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Greek Orthodox Catechism
Constantine Callinicos, London, 1926
Part I. Dogmatical, 2. God the Father
Let us proceed now to the interpretation of the Creed from its beginning. You said that the first Article of the Creed treats of God the Father and His creative work. But if you were asked, “Does God exist?” what would you answer?
That, of course, He exists. Firstly: on this question at all times and in all parts of the world, the new and the old, people of all nations, the educated and the uneducated, the civilised and the uncivilised, are in perfect agreement. Even savages prefer to attribute divine attributes to a stone, or wooden idol and worship it as God, rather than deny the existence of God; so deeply rooted in everyone is the idea that God exists. But if the idea of God is so general and so deeply rooted in everybody as to be the characteristic of man and an inherent part of human nature, then it must be true. Secondly: the existence and preservation of the world presupposes an analogous cause; otherwise we should have a watch without a watchmaker, a house without a builder, and a ship travelling without a pilot, which is unreasonable. Thirdly: the inward voice of our conscience, which praises us for a good action, even if the whole world be against us, or which chides us when we commit a bad action, even although the whole world approves, remains quite inexplicable without our acceptance of the existence of a moral Lawgiver, Who has implanted this voice in our hearts.
Can you give a definition of God and His characteristics?
Relying on the Divine Revelation, I should not be wrong in defining God as the Highest, Infinite and Super-perfect Spiritual Being, from Whom everything originated and by Whom everything is sustained. It is said in the Bible (John iv. 24), that God is a spirit. But if God is a spirit, and especially the Purest and Highest Spirit, then He is beyond places, i.e., Omnipresent, beyond time, i.e., Eternal and beyond variation, i.e., Unchanging; because the spirit cannot be confined by earthly boundaries, neither can it age with time, nor undergo changes. As a Spirit also, God, against Whom nothing can prevail, is Omniscient, because He knows everything, All-wise, because He always acts with a purpose, and Almighty, because He can subdue everything to His will. In another part of the Bible (1 John iv. 8), it is said that God is love. But if God is love, and the most Unalloyed and Unselfish Love, then He is All-Holy in Himself, and Absolutely-Good and Just in His relations to His creatures, upon whom He lavishes His kindnesses, but never unreasonably. The Scriptures also say that God is light and that in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John i. 5.) No stain of a hidden sorrow, of an unfulfilled desire, or of a need has ever tormented God. But if God is such a Bright Light, then He is indeed Self-Sufficient, Needing-nothing and Truly-blessed.
What follows from this definition of God?
That, since God is so High and Great, that every good quality resides in Him in fullest perfection and not simply as attribute, consequently He is One. For, though there be many that are called gods and lords—as is the case with the polytheists—yet to us there is but One God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we unto Him. (1 Cor. viii. 5—6.) One is the Best, One is the Infinite, beside Whom no other can stand at all. The idolatrous idea of dividing the indivisible God up into different limited deities, of which one reigns in Heaven, another on earth, a third over the sea, a fourth over the underworld and so on, is an anthropomorphic fancy, derogatory to the Supreme Being. Moreover, the world is so coherent and shows such a unity in its entirety, that it necessarily indicates the predominance of only one Mind.
Why is God in the Creed called Father?
Not in an ethical sense, as at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, but in a dogmatical sense, He being eternally and by His own ever productive nature the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, His only Son. For, if God is One in substance and has not any other equal and similar to Him outside of Himself, yet, taken in Himself, and by Himself, He is Triune in the Persons or Hypostases. “I worship the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, a Trinity consubstantial and indivisible”; such is the confession we sing in our Liturgy. And this confession is the corner-stone, which supports all the dogmatic edifice of our faith. The same Scriptures, which proclaim the Father God, saying “to us there is one God, the Father” (see above), proclaim in many ways the Son also God, declaring that “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead” (Col. ii. 9), and giving the name of God also to the Holy Ghost, as when the Apostle Peter said to Ananias, who had lied to the Holy Ghost: “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” (Acts v. 4.) In spite of this, there are not three gods acknowledged in the Christian Religion, but One only, the Perfect and True God, a Unity in Trinity. For the blessed Persons are of the same substance, enjoy the same Godhead, participate in the same Holiness, the same Omniscience, the same Omnipotence, the self-same Eternity, and have everything in common; so that the one Person cannot be conceived as being separate from the others. Hence all Three are worshipped in common by us, who are baptised “into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” according to the command of the Saviour. (Matt. xxviii. 19.) This great truth, by which our God is acknowledged as “a God at hand, and not a God afar off” (Jerem. xxiii. 23), as it will be shown further on by the Creed, is a mystery above our comprehension, and one which cannot be simplified by any illustration. A faint and insufficient light is shed on the mystery of the Trinity in Unity by the human thought; which, being one in substance, may, as inward thought, spoken thought and written thought, appear threefold.
If the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost have everything in common, how then can they be distinguished the one from the other?
They can be distinguished by the so-called “personal qualifications,” with which each one of them is specially invested. The personal qualification of the Father is that He is neither begotten, nor proceeds from any one, but that He begets the Son (“Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Psalm ii. 7), and is the primal Cause of the Spirit’s procession. (“The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father.” John xv. 26.) The personal qualification of the Son is that He neither begets, nor is the primal Cause of the Spirit’s procession, but that He, before all ages, is begotten of the Father (“Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee”), and sends the Spirit in due season (“When the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father... He shall bear witness of me.” John xv. 26.) The personal qualification of the Holy Ghost is that He neither begets, nor causes any procession as regards the other two Persons, but that He proceeds from the Father before all ages (“The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father”), and is sent by the Son in the course of time (“Whom I will send unto you”). Such is the definite saying of the Word of God, and we reverently repeat it without any addition or omission.