Tomus ad Antiochenos
Tomus ad Antiochenos is a letter or mediation proposal written by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria on behalf of a regional synod he convened in Alexandria in 362, addressed to a group of bishops seeking a solution to the schism between "Eustathians" and "Meletians" in the parishes of Antioch. This letter played a key role in the Trinitarian theological debates between the one-hypostasis model and the three-hypostasis model of the Trinity, anticipating the turning point in this question from the 370s onward.
The central concern is to achieve theological agreement based on the Nicene Creed. By recognizing that certain theological points of contention in the Arian controversy were based not only on differences of belief, but also on different language rules or conceptual differences between Latin and Greek, the Tomus paved the way for the Trinitarian theological language rules of the three Cappadocians from the 370s onward: Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their mutual friend Gregory of Nazianzus subsequently established the concept of the one being and the three hypostases of God, which became binding with the decision of the First Council of Constantinople in 381.
Church and dogmatic historical context
Theological debates on the constellation of the Trinity
The background of the Tomus ad Antiochenos is the controversy about the Trinity, traditionally known as the "Arian" controversy, and in today's dogmatic historiography also as the "Trinitarian" or "subordinating dispute" The opponents agreed that the Logos was incarnate in Jesus Christ. However, the question of how to understand the relationship of this Logos to God, the relationship of the Son to the Father, was particularly controversial. The Council of Nicaea in 325 had condemned the Arian doctrine that the Son or Logos was not truly God, but a creature of God and had a beginning. But two points in particular sparked decades of controversy almost immediately after the council:- The anathematisms attached to the Nicene Creed condemned as heretics those who claimed that the Son was of a different hypostasis or being from the Father. This contradicted the understanding of the Trinity that was then widespread in the Greek-speaking east of the Roman Empire in the theological wake of Origen, according to which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three distinct hypostases.
- The Nicene statement that the Son was of the same nature as the Father, which emphasized the unity of God, could be understood modalistically, which is why the formula had a theologically heretical effect on the "Origenist middle group" that dominated in the East. About 30 years later, from about 357, the moderate "Origenistic" Homooeusians finally emerged, who taught only the likeness of the Son to the Father "according to the Scriptures," but rejected a more precise definition of this likeness, since, for example, the nature of the Father and the Son is not discussed in the Scriptures. The radical Heterousians advocated the essential difference of the Son from the Father, and whose radicalism set in motion the dynamic of development.
The Imperial political situation
Among Constantine's successors, it was above all Constantius II, the first emperor in the East and from 353 sole ruler of the entire empire, who sought new compromise formulas, distancing himself from the Nicene Confession, which led, among other things, to the banishment of the uncompromising Athanasius and the implementation of the so-called Homoousian imperial dogma in the early 360s. This confessional formula, which came about under imperial pressure and was little changed from the formulae of Nike and the fourth Sirmian formulae, also forbade the term "essence" and its use in connection with God the Father and his Son, as well as the term "hypostasis" and its Trinitarian theological use in connection with God the Father, his Son, and the Holy Spirit.
With the death of Constantius II in 361 and the rise to power of his cousin and rival Julian, church policy changed fundamentally: Julian sought to secure the unity of the empire by reintroducing the pagan state cult and left the church to its own devices, for unlike his predecessors, he had no interest in church unity. The Edict of Restitution of February 9, 362 lifted the banishments, including that of Athanasius, allowing him to return to Alexandria as bishop on February 21, 362.
Synod of 362
Athanasius convened a synod in Alexandria in the spring or summer of 362 to discuss various issues. One of the issues discussed there was the Nicene Confession as the sole theological basis. Another was the mediation of the great ecclesiastical conflict at Antioch, specifically two of the three factions that had formed. On the one hand, there was a small community of followers of Bishop Eustathius of Antioch, who had been deposed in 327, around the deacon Paulinus, who, like Athanasius, taught the one essence and one hypostasis of God in the ancient Nicene Creed, and with whom Athanasius felt particularly connected. On the other hand, there was a larger community around Bishop Meletius, who held a Homoean creed and thus the Eastern Origenist doctrine of the three hypostases. An understanding with the third group around Bishop Euzoius, a close friend of Arius and representative of the Homoean imperial dogma, was out of the question from the beginning.The Tomus ad Antiochenos itself was written after the synod. The Epistula catholica, written by Athanasius as the main author and at least one co-author, can be considered a circular letter of the synod.
