Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J. F.

Buch: The Way to Nicea

Titel: The Way to Nicea

Stichwort: Konzil von Nicäa: Resumee

Kurzinhalt: the Nicene dogma ... marks a transition from multiplicity to unity... a transition from things as related to us to things as they are in themselves ... a transition from the word of God as accommodated to particular people ...

Textausschnitt: 136d Now if, when it emerged, the Nicene dogma was inevitable, it was nonetheless new. For it marks a transition from multiplicity to unity: from a multiplicity of symbols, titles and predicates to the ultimate ground of all of these, namely, the Son's consubstantiality with the Father. Equally, it marks a transition from things as related to us to things as they are in themselves, from the relational concepts of God as supreme agent, Creator, Omnipotent Lord of all, to an ontological conception of the divine substance itself. It marks, no less, a transition from the word of God as accommodated to particular people, at particular times, under particular circumstances, to the word of God as it is to be proclaimed to all people, of all times, under whatever circumstances-the transition from the prophetic oracle of Yahweh, the gospel as announced in Galilee, the apostolic preaching and the simple tradition of the Church, from all of these to Catholic dogma. It also marks a transition from the mystery of God as hidden in symbols, hinted at by a multiplicity of titles, apprehended only in a vague and confused manner in the dramatico-practical pattern of experience, to the mystery of God as circumscribed and manifested in clear, distinct and apparently contradictory affirmations. Finally it marks a transition from a whole range of problems to a basic solution of those problems. For a definitive step was taken from naive realism, beyond Platonism, to dogmatic realism and in the direction of critical realism. To the hermeneutical question, what it is that symbols symbolise, it was answered that what they symbolise is that which is, that which is truly affirmed. To the theological question, how God was to be conceived, an answer was given that set aside the sublime Platonic Ideas, reaffirmed the omnipotent Creator and went beyond the notion of God as agent to think of him in terms of the substance that causes all substances, the being that is for all beings the source of their being. To the trinitarian question, finally, an answer was given that laid the foundation on which, of its own accord, as it were, the whole systematisation of Catholic theology would arise. Given that later systematisation, however, it is only with the greatest difficulty that we who have inherited it can come to understand how the ante-Nicene authors could in fact have said what in fact they did say. (E07; 15.01.2008)