Incarnation and the Holy Trinity

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THE GREEK ORTHODOX THEOLOGICAL REVIEW Vol 4^,Nos 1-4.1998

The Incarnation and the Holy Trinity:An Introduction to the Theme

FR . GEORGE DI ON . D RAG AS

L Preamble

The Incarnation has to do with the union of God with man, in thesense that God has become human (inhominated) without ceasing tobe divine and, vice versa, man has become divine without ceasing tobe human. The inhomination of God and deification of man consti

tute the reality of the Incarnation. As St. Athanasius stated it in aclassic way: "He became human that we may become divine" 1 Thisreality is accomplished and fulfilled in and through our Lord JesusChrist, God's Son and Word. It is God's Son and Word that actuallybecame incarnate and inhominated and it is because of this that wespeak of God's incarnation and inhomination.

The incarnation and/or inhomination of the Son and Word of God

means that God has assumed human being and life in all its aspectsand dimensions without sin. It also means that the Son of God hasbecome in person a man, being all that we are by nature and experiencing all that we experience naturally, from birth to death and beyonddeath, but this was done in a way which is truly natural and sinlessand therefore saving. Thus, the inhominated Son of God has fulfilled,through his incarnate life, the true destiny of humanity, its deification, which is appropriated by us, human beings, through our union

and communion (metousia and mimesis) with him.The Son's inhomination is an eschatological, i.e. final and irre


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258 The Greek Orthodox Theological Review: 43/1-4, 1998

The Gospel begins with this event: "to the beginning was the Word ... and the Word was God ...in him there was Life ... and the Word became flesh, and we have seen his glory, as of a Father's only Son,

full of grace and truth... From his fullness we have all received graceupon grace" and it continues... "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have everlasting Life." 2 God, the Word (Only Son) and Life, thedivine Trinity, is the background to the Incarnation of the Word. Butthe Incarnate Word also incurs the revelation of the Holy Trinity,since in his glory the disciples see the divine Son and the Father andthe fullness of divine grace and truth.

Other well-known expressions of this Gospel event come from St.Paul. And here again, the same connection between the divine Trinity and the Incarnation is observed: "When the fullness of time had

come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might re ceive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent his Spirit into your hearts crying Abba, Father" or "God was in

Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation" or"Let the same mind be in you, that was in Jesus Christ, who, though

he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God some thing to be claimed, but emptied himself, taking the form of the servant, and humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross ... Therefore God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that... every tongue should con fess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." 3 In allthese classic Gospel statements the Incarnation and the Trinity areintertwined in a context which is both eschatological andsoteriological.

God's condescension to be with us in this eschatological and saving way through the inhomination of his Son has meant that God hasfully disclosed himself to us. This full or final revelation of God entails the mystery of God's identity, the mystery of the Holy Trinity ofthe Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that we come to experi


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Dragas: The incarnation and the Holy Trinity 259

St Athanasius stated in his Contra Arianos that now that Christhas come, "Theology is perfect (complete) in the Trinity and this isthe only true piety." 4 In his first Letter to Serapion he pointed outthat, "The Lord Jesus Christ himself taught his disciples the perfec-tion of the Holy Trinity existing undividedly in the one Godhead" 5

The great Apostle Peter says in his first Catholic Epistle that in Christ we have been given "everything we need for life and godliness throughour knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness...

so that ... [we] may participate in the divine nature and escape thecorruption in the world caused by evil desire." 6

The interconnection between the inhomination of the Son of Godand the mystery of the persons of the Holy Trinity needed clarifica-tion because of heretical misinterpretations. Thus the Fathers of theChurch sought to provide it in their dogmatic teaching which is rootedin the apostolic tradition whose custodians they had been appointedto be. The Fathers clearly teach that it is not the Holy Trinity, nor theGodhead, but one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, the Son thatbecame inhominated. In the biblical and patristic tradition it is clear

that the other two persons of the Trinity, who fully share the oneGodhead with the one who became inhominated, do not personally participate in the inhomination. The Father and the Spirit are notinhominated, although they are in fact, really involved in procuringand sustaining this event. As an Orthodox hymn puts it, "The Fatherwas well pleased' and "the Spirit collaborated." 1

On the other hand, it was the entire Godhead that was united tomanhood at the incarnation and inhomination of the Son of God. Asthe Apostle says, "all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him [inChrist] bodily."* Since the Godhead equally exists in the three per-sons of the Holy Trinity, all three persons are equally connected withthe incarnation, but this connection pertains to the Godhead (the di-

vine nature) and not to the divine Persons. The crucial point here isthat only the Son was personally (hypostatically, in patristic language)involved in the incarnation by becoming himself inhominated. Only

the Son of God (in person) became man. As for the Godhead, it didnot become inhominated, but was united with the manhood through


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come like his works."It is clear, then, that in the biblical and patristic tradition both the

Godhead and the Trinity are involved in the Incarnation. The Godhead

is involved by being united to the manhood. The Trinity is involvedby having one of the persons (the Son) be personally (hypostatically)united with the manhood so as to become inhominated. The themes,then, of the Trinity and the Incarnation are clearly intertwined, butwhat is actually involved, always needs to be clarified by the twopatristic distinctions: a) the distinction between the one Godhead andthe Trinity of persons or hypostaseis, and b) the distinction between

the Son of God's becoming inhominated in person and assuming truemanhood naturally to himself uniting it with his Godhead. These dis-tinctions are built into the patristic understanding of theinterconnection between the doctrine of the Incarnation and the doctrine of the Trinity. They help to clarify, but not to explain away themystery of the Gospel.