Sender and addressees
The Tomus is a written mediation proposal by Athanasius on behalf of the participants in the Synod of Alexandria to a five-member commission of bishops who were working to resolve the "Antiochian" or "Meletian" schism. The mediation proposal was to be read by the bishops to the communities in Antioch affected by the schism between the "Eustathians" and the "Meletians" for acclamation. Eusebius of Vercelli and Lucifer of Calaris, Cymatius of Paltus, Asterius of Petra, and Anatolius of Euboea, both otherwise unknown, are named. The title Tomus ad Antiochenos is not entirely accurate; the letter was addressed only indirectly to the communities of Antioch through the episcopal commission. The title is therefore considered secondary.Two of these bishops, Eusebius and Asterius, were themselves present at the Synod of Alexandria. This makes them not only addressees but also co-authors, the latter together with "Athanasius and all who were with him at Alexandria". However, only Athanasius is attested as the author by tradition, for example, soon after his death by his successor Petros and by Apollinaris of Laodicea.
Main topics
With particular reference to the situation in Antioch, the letter deals with the Christians' desire for peace, the unity of the Church and the rejection of Arianism, the Nicene Creed and its meaning and the question of whether it needs to be supplemented, the question of one or three hypostases in the doctrine of the Trinity, the human nature of Christ and the difficulties involved, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit.Unity of the church
The Tomus begins with an appeal for the unity of the Church. Athanasius wanted to unite the old Nicenes, among whom he included Paulinus of Antioch and now himself, as well as the Homoean Origenists of the East, represented for example by the deposed bishop Meletius of Antioch, against the imperial dogma of the Homoeans, which was considered "Arian". For "many who were once separated from us because of their contentiousness now want to keep the peace" - that is the Meletians.Athanasius sees a common faith as a prerequisite for ecclesial unity: "and there must be a common mind." Athanasius specifies the common basis of faith in three points: those who seek communion must "condemn the Arian heresy and confess the faith confessed by the holy fathers at Nicaea, but also condemn those who maintain that the Holy Spirit is a creature and separate from the nature of Christ". So it is about the rejection of Arianism, the establishment of Nicaea as the common basis of faith, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
Rejection of Arianism
Arianism was unacceptable to Athanasius. However, "Arianism" was always a blanket term of war for him. Arius and his followers had been condemned at the Council of Nicaea and had not since repeated the controversial views condemned by the council. The many "Origenist" opponents of Nicaea were not the theological successors of Arius, but shared with his theology the Origenist tradition of the subordination of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the Father. For Athanasius, however, they were "Arians". For him, distancing himself from Arianism in the Tomus period meant "not separating the Holy Trinity and claiming that one of them is a creature" - not the Logos, as Arius had taught, not the Holy Spirit, as the Pneumatomachi taught in the second half of the fourth century.Several other heresies were to be rejected, according to the Tomus: The theological positions of Sabellius, "dynamic" Monarchianism, and Paul of Samosata, "modalistic" Monarchianism, Valentinus and Basilides, and Manichaeism. These were old heresies which, at the time of the writing of the Tomus, were considered largely overcome or seriously heretical. The listing of these "recognized" heresies along with "Arianism" was intended to emphasize their heresy once again; it also probably had the purpose of exonerating Athanasius himself and the Old Nicenes in the West, as well as Markell of Ankyra in particular among the Origenists in the East, from the suspicion of continuing to hold the modalistic Monarchianism of Sabellius. The explicit dissociation from Sabellianism in the Tomus ad Antiochenos was also intended to rid the Nicene Confession of any modalistic "taint".