John Chrysostom’s Reception of Basil of Caesarea’s Trinitarian Theology

Abstract

Abstract The last two decades have seen extensive research on the Trinitarian theologies of several post-Nicene Fathers. Not much, however, has been done for John Chrysostom. Thomas Karman and Pak-Wah Lai have demonstrated separately that Chrysostom shares several theological beliefs with the Eusebian-Meletians, including the doctrine of divine incomprehensibility, and their anti-Sabellian concerns. Stylianos Papadopoulos has claimed further that Chrysostom is a successor of both Athanasius and the Cap­padocians’ teachings. Among the Cappadocians, it was Basil of Caesarea who first allied himself with the Meletians in the 370s. This makes him a prime candidate for examining Chrysostom’s reception of Cappadocian theology. We observe, first of all, that both ­bishops operate within the Meletian tradition, employing a wide range of Eusebian motifs to denote the Trinitarian relations, including the use of hypostatic language as a safeguard against Sabellianism. Both also assume God’s nature as incomprehensible. Basil, however, also developed several theological ideas which feature prominently in Chrysostom’s homilies. Specifically, a doctrine of divine simplicity that distinguishes between the knowledge and conceptions of God’s ousia, a careful distinction between God’s ousia and hypostasis whereby the latter is taken as representing ousia in its particular properties or idiomata, the illuminating role of the Spirit, and, finally, the defence of the Son and Spirit’s full divinity by underscoring the fact that they are equal in knowledge, authority, honour, and power as the Father. Taken together, these similarities suggest strongly that Basil’s teachings loom large in Chrysostom’s Trinitarian theology.