Origen and the Emergence of Divine Simplicity Before Nicaea - by Pui Him Ip (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This book establishes how the doctrine of divine simplicity was interwoven with the formation of a Christian Trinitarian understanding of God before Nicaea.

For centuries, Christian theology affirmed God as simple (haplous) and Triune. But the doctrine of the simple Trinity has been challenged by modern critics of classical theism. How can God, conceived as purely one without multiplicity, be a Trinity? This book sets a new historical foundation for addressing this question by tracing how divine simplicity emerged as a key notion in early Christianity. Pui Him Ip argues that only in light of the Platonic synthesis between the Good and the First Principle (archē) can we make sense of divine simplicity as a refusal to associate any kind of plurality that brings about contraries in the divine life. This philosophical doctrine, according to Ip, was integral to how early Christians began to speak of the divine life in terms of a relationship between Father and Son.

Through detailed historical exploration of Irenaeus, sources from the Monarchian controversy, and especially Origen's oeuvre, Ip contends that the key contribution from ante-Nicene theology is the realization that it is nontrivial to speak of the begetting of a distinct person (Son) from a simple source (Father). This question became the central problematic in Trinitarian theology before Nicaea and remained crucial for understanding the emergence of rival accounts of the Trinity ("pro-Nicene" and "anti-Nicene" theologies) in the fourth century. Origen and the Emergence of Divine Simplicity before Nicaea suggests a new revisional historiography of theological developments after Origen and will be necessary reading for serious students both of patristics and of the wider history of Christian thought.

Review Quotes

"While at times the argument unfolds in a patchwork manner, Ip sews all the pieces together into a fascinating theological tapestry. Origen and the Emergence of Divine Simplicity before Nicaea is a first-rate study of an ironically complex doctrine." --Reading Religion

"...a truly impressive piece of work, one that unites careful historical work with broader systematic considerations to great effect. Ip's scholarship is certainly one to watch." --International Journal of Systematic Theology

"This is an important study that historians of doctrine as well as scholars in systematic and philosophical theology will read with profit." --Church History

"The attentive reader will find in these pages persuasive, careful arguments based on detailed analyses of the relevant texts. This study . . . is as useful as an introduction to ancient philosophical theology and methods of its study as it is as a contribution to scholarly understandings of the numerous individual passages, figures and broader narratives it engages." --Scottish Journal of Theology

"A good example of careful historical work and a valuable contribution to understanding the development of the Christian teaching on the Trinity. Moreover, the book charts some ways forward for better understanding how Trinitarian theology developed from the third century into the fourth. Those interested in early Christianity, historical theology, and systematic theology will gain insight from this book."--Journal of Theological Studies

"The author's way of presenting his research has the great advantage that it makes the positions clear and provides a good insight into the sources. Many authors could learn a lesson from Pui Ip's way of presenting his research. If there are more details to add to the picture--and there probably are--Ip puts the reader of the book in a very good position to dive deeper into the sources to discover more details of this important theological theme."--Modern Theology

"This impressive study offers what I think is the very first genealogy of Christian usage of the idea of divine simplicity up through Origen of Alexandria." --Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, author of Gregory of Nyssa's Doctrinal Works

"Ip's lucid and surefooted book provides an historical and conceptual anchorage for any future discourse on divine simplicity, giving the doctrine a more human and concrete face, and enabling a new flexibility in addressing the formidable conundrums it poses." --Reviews in Religion & Theology

"Ip's elegant discussion of divine simplicity in pre-Nicene theology helps us to see with new clarity the diversity of ways this doctrine was articulated, and the functions it performed. By showing us this rich diversity, Ip also offers further arguments for taking the doctrine seriously as an integral and important part of the Patristic heritage. Students of Trinitarian theology, of Irenaeus, and of Origen will all need to come to terms with Ip's work." --Lewis Ayres, author of Augustine and the Trinity

"Readers will find the discussion of Origen's relation to the Platonists of his time especially valuable in its erudition and its conceptual sophistication. This book is a contribution, not only to patristics, but to the history of philosophy." --Mark Edwards, author of Christians, Gnostics and Philosophers in Late Antiquity

About the Author

Pui Him Ip is tutorial programme director and research associate at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge, and an affiliated lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.

Rowan Williams was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. He became Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University in 2013, retiring in 2020.