God with his Logos would not cease to dwell in him; for God will be all in all[1].
But I shall not discuss this longer nor enter into the question as to whether the old tradition followed by Nestorius can be accepted by us, and if so, how[2]. The main thing for me is to contrast this tradition with the trinitarian doctrine of the council of 553. Here the Holy Trinity has become something through the incarnation which it was not before[3]. As regards the time before, it is to some extent a conceivable idea, that the three ὑποστάσεις, although they are regarded as in such a way independent of each other that one alone can become man, nevertheless together make the one God; for all three ὑποστάσεις are of the same spiritual substance. But after the incarnation, the Trinity is the triad of the merely spiritual Father, of the crucified (i.e. the Logos united with human flesh, soul and intellect), and of the Spirit[4]. This understanding of the Trinity is represented by the terrible
- ↑ Comp. the closing sentences of Irenaeus adv. haer. (5. 36, 2): Etenim unus filius, qui voluntatem patris perfecit, et unum genus humanum, in quo perficiuntur mysteria dei, quem (read quae) concupiscunt angeli videre et non praevalent investigare sapientiam dei, per quam plasma ejus conformatio et concorporatum filio perficitur; ut progenies ejus primogenitus (= πρωτότοκος; hence not "primogenita"), Verbum, descendat in facturam, hoc est in plasma, et capiatur ab eo, et factura iterum capiat Verbum et ascendat ad eum, supergrediens angelos, et fiet secundum imaginem et similitudinem dei.
- ↑ Comp. the closing remarks in my Oberlin-lectures "What is the truth about Jesus Christ?" (New York, 1913) pp. 237–241.
- ↑ Cp. ibid. p. 174.
- ↑ Cp. ibid. p. 175 note.
