Tag Archives: Basil of Caesarea

Committing Theological Fraud: St Basil the Great and David Bentley Hart

Posted on 7 February 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Having already published one caustic review of That All Shall Be Saved, First Things has just published yet another piece on the book: “Theological Fraud” by Michael Pakaluk. The accusive title will no doubt bait many clicks. So what is … Continue reading →

Posted in David B. Hart, Universalism and Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , | 61 Comments

St Basil of Caesarea, Pneumatomachoi, and the Divinity of the Holy Spirit

Posted on 6 June 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“I neither chose to name the Holy Spirit God nor dare to call him a creature,” declared Eustathius of Sebaste in response to the Neo-Arian denial of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. At first glance, Eustathius’s ambivalence seems reasonable. … Continue reading →

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This Jesus is the Eternal Word of God

Posted on 12 December 2016 by Fr Aidan Kimel

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This one was in the beginning with God (Jn 1:1-2) John 1:1-2 was one of St Basil of Caesarea’s favorite texts, and he … Continue reading →

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The Cappadocian Brothers on the Propria of God

Posted on 20 April 2014 by Fr Aidan Kimel

I’m sure it did not come as a surprise to either St Basil of Caesarea or St Gregory of Nyssa. Once they began to elucidate the mystery of the Trinity by means of the analogy between three human beings and … Continue reading →

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St Basil the Great and the Search for Hypostasis

Posted on 14 July 2013 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“As I see it,” St Basil the Great writes, “while there is much that distinguishes Christianity from Greek error and Jewish ignorance, I think there is no doctrine in the gospel of our salvation more important than faith in the … Continue reading →

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“The three men I admire most”: St Basil and the Idiomata

Posted on 11 July 2013 by Fr Aidan Kimel

We all know the classical formulae—”three persons, one substance”; “one being in three hypostases”—and perhaps we even know that St Basil of Caesarea was partly responsible for securing this conceptuality in the Eastern tradition. But while everyone involved in the … Continue reading →

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Eunomius and his Simple God

Posted on 29 June 2013 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Since the mid-second century, Christian theologians have described the substance of God as simple. At the most basic level they have meant by this term that God is incomposite being. He is not composed of parts nor can be divided … Continue reading →

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Unbegetting the Eunomian God

Posted on 25 June 2013 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“God is unbegotten substance,” declares Eunomius. When we say this, we are stating a precise definition of God and thus comprehending him as he truly is. Eunomius certainly does not mean to suggest that we thus know God exhaustively and … Continue reading →

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