For the Orthodox Christians, who follow the Fathers, this twirGospel mystery of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation or the Incarnation and the Holy Trinity is clearly stated in the Gospel and generallyin the Scriptures, in the Divine Liturgy and in the Creed. Althoughthis is not the place to give a full exposition of it as found in thesethree areas, it would be proper to give some indications at least as towhat we mean.

2. The witness of the Gospel and the Old Testament

The Gospel, I mean the Book of the Gospels as arranged in theLectionary and used in the Church's Liturgy, begins with John 1 .Iff,which most clearly brings together, as we have already indicated, theTrinity and the Incarnation. It first refers to the Trinity under the namesof "God," "Word," "Life" and, then, immediately proceeds to theIncarnation by means ofthat most solemn and most central evangelical statement; "The Word became flesh " u Here the Trinity appearsto be the presupposition to the Incarnation. In light, however, of thestatement that follows "and we saw his glory, the glory of an Only-begotten of a Father full of grace and truth" the Incarnation also


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Dragas: The Incarnation and the Holy Trinity 261

"God [presumably the Father] so loved the world that he sent hisOnly-begotten Son that whosoever believes in him might not perish

but have everlasting Life [in the Spirit]." 12 God, the Only-begotten

Son, and the Life, reveal the Trinity, but the context is the sending ofthe Son into the world, the Incarnation. The rest of the Gospel of St.John is a "mine," so to speak, from which the Fathers of the Churchdraw through their exegesis the materials for their Trinitarian andIncarnational doctrines.

St. Cyril of Alexandria, for example, in his Commentary on thisGospel, speaks extensively about the relation of the Father to theSon, their coexistence, co-inherence, consubstantiality and equality.He also speaks extensively about the Son of God, his birth from theFather and his perfect Godhead, his conception by the Holy Spiritand his true manhood, the unity of his (composite) person and generally his incarnation and its mediatory and saving meaning andsignificance. Similarly, there is plenty of doctrinal teaching about theHoly Spirit, his Godhead and consubstantiality, his procession fromthe Father and his intimate relation to and synergy with the Son. Al

though the Gospel of St. John is about the Son, St Cyril extracts fromit a "complete" as it were doctrine of the Trinity, the distinction andequality of the divine Persons as well as their unity in being and act.John 14:1 "Believe in God, believe also in me" seems to be at theheart of it alla most succinct way of interpreting the interconnection between the Incarnate Son and the Holy Trinity. Here is aneloquent extract from St. Cyril, which illustrates this point:

"And this being the nature of the faith, we must further notice an other point: Christ bade them believe not in God alone, but also on himself, not implying thereby that he is at all different from the onewho is by nature God, I mean as regards identity of being (essence);

but that to believe in God and to suppose that the province of faith must be wholly bound up in this one phrase, is rather a peculiar characteristic of the Jewish imagination, whereas the inclusion of the name of the Son within the compass of fait h in God indicates the

acceptance of an injunction of Gospel preaching. For those at leastwho are rightly minded must believe in God the Father, and not merely


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same measure of glory. For in our minds there should be no difference as to the intensity of our faith: our faith in the Father is not to be

greater than our faith in the Son or even than our faith in the Holy

Spirit. But one and the same are the extent and the manner of our confession, uttered in regard to each of the divine Persons with the same measure of faith; in such a way that the glory that herein again the Holy Trinity may appear in unity of nature, so that the glory thatencircles It may be seen in unchallenged perfection, and our souls

may display our faith in the Father and in the Son, even in his Incar nation, and in the Holy Spirit. " I3

Further on and in discussing John 14:7 (If you had known me, youwould have known my Father also) and other verses in this context,St. Cyril makes another statement that is of direct relevance to ourpoint of view here: "I am the Way and the Life, and the Truth; and

again, No man comes to the Father but by me; thereby showing thatif anyone willed to know the way which would lead to eternal life, hewould strive with all diligence to know Christ. But since it was likely that some, who had been trained in Jewish rather than in Gospel

doctrine, might suppose that a confession of faith in and a knowledge of One Person only out of all was sufficient for a right (orthodox) belief, and that it was needless to learn the doctrine concerning the Holy and consubstantial Trinity; Christ seems to absolutely exclude those who hold this opinion from a true knowledge concerning God,unless they would also accept himself For it is through the Son thatwe must draw near to God the Father." 14

This Gospel pattern of the Holy Trinity as the presupposition tothe Incarnation and of the Incarnation as the manifestation of theHoly Trinity is recognized by the Church Fathers in the four-foldGospel and in the Apostle, which consists of the Epistles of the HolyApostles. To expound this we would need to survey the relevantpatristic commentaries, 15 but such a task goes beyond the scope ofthe present paper. A word or two, however, should be said about therest of Holy Scripture, namely the Old Testament.

