Christian Gnosis: Christian Religious Philosophy in Its Historical Development by Ferdinand Christian Baur

Author:Ferdinand Christian Baur [Ferdinand Christian Baur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781532677410
Publisher: Cascade Books
Published: 2020-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

The Father is unbegotten, whereas the Son is begotten. What is begotten cannot be comparable to what is unbegotten or begotten of itself, What are not the same in all respects may not be designated by the same name or term. What is begotten cannot have the same name as what is unbegotten, not even if the begotten one is of the same essential nature (τῆς αὐτῆς οὐσίας) as the one doing the begetting. Having come forth from God, and being likened to God, are hardly the basis for a claim to be called God. Thus while human souls have come forth from God and in a certain sense have the same essential nature as God, and are enduringly imbued with the breath of God, they nevertheless are not called gods. But if one wanted to call them gods, that would be only figuratively and only in the same broad sense in which Christ too was called God like all human souls. But then Christ would no longer be great, for he would only have what all have. Hence we only call God what in the supreme being is entirely peculiar to him and not imparted to any other. For instance, whoever is endless on all sides is called unbounded, and must of necessity be called unbounded because no other can be endless as he is. If someone says this is possible for another, that is wrong because two endless beings cannot coexist, for one of them would have been bounded by the other. Thus the unbegotten is one by nature. If he has a shape or figure, this shape is also one and incomparable, which is why he is called the Most High, because he is higher than all, and everything is subordinate to him. Yet if someone says that the term “god” would not capture the inexpressible essence of God himself, then why do people argue about the term? In any event the term is simply the one people conventionally use. But if this term is used for another being, then one must assign to this other being as well what one has not expressed. The expressed term or name opens the door to what is not expressed, and the misuse made of this term also carries over to what is not expressed.440

Thus the contention here is that the term or name “god” absolutely may not be applied to any being other than the one creator of the world. So it is clear that Marcion in particular, by speaking without hesitation about two gods, can hardly avoid the accusation of being a polytheist.

If every departure from the strict doctrine of the monarchy of God is polytheism, then dualism is also to be classified with polytheism. Dualism is set apart from ordinary polytheism only by its being a more refined, more sublime and more spiritual, form of polytheism. When the author of the Clementine Homilies speaks of an erroneous doctrine that does away with the monarchy of God, as

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.