Exposition of the True Faith

Contents

Reading pages: 1–11 · 12–18

1. 1The author introduces his exposition of the right faith in the Trinity, following his refutations of Jews and Greeks.
2. 2The Scriptures and the fathers teach one God, the single cause of all, known in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who share one substance and one Godhead.
3. 3“Unbegotten”, “begotten” and “proceeding” name modes of existence, not the substance, as Adam's creation illustrates; they mark off the three hypostases without dividing the one substance.
4. 4Dividing all beings into uncreated and created, the author shows from David and Paul that the Son and the Spirit are never numbered among creatures.
5. 5From the baptismal command and Paul's letters the author shows that the Son and the Spirit are ranked with the Father in the divine nature and dwell together in the faithful.
6. 6The Son and the Spirit share the Father's work of creation and his authority, as the Psalms and Paul show.
7. 7Since the Son and the Spirit are separated from creation and joined to the Father, they belong to the uncreated substance: one God, Monad in Trinity.
8. 8The author confesses that the manner of the Trinity is beyond human knowledge, citing Paul's partial knowledge and David's wonder.
9. 9The Son is begotten as light from light and the Spirit proceeds as light from light, co-eternal and of the same substance; the author turns to the economy of the incarnation.
10. 10The Word came down without leaving heaven, formed for himself a temple from the Virgin, and as the one Son died as man and rose as God; contrary statements are to be assigned to the two natures.
11. 11The author weighs the comparison of the union of God and man in Christ with that of soul and body, accepting it in part but rejecting it because man is a third thing from two, and the soul suffers with the body.
12. 12The author confesses the limits of his knowledge, then proposes an image of the union: the primal light gathered into the body of the sun, one sun in light and body, as the Word and his body are one Son; he closes with thanks.
13. 13The author takes up a further question: how the Word is everywhere by substance and yet dwells in his own temple.
14. 14Asking “how” about God betrays unbelief: how, then, did he create heaven, earth and the questioner himself, and how is his power present to all things?
15. 15Against those who teach the mixture of the natures and the change of Christ's body into Godhead: such a change would add to God, produce two divine substances, or be pointless.
16. 16Faith resolves what reason cannot grasp; the author distinguishes what must be inquired into from what must be believed and worshipped.
17. 17The Word is present to all by substance but received according to each one's measure, as the sun is equally present yet received by each eye according to its strength; only in his own sinless temple does the fullness of the Godhead dwell.
18. 18The author closes with a hymn of victory to the Word, the true light.