As regards the witness of the Old Testament to the link of thesetwo themes we may recall here, first of all the fact that in the very


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this out in a very eloquent way in spite of a somewhat crude anthropomorphism and can serve as an illustration of patristic teaching:"Indeed a great affair was in progress when that clay was being fash

ioned [into man]... Think of God as being wholly employed and devoted to it, whose lines he was determining by his hand, his eye, his labor, his judgement, his wisdom, his providence, and above allelse, his love. In whatever way the clay was pressed out, he was thinking of Christ, the man who was one day to be; because the Word, too,was to be clay and flesh, as the world was then. Thus it was that the Father did say beforehand to the Son, Let us make man in our image and likeness; and God made man, that is, the creature which he fashioned, according to the image of God, of Christ, of course, he made

him." 11

The belief that the entire OT bears witness typologically and oftenallegorically to the Incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity isa common place in OT Christian exegesis. Apostle Barnabas says,"Moses and David and Isaiah saw the forthcoming Incarnation of

the Son." 1* St. Ignatius of Antioch says that, "The prophets lived ac

cording to Jesus Christ ... for they were his disciples in the Spirit ... and looked forward to him as their Teacher." 19 ... "They too have announced the Gospel, which is the flesh of Jesus [the Incarnation] and hoped in him and awaited him." 20 Justin Martyr refers to the OTprophecies in order to defend the Incarnation of the Son of God againstthe view that Christ was a magician. He claims for example, that"Isaiah explicitly foretold [7.14] the Incarnation of the Son through

the birth from a Virgin." 21 He also claims that "in all the theophanies of God in the OTit was the Son who was in fact appearing-preparing thereby his way for the Incarnation." 22 One of the most conspicuouscases in this connection is the famous passage regarding the Wisdomof God in Proverbs 8:20ff, which is understood by the Fathers (especially in the context of the Arian controversy) in terms of theIncarnation. The post-Nicene Fathers in general, follow this line consistently. St. Cyril of Alexandria, to give an example from one who

commented on most of the OT, starts his Glaphyra on Genesis bysaying, "that throughout the entire Scripture of Moses, the mystery of


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264 The Greek Orthodox Theological Review: 43/1 4, 1998

In this light it is little wonder that Patristic Biblical Theology isusually summed up in the double theme of Theology ()and Economy (), the former referring to the Holy Trinity

and the latter to the Incarnation.24

From this perspective, the Incarna-tion was in no way an afterthought for God the Holy Trinity. Indeedthe Faith of the Church has to do with the Trinity as the presupposi-tion to the Incarnation and the Incarnation as the manifestation ofand participation in the grace of the Trinity.

3. The Witness of the Creed

When we turn to the Creed we find the same pattern. The structureof the Nicene Creed, and of all the ancient baptismal creeds in gen-eral, is basically Trinitarian and Incarnational. "We believe in OneGod, Father Almighty ... and in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son ofGod, the Only begotten... who for us human beings and for our sal-vation came down from heaven and was incarnate and becamehuman... and in One Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life..." The secondarticle is by far the longest, precisely because it brings in the theme

of the Incarnation with all its implications. It is important to observethat by starting the second article with the name Jesus Christ andthen going on to explain that he is the Son of God who became incar-nate and inhominated and suffered for our sake, the Creed has placedthe theme of the Incarnation in the center of the theme of the Trinity.It does not speak of Father Son(Christ) Holy Spirit but of FatherChrist(Son) Holy Spirit. This suggests both, that the Trinity is boundup with the Incarnation and that the Incarnation manifests and com-municates the truth and grace of the Trinity. How do we interpret thesecond article of the Nicene Creed?

The second article of the Nicene Creed, which deals withChristology, follows closely the pattern of the Gospel inasmuch as itfirst presents Christ in terms of the eternal Son of God and then goeson to state the theme of his Incarnation. In fact we may distinguishthree parts to this second article of the faith. The first part refers to

the divine identity of Christ as the second person of the Trinity. Thesecond part refers to his Incarnation, and the third, to his life as the


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that follows. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ provides the groundfor the Incarnation and the Incarnation, the ground for salvation. Butlet us look at these more closely.

First of all we are told who Jesus Christ is in relation to God (andin One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God...). He is the second personof the Holy Trinity, God's Only begotten Son, who was born fromthe Father before all ages, who is homogeneous with the Father, likelight from light, and, therefore, true God from true God, a naturaloffspring of God who is radically differentiated from God's crea-tures. He is consubstantial () with the Father, i.e. one inbeing and of the same being with the Father, because he is both dis-tinguished and united with him, inasmuch as he is born of and notmade by God. The consubstantiality of the Son to the Father impliesboth identity and distinction. This is most clearly stated by St Athanasius in the East and St. Hilary in the West in their respective writings bearing the identical title De Synodis. These Fathers arguethat if the Son is like the Father in being ( , or) and if God's being is one, then everyone should con-fess

both truths by the word

consubstantial (). 25

In thepatristic tradition which forms the particular context or sitz im Lebenof this Creed, the identity implied by the term consubstantial refersto the one being (), or the one nature (), of the Father andthe Son and the distinction to their hypostases () or per-sons (). The great Cappadocian theologians who bothinherited and clarified Athanasius' authentic doctrine especially ex-plain this. The radical difference of the Son from the creatures is to

be seen primarily in the fact that he is born from the Father, whereaseverything else is made, or created by the Father. Again in the tradi-tion of Nicaea the birth of the Son, though incomprehensible, isunderstood to be from the very being of God the Father ( ), as contrasted to being out of nothing ( ).Here the being of the Father is both the Father's person (hypostasis)and the Father's being, i.e. the total existence () of the Fa-ther. Being out of nothing characterizes all other things, which have

been created through him. Really this first part of the second articleof the Creed presents to us the divine identity of the Son as the pre


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article (who for us human beings and for our salvation came down from heaven... etc.). It involves the Son's descent from heaven, whichis none other than his condescension to be with his creatures on their

own level of created existence. More specifically it involves the Son'sidentifying himself with us through becoming incarnated and human.

