Author Description

Trinitarian theology currently faces an unprecedented challenge as Aristotelian philosophy seeped into doctrine, not only in the West, but later in the East as well. The study of the Trinitarian persons and their relation became subject to abstract concepts and deductions, manifested in the study of the essence. Contrastively, the Church fathers always taught that God is unknowable in His essence while the Divine revelation of the Holy Trinity is how God intended to make Himself knowable to His creation. The one essence is perceived as the source of the oneness of the Trinity; essence then takes center stage, while persons are abandoned. According to this epitome, studying the doctrine of God begins to take a monarchic monotheistic approach. "God is one" is regarded as denoting a numeric significance; no longer speaking of unity, a unity in diversity, but rather of singularity. This research resorts to understanding, particularly that of Cyril of Alexandria, in an endeavor to resolve the modern theological dilemma of the ontological question.