Tropos tes hyparxeos ton theion prosopon : the fate of a Greek patristic formula in modern western theology

Abstract

St Gregory of Nyssa's (c. 335-394) comments on the Trinitarian controversies of his time seem to the present author an apt description of the status quaestionis of the disputes concerning the expression used by the Cappadocians, including St Gregory himself, "tropos tes hyparxeos." "A city full of profound theological disputes, everyone talking and preaching in the squares, in the market places, at the cross-roads, in the alleyways: old clothes men, money-changers, coster-mongers: they are all at it. If you ask a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you wherein the Son differs from the Father; and if you ask for the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply that the Son is the inferior of the Father; and if you inquire whether the bath is ready, the man solemnly informs you that the Son was made out of nothing.! In effect, the expression had been used as a more accurate rendition of "person" in a trinitarian context by Karl Rahner (1904--1984). But, as the present author can testify, during his studies, sacristies, restaurants, coffee-breaks, class-rooms, bookreviews could easily furnish the occasion for theologians to drop a broad hint that Rahner is a modalist, adducing as one of their reasons precisely his use of this term.