What is of crucial importance here is the fact that the eternal andOnly begotten Son of God is the sole subject of the Incarnation. It ishe himself, in his person and hypostasis, who becomes incarnated() and inhominated (). The mean-ing of these terms has been clarified by what the Fathers have saidmainly against three heresies, Apollinarism (4 th century), Nestorianism(5 th century), and Eutychianism (5 th century), the first one being asort of new docetism (new, because it does not contest the reality ofthe flesh of Christ as early Docetism does, which operates with atheological dualism, but denies its integrityactually the reality ofChrist's rational and 'mindful' soul); the second heresy being a sortof new Ebionism or new Samosataeanism f (new, because it saw theIncarnation as the indwelling of a hypostatic Word in the man Jesus

in contrast to a Word which was mere divine energy in a theologicalsystem of Dynamic Monarchianism)\ and the third being a sort ofnew theopaschistism or patripassianism (new, because it accepts theintegrity of the divine and the human natures before the Incarnation

but confuses them afterwards). Against Apollinaris' conception of the Incarnation as an assump-

tion by the Son of God of mere human flesh or a soulless human

body, the Fathers affirm that the Incarnation involves the assumptionof complete or perfect human nature, body and soul, reason and mind,and all that belongs to the human constitution with the exception ofsin which is . The true human identity of the nature whichthe Son assumed at his Incarnation has been particularly seen in thephrase he was incarnated ... from the Virgin Mary {... ), whereas the true involvement of theeternal Son of God in the birth from the Virgin is brought out by the

phrase ... from the Holy Spirit ( ).Against Nestorianism, who taught that the Incarnation is but a


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happened in the case of the prophets, but he himself became man.This means that in Jesus Christ we do not have a union of two per-sons or hypostases, one divine and one human, but an hypostatic or

personal union of the Godhead and the manhood, i.e. an union of thetwo natures in the one person and hypostasis of the Son of God. Thisis what St Cyril of Alexandria meant when he spoke of an hypostaticunion ( ) or one nature of God the Word incar-nate ( ), identifying herenature with hypostasis and person.

It is this same point that Leontios of Byzantium made in his doc-trine of the enhypostasia, which was intended to stress the one divineperson of Christ as the basis of the ontological completion of thehuman nature, which he assumed. In other words the human natureof Christ is not anhypostatic () because it isenhypostatic () in the divine hypostasis of the Son ofGod, which thereby has become human, while still remaining di-

vine! This tjeing the case, the claim of certain modern theologiansthat patristic Christology is Docetic, because it lacks human person-

ality, is only a deceitful pretence for reintroducing Neonestorianheresies. Christ does not lack in human personality. It is his divineperson that has also become human because he assumed human na-ture.

Against Eutychianism the Fathers affirm that the union of the infi-nite uncreated nature of the Godhead with the contingent creatednature of the manhood, which was effected through the Incarnation/Inhomination of the Son of God, does not lead to a crashing extermi-nation of the latter by the former. If that was the case, the whole basisof salvation would have been destroyed. The union of the divine andthe human in Christ rather leads to a communication or transmissionof certain properties (idioms) of the former to the latter which effectthe latter's salvation and perfection in accordance with God's eternalplan as it becomes concretely revealed in the fullness of time. Whatare at stake here are the deification of the human nature and the real-

ity of the exchange of properties (communicatio idiomatum). Apollinarism and Eutychianism understood the Incarnation in a


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as it were, the reverse mystery to that which pertains to the Trinity. Inthe Incarnation, to use language from St Athanasius, St Gregory theTheologian and St Cyril, there is no , but

, and , i.e. not one and another person but oneand another nature and one and the same person. In the Trinity, how-ever, there is no , but ,and , i.e. not one and another being, but another [per-son] and another and another, and one being in three persons. In theTrinity, however, this understanding of Christology is most clearlystated in the of St. Cyril of Alexandria with the

Antiochians of 433 and in the Chalcedonian dogmatic statement of451.

The Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Synods made further clarifica-tions. The former condemned the dualism of the heretical teaching ofthe three chapters, which reopened the way to the Nestorian error,and stressed the composite hypostasis ( ) ofChrist. The latter condemned the heresy of monenergism andmonotheletism, which reopened the way to the Apollinarist mixture

and the Eutychian monophysitie confusion. It stressed that in the In-carnation we have two natural energies and two natural wills, thedivine and the human, and no personal energy and will which is ab-stract, twisted and evil. The dogmatic Statements (") of thesesynods are of perennial value for Orthodox Christianity and they aremost eloquently formulated in the Synodical (Dogmatic) Epistle ofSt. Sophronius Patriarch of Jerusalem, which was incorporated intothe minutes of this synod.

We may finally turn to the third part of the second article of thefaith, which brings out the soteriological character of the Incarna-tion. It is very significant that at the very beginning of the secondsection of this second article of the Creed (the part that deals with theIncarnation of the Son of God) it is explicitly stated that all this takesplace for us and our salvation. Both the union of the divine and hu-man natures in the person and hypostasis of the eternal Son of God,

which takes place by virtue of his descent from heaven, his incarna-tion () from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and his


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constitute the basis of salvation.All the above expostulations demand further consideration of the

following most pertinent themes which seem to be embedded in them:

i) The Incarnation as the link between creation and redemption, ii)The Incarnation and the fall, especially whether the former presup-poses the latter or not. iii) The Incarnation as recapitulation ofhumanity, i.e. how Christ is the last Adam and especially how Christ'shumanity includes the entire human race, iv) The Incarnation andeschatology, i.e. the time of the Incarnation as "fullness of time" and"completion of the ages," the "second glorious coming of Christ"and the "last judgment," and the "resurrection of the dead" and the"life of the world to come." The Church Fathers have given us ampleteaching on these themes, but this is no place to attempt to expoundthem systematically. One thing should said here, however, that inOrthodox Patristic Theology Christology is inseparable fromSoteriology, the Person and work of Christ are the two sides of thesame coin, as it were, which includes anthropology and ecclesiology,cqsmology and eschatology.

