it was legitimate and could not be declined, it demanded an answer. More than that, the answer had to be the answer of faith. The Arian question had not been raised in the spirit of detached Hellenistic speculation, as an interesting problem for leisurely and inconclusive discussion in the school. On the contrary, upon the answer to the question hung the whole issue of human salvation. (Fs)

43b In the fourth and final place, because the Arian ontological question was new and had not been explicitly answered, because it was inevitable and had to arise, because it was legitimate and could not be declined, it demanded an answer. More than that, the answer had to be the answer of faith. The Arian question had not been raised in the spirit of detached Hellenistic speculation, as an interesting problem for leisurely and inconclusive discussion in the school. On the contrary, upon the answer to the question hung the whole issue of human salvation. (Fs)