"How in the world can the Son being an *equal* source *not* rule out the monarchy of the Father, without some heavy-duty semantical gymnastics?"It seems to me that every claim of equality implies at least one more semantic step, without which the claim of equality is meaningless. In the abstract all that "equal" means is that some attribute is identical among specified instances: that the things being specified are identical in some respect. With numbers that attribute is quantity. With anything other than numbers, every claim of equality is empty without specifying the putatively identical attribute(s).
Example: suppose two men are identical twins with precisely equal genetic codes. Both are equally human beings, as well, and share all attributes which are common to all human beings. Suppose they have equal amounts of money in their bank accounts and they drive the same kind of car. Both of their wives are equally blonde. They both put equal investments into Google. Yet one of the twins happens to be king, while the other is not.
"Equal" always raises the question "equal with respect to what?" If that question is not answered in specific detail, down to an atomic attribute (like quantity), then the claim of equality is at best multivocal and at worst completely meaningless.
Understanding God the Father and God the Son as equal eternal sources of the Spirit, and simultaneously understanding God the Father as monarch, would only be problemmatic if "sources of the Spirit" and "monarch" were the same attribute. But it isn't at all obvious that they are the same attribute. (My core point here isn't about the theology, it is about the concept "equal").
The thing to realise is that when it is asserted that one thing (or person) is equal to another thing (or person), it is an assertion of identity between one thing and another thing; an assertion which is meaningless without specifying the precise atomic attribute with respect to which both are identical.
1 comments:
Quite so, Zippy.
Triadology indicates why Christians must accept the idea that identity, as well as equality, is never absolute but relative to something. Thus when we say that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and that they are each, equally, God, we do not mean that they are each "the same." We mean each is the same God as the others.
Best,
Mike
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