4. The witness of the Orthodox Liturgy

The combination of Trinitarian and Incarnational (Christological)themes constitutes perhaps the most typical feature in Eastern Ortho-dox liturgical practice, whether it is the daily Office, or the holySacraments, especially the Divine Liturgy. Perhaps its simplest ex-pression is the gesture, which Orthodox Christians make with their

fingers when they cross themselves. They join together their thumbwith the index and the middle finger of the right hand while at thesame time the other two fingers are joined and bent in the palm of thehand. This combination of three fingers and two fingers reminds themof the twin mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation, which is, madeours through Christ's redemptive work on the cross.

Different but similar in meaning is also the other quite familiargesture of the Orthodox clergy when they confer God's blessing onthe people. By joining their two fingers and leaving the other threefingers free in making the sign of the cross Orthodox clergy bear


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for the gesture of the cross, it signifies the act of redemption which isbased on the descent and ascent of the Divine Son into the worldthrough his incarnate economy consummated in his crucifixion andresurrection.

The same is solemnly and liturgically conveyed by the use of the dikera and trikera (one two-fold and one three-fold candlestick) bythe bishops in the Divine Liturgy. The actual conferring of the blessing by the bishop is a threefold act done with the dikera and trikeraheld by two hands. The careful analysis of the elements of this act(what is done, how it is done over the Holy Gospel and towards thepeople, and what is said at the same time) fully and profoundly re

veal the inner connection between the twin mystery of the Trinityand the Incarnation on the one hand and of Redemption on the other.

All the Sacraments, which unite us to Christ and thereby bring usinto the realm of the Incarnation, begin with a liturgical act, whichbrings out the Trinitarian and Incarnational basis of these sacraments.This act includes the opening Trinitarian acclamation, "Blessed is the kingdom of th Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit al

ways, now and ever and in the ages of the ages." This acclamation ispronounced while the priest makes the sign of the cross with the HolyGospel (which is an Icon of Christ, God's incarnate and inhominatedSon and Word) in his hands. Careful structural analysis of the liturgical ceremonies of the Orthodox Sacraments demonstrates that whatis done at the beginning is also true at the center and throughoutthese sacred acts. All sacraments are accomplished with two basicprayers ( ) and signify the two natures of Christ and

the fact that Christ's sanctification offered to us embraces both souland body, the inner and the outer man (St. Symeon of Thessalonica).The trisagion stands at the beginning of all offices, but at the end wehave a Christological formula (Christ our true God ... etc.) with whichthe dismissal is made.

Baptism is properly and canonically performed in the name of theTrinity through a triple immersion, whereby one is joined to the In-

carnate Lord and becomes member of his Body, the Church. Thereare lots of triadic patterns in it (e.g. the priest blows and blesses cross-


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of which are set within a distinctly Christocentric and Incarnationalcontext.

In the Marriage service, which typifies the union of Christ withthe Church (the Incarnation), the betrothal blessings with the tworings and the marriage blessings with the two crowns, as well as theacts of exchanging these between the spouses, are threefold(Trinitarian). On the other hand there are two parts to the whole sacrament corresponding to the twin mystery of creation and redemptionand to the twin relation of the Son of God to humanity in his discarnateand incarnate states. Trinitarian are also many other acts, such as theceremonial "dance" around the table (throne) of Christ, the triple

communion, the blessing of bridegroom and bride, etc. while the dismissal is distinctly Christocentric.In the Ordination rite, which also draws its significance from

Christ's union with humanity (the Incarnation), there is again a threefold ceremonial procession around the Holy Table for deacons,presbyters and bishops, and besides, three bishops are needed to consecrate a bishop. There are also two ordination or donsecration prayersand a distinctive Christocentric dismissal.

Perhaps the most elaborate expression of this Trinitarian link withthe Incarnation is to be seen in the celebration of the Divine Liturgyitself, which is regarded by many as the "sacrament of the sacraments."

The Divine Liturgy begins with the same solemn acclamation ofthe blessed Trinity, as we have noted above ["Blessed is the

kingdom... etc."]. It then proceeds to the worship of the Trinity by

means of repeated Trinitarian invocations, acts and acclamations,which are placed in a distinctly Incarnational context that unfolds theentire mystery of Jesus Christ. The Trinitarian pattern of the DivineLiturgy can be seen in its entire structure, the general pattern and thedetails. There are three main parts to it: the Prothesis or Proskomide,the Liturgy of the Word (or Catechumens) and the Liturgy of the Sac rament (or Faithful). In the first part we see several triadic structures,three acts of prostration, three acts of sealing, three covers, tripleincensing, triple acclamations, etc. In the Liturgy of the Word, afterthe opening acclamation which is distinctly Trinitarian we have three


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Great Litany has twelve parts, three triads and one triad, which is awell known pattern reminding one of the divine Trinity and Unitythe same pattern is observed in the Anthems and in the TrisagionHymn which is sung four times the last one preceded by the Glory tothe Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit ... The small litanies havethree petitions each. All the litanies conclude with prayers which areChristological in content but have concluding acclamations whichare distinctly Trinitarian. The rest of the Liturgy contains numeroustriadic patterns and contents, which are not necessary to be recalledhere in detail.

