The Doctrine of God

De Deo Uno 

Thomas Aquinas: 

“God is pure act, wherein essence and existence are one.” 

St. Anselm: 

“God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” 

St. Augustine: 

In God, all attributes are one with His essence. He writes, “whether we say God is wise, or great, or powerful, we mean only His essence” (On the Trinity, Book VI, Chapter 3). 

St. Gregory of Nazianzus: 

God’s essence is one, perfectly shared among three Persons (See Oration 39). 

Self-Standing Givenness Ontology: 

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are what it means for God to be One, fully and perfectly. In God, to give is to fully receive, and to receive is to fully give because God is love.

De Trinitate 

St. Augustine of Hippo: 

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial, co-equal, and co-eternal, distinguished solely by their relations of origin (see On the Trinity, particularly Book I, Chapter 4). 

St. Gregory of Nyssa: 

The divine essence is indivisibly shared, existing wholly and completely in the distinct relational identities of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (see his letter On the Faith). 

St. Basil the Great: 

Each Person is fully and wholly God, not by division of the essence, but by the unique manner of personal procession (see Letters 38 and 234 for more). 

Richard of St. Victor: 

The Trinity is the perfect community of love, where relational distinction allows for the fullness of shared love (see De Trinitate, Book III and Book IV for more). 

The Athanasian Creed: 

“We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance.” 

Self-Standing Givenness Ontology: 

The Trinity is Persons because the Father, Son, and Spirit are fully realized through their uniquely unique gift to each other in supernatural perfection and super-abundant love.

May you be with love and grace from the One and Triune God.

-Robert Moses Dryer