Eranistes

Immutable: Dialogue 1

IMMUTABLE DIALOGUE ONE rthodox. It would have been better for us to agree and preserve the apostolic teaching in its integrity. But since you have for some reason destroyed harmony and are now offering us worthless doctrines, let us please search for the truth together without quarreling. Eranistes. We do not need a search, for we clearly possess the truth. Orthodox. Every heretic has assumed this. Why, even the Jews and the Greeks think that they are defending doctrines of truth, and this includes, not only the devotees of Plato and Pythagoras, but also the followers of Epicurus, outright atheists, and agnostics. We should not, however, be slaves of preconception , but should rather seek true knowledge. Eranistes. I yield to your recommendation and accept your proposal. Orthodox. In that case, since you willingly accepted my first request, I also beg you not to entrust the search for truth to human arguments, but to look instead for the tracks of the apostles , the prophets, and the holy people who followed them. For this is what travelers like to do when they go off the main road; they examine the paths carefully and look for footprints that show the comings and goings of people, horses, donkeys, or mules. And when they find some, they track them, like dogs, and do not stop until they recover the right road. Eranistes. Let’s do this. You lead the way, therefore, since you started the discussion. Orthodox. Let us begin, then, with a thorough examination of terms about God, namely, substance, subsistent entities, persons , and properties; let us get to know them and distinguish them from one another, and then let us continue from there. 30 Eranistes. You have provided our dialogue with a most eloquent and indispensable introduction. For when these matters have been clarified, the discussion will proceed more smoothly. Orthodox. Well then, since we agree and have decided upon this procedure, answer this question, [64] my friend. Do we say that there is one substance of God—the Father, the only begotten Son, and the all-Holy Spirit—as we were taught by divine Scripture, both old and new, and by the fathers who were gathered at Nicaea, or do we follow the blasphemies of Arius? Eranistes. We confess one substance of the Holy Trinity. Orthodox. Do we think that subsistent entity means something other than substance, or do we consider it a synonym for substance? Eranistes. Does substance somehow differ from subsistent entity ? Orthodox. Not according to secular wisdom, where substance means “that which is,” while subsistent entity means “that which exists.” But according to the teaching of the fathers, substance differs from subsistent entity as the common differs from the proper, or as the genus differs from the species or the individual . Eranistes. Clarify genus, species, and individual. Orthodox. We call “living being”1 a genus, since it points to many things under the same aspect; for it refers to both the rational and the irrational. There are in turn many species of irrational things, such as winged, amphibious, land, and water animals. And each of these species has many subdivisions; among those that go on land are the lion, the leopard, the bull, and countless others. There are also many species of both the winged type and the others; but nevertheless they all belong to the genus of “living being” and their species are the ones just named. In the same way the name “human being”2 is a name common to this nature, for it refers to the Roman, the Athenian, the Persian, the Sauromatian, the Egyptian, and, in brief, all who share this nature. The name Paul or Peter, however, no IMMUTABLE: DIALOGUE ONE 31 1. To; zw`/on. 2. To; a[nqrwpo". longer signifies what is common to the nature, but rather the individual human being. For no one who heard the name Paul would wander off in thought to Adam, Abraham, or Jacob, but would think only of this person whose personal name he heard. When we simply hear “human being,” however, we do not direct our thought to the individual, but understand rather the Indian, the Scythian, the Massagete, and the whole human race3 in general. And we learn this not only from nature, but from divine [65] Scripture as well; for it says, “God said, ‘I shall wipe out from the face of the earth the human being whom...