In the Divine Liturgy, the central act of Orthodox worship, we

celebrate the whole saving economy of the Incarnate Son of God.His descent from heaven and his birth at Bethlehem is representedliturgically by the holy Prothesis. His public ministry is representedby the Liturgy of the Catechumens. His entry into Jerusalem, followed by his Last or Mystical Supper, his death, burial, resurrectionand ascension, are represented by the Liturgy of the Faithful. Thesethree parts constitute the context of the revelation of the mystery andglorification of the Triune God. Here we have the celebration or representation of the twin mystery of the faith, which rests on the tworealities of the Trinity and the Incarnation.

5. By way of conclusion

This brief review of the Orthodox understanding of the relation ofthe Trinity to the Incarnation in light of the Gospel and the OT, theCreed and the Liturgy clearly shows that these two themes are inseparable. The Holy Trinity is the presupposition to the Incarnationand the Incarnation is the means for the revelation of the Trinity. Theclaim that the doctrine of the Trinity is a later doctrinal production ofthe intellectual reflection of faith on the data of revelation is as unthinkable for an Orthodox as the other claim that the "Christ of thefaith" is different from the "Jesus of history." This twin basis of theOrthodox faith is the heart of the Gospel, of the Church's act of worship, of the experience of salvation and certainly of the OrthodoxCreed. To put this to question on the basis of historical, or philo

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from being open to such critical appraisals this twin mystery of thefaith is for the Orthodox Church the criterion of human history, human wisdom, and human epistemology and method. To deny itsaxiomatic character is to fail to make an authentic entrance into thetruth of Christianity, which is Christ himself and the glory of theHoly Trinity that shines on his sacred face. For the Fathers all theactivity of God in creation and salvation begins with the Father, isaccomplished by the Son and is completed or perfected (reaches itsend) in the Holy Spirit. We may restate it here by means of shortanalytical statements.

Firstly, there can be no proper understanding of the Incarnation

without presupposing the Father. It is the Father who initiates theIncarnation by ordaining its scope in his eternal divine counsel, whichis the Word. The great Apostle Paul explicitly presents this view."Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessedus in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even

as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" 2* St Athanasius explains this profoundly. He says that "wewere prefigured in him... that he was placed as our foundation takingup our economy... that we are being built upon him since he was

made our foundation before the beginning of the world ... that ourlife was founded and prepared in Christ Jesus." 21 Furthermore, theFather creates the presupposition of the Incarnation through the di

vine design of creation, whereby the world is created in, through andfor his Son and Word. St Paul says, "creation is through him and to

him." 2* As St. Athanasius explains, the one by whom God created it,namely the divine Word, is the one by whom alone creation can beregained. 29 Thus, it is the Father who sends the Son in the fullness oftime to accomplish the Incarnation and its saving purpose. 30 It is alsothe Father who sends his Spirit to the Son and through the Son to theworld to fulfill the purpose of the Incarnation. 31 This pattern ofTrinitarian action (from the Father through the Son in the Spirit), isseeing in the Baptism of our Lord which marks the beginning of his


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in the power of the Spirit), including those mighty ones at the end ofhis earthly life which relate to his crucifixion, resurrection and exal-tation or glorification.

Secondly, the Son and Word of God is the presupposition of theIncarnation. The Son has been ordained in the eternal counsel of Godto be the one to accomplish it. "He chose us in him before the founda-tion of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ accordingto the purpose of his will..." 32 He has been laid down as the presuppo-sition to its accomplishment at creation. He accomplishes theIncarnation 33 and, finally, fulfills the aim of the Incarnation which is

man's deification and the perfection of God's will in creation.Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is the presupposition to the Incarnation.

The Holy Spirit is well pleased along with the Father ( ). The Holy Spirit collaborates () with the Son increation and in redemption. The Holy Spirit perfects the accomplish-ment of the Incarnation by the Word and Son. This is the pattern that

we see, for instance, in the annunciation story. This is also the patternof the Creed. The Spirit vivifies, i.e. applies the life which is in Christ.The Holy Spirit is the key to whole life of the Incarnate Son, as seenin the accounts of the Lord's birth, baptism, ministry, death, resur-rection and ascension. The Holy Spirit is sent at Pentecost from theFather through the Son to fulfil the aims of the incarnation in theChurch, in us.

Now the Trinity is not only the presupposition to the Incarnation, but also is revealed through it. The revelation of the Father by the

Incarnate Son is seen not only in the way in which he prayed to Godas "Father," or "his Father," but also in several explicit Gospel state-ments found in the lips of the Incarnate Son himself. "He who has

seen me has seen the Father" or "No one has ever seen God, theonly begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has madehim known" etc. 34 In the Gospel the Son not only reveals the Father,

but it is in his name that the Spirit is sent. 35 Also the Son baptizes with the Holy Spirit. 36 Finally, the Son reveals the whole Trinity asthis is seen in Baptism. Baptism is "in the Name of Christ", or "in thename of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit " These two


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Excursus

The relation of the Incarnation to the Trinity is also seen in a mostdistinct manner in the Lord's Prayer. According to Saint Maximusthe Confessor and other Fathers the first petitions reveal both themystery of the Trinity and the mystery of our adoption in Christ whichis the result of his incarnate economy. 37 The Father, his Name and hisKingdom reveal the Trinity, while the privilege of addressing God asour Father is the distinctive gift of our divine adoption in Christ. Thesame can be said about the most famous of all prayers in Orthodoxy,the Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Mind which lies at the heart ofOrthodox spirituality. Through this prayer the Fathers constantly re-

ceive the grace of the Trinity which constitutes the foundation oftheir dogmatic teaching. For the Fathers the experience of the graceof the Holy Trinity forms their supreme criterion in maintaining theholy Tradition, which was given by the Lord Jesus Christ himself,predicted or foreshadowed by the holy prophets and preached by theholy Apostles. Because of this, it would be fitting to present here a

brief statement of how this grace is experienced.

