The Trinity in the Fourth-Century Fathers

This article offers a nuanced account of the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies. It shows how the fundamentally exegetical controversies began with Arius' insistence on the unique divine prerogatives of the Father and continued with decades of debate over the appropriateness of the word homoousios, which had been rejected by third-century synods in Antioch because of concerns about modalism. It argues that the doctrine of the Trinity that emerged in the years leading up to the Council of Constantinople in 381 was not so much a philosophical dispute as it was a conflict over the interpretation of Scripture.

Duke Scholars

Author J. Warren Smith Divinity School