Basil of Caesarea’s Anti-Eunomian Theory of Names: Christian Theology and Late-Antique Philosophy in the Fourth Century Trinitarian Controversy

Basil of Caesarea’s Anti-Eunomian Theory of Names: Christian Theology and Late-Antique Philosophy in the Fourth Century Trinitarian Controversy......Page 4
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Abbreviations......Page 14
Introduction......Page 16
Historical setting......Page 18
Basil and Eunomius in recent scholarship......Page 30
Plan of chapters......Page 35
Sense and reference......Page 36
A note on style, translations, and references......Page 37
1 The Heteroousians on Names and Naming......Page 40
I. The early Heteroousian theory of names......Page 42
Aetius and the centrality of 'unbegotten'......Page 43
Eunomius: an untraditional and illogical interpretation of 'unbegotten'?......Page 47
The Heteroousian theory of names and their theological epistemology......Page 49
The centrality of divine simplicity......Page 51
Homonymy and synonymy......Page 53
Blurred distinctions......Page 57
III. Eunomius on the origin of names......Page 58
Conclusion......Page 62
2 The Heteroousians and Philosophical Theories of Names......Page 64
I.  The quest for the sources of Eunomius's theory of names......Page 66
II.  The Platonist tradition: the Cratylus and its interpretation......Page 72
Plato's Cratylus on names and naming......Page 73
A Mesoplatonist theory: Alcinous......Page 77
The Neoplatonist interpretation of the Cratylus......Page 80
III. Mediated Platonism: Philo and Eusebius......Page 94
Philo and the exegesis of Hebrew names......Page 95
Eusebius of Caesarea and Platonist indebtedness to Moses......Page 102
Conclusion......Page 107
3 The Heteroousian Theory of Names in its Christian Context......Page 112
I.  The Christian tradition on 'unbegotten' as a name for God......Page 113
Second-century Apologists......Page 114
Dionysius of Alexandria......Page 121
Early fourth-century Eusebians......Page 124
Early fourth-century debate over 'unbegotten'......Page 130
Athanasius on name and nature......Page 139
Athanasius on divine simplicity and predication......Page 142
Conclusion......Page 148
The incomprehensibility and ineffability of God's substance......Page 150
God is not a polyonym......Page 155
Divine simplicity and predication......Page 159
The consequences of the Heteroousian epistemological principle......Page 162
The convertibility of name and substance......Page 165
Conclusion......Page 166
5 Basil's Notionalist Theory of Names......Page 168
Common or natural notions......Page 170
Common usage......Page 173
II.  Derived notions: Basil's defense of conceptualization......Page 178
Stage one: the meaningfulness of conceptualizations......Page 180
Stage two: conceptualization according to the common notion......Page 181
Stage three: the conceptualizations of Christ......Page 184
Stage four: the conceptualizations applied to God......Page 185
Basil's use of Origen......Page 186
III. Possible sources for Basil's notionalist theory of names......Page 191
A Neoplatonist background for Basil's notionalist theory of names?......Page 192
The Homoiousian notions of 'Father' and 'Son'......Page 197
Conclusion......Page 200
6 Basil on Names as Revelatory of Properties......Page 204
I. Proper names......Page 205
Basil's theory of proper names......Page 206
The bundle theory of individuals......Page 211
The persistence of individuals......Page 218
Basil's sources......Page 219
Concluding remarks on Basil's theory of proper names......Page 226
Basil's grammatical description of absolute names......Page 227
Basil's distinguishing marks and Porphyry's propria......Page 234
Concluding remarks on Basil's understanding of absolute names......Page 236
III. Relative names......Page 237
The Aristotelian understanding of relatives......Page 239
The grammatical understanding of relatives......Page 249
Basil of Caesarea on relative names......Page 263
Concluding remarks on Basil's theory of relative names......Page 268
IV. Derived names......Page 269
Conclusion......Page 274
General Conclusion......Page 276
I. Primary Sources......Page 282
II. Secondary Sources......Page 290
Index Locorum......Page 300
Index of Scripture......Page 306
General Index......Page 308
Back Matter......Page 316