The Fathers speak of their experience of the grace of the Trinity ina variety of ways. They speak in terms of the prayer of the Spirit inthe heart, or the vision of the glory of God (), or the grace ofadoption (), or the gift of deification (), or the ful-fillment of the prayer of the mind ( ). In this variety ofpresentations we can distinguish two primary aspects, one purely theo-logical and another anthropological. The former is related to the divineenergieswhat God gives, and the latter to the human activity

and effortwhat man achieves. Both aspects are conjoined and revealed in the risen and ascended Christ, the Godman. The humanityof the ascended Lord of glory (the Body of Christ) is absolutely cru-cial, because it is in and through this that the grace of the Trinity isappropriated, is realized and shines forth. It is from the Body of Christ(in the strict Christological sense) that the grace of the Trinity is trans-mitted to the Christians (the Body of Christ in the ecclesiologicalsense). This is done not only when the Christians are initiated throughBaptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, but continuously as they

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of God, i.e. the dogma of God's mysterious unity and Trinity. Thisrevelation is a unique experience that could never be reduced to rational schematization. Its uniqueness rests on the fact that it is freely

given by God (through his uncreated energy), and is free received byman (into his heart, spirit, mind).Two things should be stressed concerning the Prayer of the Mind,

especially when it is considered as the focus of the Christian experience of the Holy Trinity. In one sense the Prayer refers to what theChristian does in response to Christ and the Gospel, and in anothersense it entails the totally gratuitous revelation of the Holy Trinity orthe glory of the Trinity to the Christian.

In the first instance the Prayer of the Mind is connected with theChristian ascesis which constitutes the condition of the reception byman of God's revelation. This ascesis has a three-fold pattern corresponding to the three powers of the human soul (will, reason andmind). Evagrios spoke of the practical, the physical and the theological dimensions. Diadochos of Photice spoke of the dimensions ofknowledge, wisdom and theology. The holy Neptics described these

dimensions in their practical, gnostic and theological chapters. Inthese, as in all cases, the mind of the human soul was given a centralplace.

In the first instance the mind is liberated from being captive to thebody and to materiality in general through desireit does this bykeeping the commandments, acquiring the virtues and combating thevices.

In the second instance the mind rises above to the contemplationof the rationality of the worldit achieves this by casting out evilthoughts and syllogisms and by realizing the theistic basis of the crea-tureliness of all things.

In the third instance the mind is gathered up in itself and is directed to the heavenly and divine realities beyond creation.

Through this three-fold ascesis the mind is purified, illuminatedand deified by receiving the light of God's revelation. This revela

tion is a mystical event based on the energy of the Holy Trinity andcannot be translated into objective conceptual categories. It is also a


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Dragas: The Incarnation and the Holy Trinity Til

the circular one. The former is connected with the body and its bodilysenses, the second involves the syllogisms of the mind which arisefrom the conceptions of existing things, and the third movement is

related to the mind itself and to the heart of the soul. Most of theFathers, from Dionysius the Areopagite to Gregory Palamas, seem toprefer the third way as the most perfect and fruitful one. Accordingto this the mind has to get rid of all corporeal and incorporeal im-ages, to be gathered up in itself and finally to be wholly thrust uponGod or God's memory. The principle, which governs this movement,is the realization that God is beyond all the sensible and intelligiblethings of this world and as such he can only be approached in a wayof transcendence. As St. Neilos puts it, "in the time of your prayeryou shall not allow yourself any shape of God nor shall you let yourmind create any sort of form, but you shall be united with the imma-terial God in an immaterial fashion."

Through the mind it is the entire soul that comes to be united withGod in a direct manner, including, that is, mind and innate logos and

will. According to St. Gregory Palamas, when the one mind takes its

three fold shape without ceasing to be one and comes into contact with the Triadic Monad then it prevents any entry of deceit into it andconquers every fleshly and worldly condition.

There are various 'techniques' as regards the way in which theintegrated human mind thrusts itself upon God in order to receive thegift of his revelation. Perhaps the most famous of them all is that which bears the name 'the Jesus Prayer,' which is fully described by

Nicephoros, Gregory of Thessalonica, Kallistos and IgnatiosXanthopouli, Gregory Sinaites and Nicodemos Hagiorites in the bestcollection of Orthodox ascetic writings, the Philokalia of St. Macariosof Corinth which was edited by St. Nicodemos in 1782. The samePhilokalia contains other techniques connected with the various man-ners of purification () of the mind and the heart, all of whichamount to the same experience. What, however, is particularly im-portant for our present purposes is the Trinitarian content of this

experience which is clearly and even "dogmatically" described in anumber of cases. Here are some pertinent examples from St. Mximos


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knowledge of the Holy Trinity.""Through the doing of the commandments the mind puts off the

passions; through the spiritual contemplation of the visible creation,concupiscent thoughts of things; through knowledge of the invisiblecreation, the contemplation of the visible; and this latter it puts offthrough knowledge of the Trinity."

