PATERNITY, DIVINE

What is designated in contemporary theological literature under the title divine paternity is perhaps a little ambiguous. On first glance, paternity would be simply the Latin derivative (from paternitas ) corresponding to the more familiar Anglo-Saxon fatherhood. Thus, one might expect to see treated under the rubric divine paternity the entire Old and New Testament revelation bearing upon the fatherhood of God and the way this became assimilated and interpreted in the Judeo-Christian community ever since. Actually, however, such a wide and biblically oriented use of paternity is rarely, if ever, encountered. Centuries of theological, and ultimately scholastic, convention have reserved this Latinism for the Father's unique relation to the eternal Son as grasped and expressed in the technicalities of Trinitarian doctrine and theology.

Historically, this technical usage grew out of a theological insight that can be traced back at least as far as the Cappadocian Fathers—Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. This was the understanding that plurality within the Godhead was not a contradiction, because the three—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—differed from one another not in respect to Godhead as such but in respect solely to what was proper to each, and this property (ἰδιότης) was something purely relative. Even earlier, Athanasius had written (Or. 3 c. Arian. 4; De syn. 49) that whatever is said of the Father is said likewise of the Son, excepting only the very name Father. Subsequently, with the schoolmen and especially Aquinas, the idea of the relative property first appearing with Athanasius and the Cappadocians was still further developed and refined by means of a carefully worked out doctrine of relations. The whole meaning of paternity is simply "to be with reference, or respect, to" son. There is no question, therefore, of the Father being more God than the Son or of having some perfection not shared by the Son. For Father and Son differ in no absolute way, but only in what is exclusively relative.

See Also: god (father); agennĒtos; person (in theology); person, divine; relations, trinitarian; trinity, holy; trinity, holy, articles on.

Bibliography: b. lonergan, De Deo Trino, v. 2, Pars systematica (3d ed. Rome 1964), esp. 115–185. For the historical origins of the notion, see the same author's companion volume De Deo Trino, v. 1, Pars dogmatica (2d ed. Rome 1964) 195–204. j. n. d. kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (2d ed. New York 1960) 263–269.

[r. l. richard]