Basil of Caesarea’s Anti-Eunomian Theory of Names: Christian Theology and Late-Antique Philosophy in the Fourth Century Trinitarian Controversy

317 Pages·2010·4.36 MB·English

by  Mark DelCogliano

Basil of Caesarea’s
Anti-Eunomian Theory
of Names
Supplements
to
Vigiliae Christianae
Texts and Studies of
Early Christian Life and Language
Editors
J. den Boeft – B. D. Ehrman – J. van Oort –
D. T. Runia – C. Scholten – J. C. M. van Winden
VOLUME 103
Basil of Caesarea’s
Anti-Eunomian Theory
of Names
Christian Theology and Late-Antique Philosophy
in the Fourth Century Trinitarian Controversy
By
Mark DelCogliano
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DelCogliano, Mark.
Basil of Caesarea’s Anti-Eunomian theory of names : Christian theology and
late-antique philosophy in the fourth century trinitarian controversy / by Mark
DelCogliano.
p. cm. — (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae ; v. 103)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18332-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Basil, Saint, Bishop of Caesarea,
ca. 329–379. Contra Eunomium. 2. Eunomianism. 3. Trinity—History of doctrines—
Early church, ca. 30–600. 4. Eunomius, Bp. of Cyzicus, ca. 335–ca. 394. I. Title. II.
Series.
BR65.B34C663 2010
273’.4—dc22
2010018940
ISSN 0920-623x
ISBN 978 90 04 18332 2
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted
by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
Steven K. Strange
In memoriam
τοῦτον ἐζήτουν
(Porphyry, Vita Plotinii 3)
Richard G. Levad
In memoriam
καὶ εἶδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλόν
(Genesis 1:10)

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ xi
Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xiii
Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
Historical setting ............................................................................ 3
Basil and Eunomius in recent scholarship ................................. 15
Plan of chapters .............................................................................. 20
Sense and reference ........................................................................ 21
A note on style, translations, and references ............................. 22
Chapter One The Heteroousians on Names and Naming ...... 25
I. The early Heteroousian theory of names ............................ 27
Aetius and the centrality of ‘unbegotten’ ........................ 28
Eunomius: an untraditional and illogical interpretation
of ‘unbegotten’? .............................................................. 32
The Heteroousian theory of names and their theological
epistemology .................................................................... 34
The centrality of divine simplicity ................................... 36
II. Eunomius’s theory of names: implications and
inconsistencies ......................................................................... 38
Homonymy and synonymy ............................................... 38
Blurred distinctions ............................................................ 42
III. Eunomius on the origin of names ........................................ 43
Conclusion ....................................................................................... 47
Chapter Two The Heteroousians and Philosophical Theories
of Names ......................................................................................... 49
I. The quest for the sources of Eunomius’s theory of
names ....................................................................................... 51
II. The Platonist tradition: the Cratylus and its
interpretation .......................................................................... 57
Plato’s Cratylus on names and naming .......................... 58
A Mesoplatonist theory: Alcinous .................................... 62
The Neoplatonist interpretation of the Cratylus ............ 65
Concluding remarks on Platonist influence on the
Heteroousians ................................................................. 79
viii contents
III. Mediated Platonism: Philo and Eusebius ........................... 79
Philo and the exegesis of Hebrew names ........................ 80
Eusebius of Caesarea and Platonist indebtedness to
Moses ............................................................................... 87
Conclusion ....................................................................................... 92
Chapter Three The Heteroousian Theory of Names in its
Christian Context .......................................................................... 97
I. The Christian tradition on ‘unbegotten’ as a name
for God ..................................................................................... 98
Second-century Apologists ................................................. 99
Dionysius of Alexandria .................................................... 106
Early fourth-century Eusebians ........................................ 109
Early fourth-century debate over ‘unbegotten’ .............. 115
II. Athanasius and Eunomius .................................................... 124
Athanasius on name and nature ..................................... 124
Athanasius on divine simplicity and predication .......... 127
Conclusion ....................................................................................... 133
Chapter Four Basil’s Critiques of Eunomius’s Theory of
Names .............................................................................................. 135
The incomprehensibility and ineffability of God’s
substance ..................................................................................... 135
God is not a polyonym .................................................................. 140
Divine simplicity and predication ................................................ 144
The consequences of the Heteroousian epistemological
principle ....................................................................................... 147
The convertibility of name and substance .................................. 150
Conclusion ....................................................................................... 151
Chapter Five Basil’s Notionalist Theory of Names ................... 153
I. Basic notions: the foundations of theology ......................... 155
Common or natural notions ............................................. 155
Common usage ................................................................... 158
II. Derived notions: Basil’s defense of conceptualization ....... 163
Stage one: the meaningfulness of conceptualizations .... 165
Stage two: conceptualization according to the common
notion .............................................................................. 166
Stage three: the conceptualizations of Christ ................. 169
contents ix
Stage four: the conceptualizations applied to God ........ 170
Basil’s use of Origen ........................................................... 171
III. Possible sources for Basil’s notionalist theory of
names ................................................................................... 176
A Neoplatonist background for Basil’s notionalist
theory of names? ............................................................ 177
The Homoiousian notions of ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ ............ 182
Conclusion ....................................................................................... 185
Chapter Six Basil on Names as Revelatory of Properties ........ 189
I. Proper names .......................................................................... 190
Basil’s theory of proper names ......................................... 191
The bundle theory of individuals ..................................... 196
The persistence of individuals ........................................... 203
Basil’s sources ..................................................................... 204
Concluding remarks on Basil’s theory of proper
names .............................................................................. 211
II. Absolute names ....................................................................... 212
Basil’s grammatical description of absolute names ....... 212
Basil’s distinguishing marks and Porphyry’s propria .... 219
Concluding remarks on Basil’s understanding of
absolute names ............................................................... 221
III. Relative names ........................................................................ 222
The Aristotelian understanding of relatives ................... 224
The grammatical understanding of relatives .................. 234
Basil of Caesarea on relative names ................................ 248
Concluding remarks on Basil’s theory of relative
names .............................................................................. 253
IV. Derived names ........................................................................ 254
Conclusion ....................................................................................... 259
General Conclusion ........................................................................... 261
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 267
Index Locorum ................................................................................... 285
Index of Scripture .............................................................................. 291
General Index ..................................................................................... 293