"The pure mind is to be found either with mere ideas of humanthings, or in the natural contemplation of the visible creation, or inthat of the invisible, or in the light of the Holy Trinity."

"He who anoints his mind for the sacred contests and drives bad

thoughts from it has the characteristics of a deacon; of a priest, however, if he illumines it with knowledge of beings and utterly destroyscounterfeit knowledge; of a bishop, finally, if he perfects it with thesacred myrrh of knowledge of the worshipful and Holy Trinity."

"Who illumined you with the faith of the holy, consubstantial,worshipful Trinity? Or who made known to you the incarnate dispensation of one of the Holy Trinity? And who taught you about thenatures of incorporeal beings and the reasons of the beginnings andconsummation of the visible world? Or about the resurrection fromthe dead and eternal life? Or about the glory of the kingdom of theheavens and the dread judgment? Was it not the grace of Christ dwelling in you, the pledge of the Holy Spirit? What is greater than thisgrace?"

St. Makarios:"The divine Trinity indwells in the soul which is in a state of pu

rity by means of a conjunction between the soul and the divinegoodness..."

St. John Damascus:"Thus, when the mind is liberated from the aforementioned pas

sions and is raised up to God, it acquires the blessed life as it receivesthe betrothal of the Spirit; having been removed from these with impassibility and true knowledge, it presents itself to the light of theHoly Trinity, being illumined with the divine angels eternally. Also,having a three-fold soul consisting of reason, anger and appetite . . .

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pertains to being, but to what is seen by the saints ... They see oneessence of the Holy Trinity and they glorify three hypostaseis of theone Godhead. They perceive what is common and what is particular

in the Trinity ..."In these extracts we see clearly that the right unity of the Trinitarian

structure of the soul in the mind has to be realized before the grace ofthe Holy Trinity reveals to it the transcendent and saving knowledgeof Itself. The mind is that unifying aspect of the soul, which opens upto God and is fed with the transcendent and mystical gift of hisTrinitarian revelation. 38

NOTES

1 Athanasius, De Incarnatone, 54.2 John 1:1,16 and 3:16.3 Galatians, 4:4 6 and 2 Cor. 5:19.4 Athanasius, Contra Arianos i: 18.5 Athanasius, PG. 26:605CD.6 IPeterl:3f.7

" (From the third proeortion idiomelon of the Vespers of the Sunday before Christmas).8 Colossians 2:9.9 Athanasius, Contra Arianos i: 11 f10 Athanasius, Contra Arianos ii:51. Cf. i:60,62, ii:2.9,11 2,13,45,46,51,53,67

etc. For a full study of this aspect of the Incarnation see my essay: "Inhomination, or hebecame man: a neglected aspect of Athanasius' Christology," in Studia Patristica, vol.xvi (1985) 281 293, or the same in Greek in Theologia (Athens), 47 (1976) 47 70.

"John 1:14a.12 John 3:16.13 Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on St. John s Gospel, book ix, (P. E. Pusey's text

vol. ii, pp. 400f, and ET vol. ii, pp. 233f).14 Cyril of Alexandria, op. cit., book ix, (P. E. Pusey's text vol. ii, pp. 41 If, and ET

vol. ii, pp 244f).15 An easy way for doing this would be to look through such works as the

Commentaries of P. N. Trembelas on the particular books of the NT which are also fullof patristic exegesis and in this sense very useful for fulfilling such a task as the onesuggested here. But for a more thorough study one could look through such formidablecollections as J. A. Cramer's Catenae Patrum Graecorum in Novum Testamentum i viii, or J. Reuss' Kommentares aus der griechischen Kirche (TuU 61,89,130), H. Smith'ssix volumes of Ante Nicene exegesis of the GospeL, London 1925 and even the patristic


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first three centuries and the Alexandrian exegetical tradition to the fifth century [inGreek], vol. 1, Akritas, Athens 1991.

16 Gen. 1:26.17 Tertullian, De resurrecone 6:2.18

Epistle of Barnabas 12:9.19 Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, 8:1.20 Ignatius, Epistle to the Philadelphia^, 5:2.21 1st Apology 30, 33. Cf. also Tertullian De Praescr.. haeretic. 9.1-3, Hippolytus

contra Noetum 17, Philosophoumena 10.33, Origen De Principiis l.Pref.4, 4.1.6,Eusebius Preparano evang. 1.10, etc.

22 Ibid. 63. Cf. also Dialogue 11 and 100.23 Romans 10:4.24 See my little book The Meaning of Theology: An Essay in Greek Patristics, Printed

at the Darlington Carmel, Darlington (England), 1980.25 Athanasius, De Synodis, chs. 4Iff ; Hilary, De Synodis, chs. 72ff.26 Ephesians 1:3-6.27 Athanasius, Contra Arianos ii:76.28 Colossians, 1:1629 Athanasius, De Incarnatione 1:20.30 Gal. 4:4.31 John 14:16, 26, 15:26,16:7f.32 Ephesians 1:4, but see also footnote 23 (above).33

Cf. John 1:14, Gal. 4:4, Phil. 2:8ff.34 John 14:9,1:18.35 John 14:16.36 John 1:23.37 Cf. my essays: "Saint Mximos the Confessor and the Christian life," Church and

Theology, 2 (1981) 154-166; and "St. Macarios of Corinth on the Lord's Prayer," Texts and Studies (Thyateira House, London), iii (1984) 287-310.

38 See more details in my essay, "Trinity and Prayer in the Orthodox Tradition," Mount Carmel Summer 1984, pp. 83-91.


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Incarnation and the Holy Trinity

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