Ulfila's Creedal Statement and Its Theology

• Autores: Tarmo Toom
• Localización: Journal of early Christian studies: Journal of the North American Patristic Society, ISSN 1067-6341, Nº. 4, 2021, págs. 525-552
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A fourth-century Gothic bishop Ulfila lived at a time when the larger church was in the process of figuring out its "orthodox" Trinitarian beliefs. Apart form several excerpts of his Bible translation, only Ulfila's creedal statement is extant. It is cited in the end of an account of Ulfila's theology, written by his disciple Auxentius of Durostorum. It is a relatively compressed statement with lacunae and without a reconstructable end. Because of its brevity, and especially because of the availability of secondary yet contradictory information about Ulfila and his theology by a heteroousian Philostorgius, homoean Auxentius, and the pro-Nicene "synoptic" historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, Ulfila's short creedal statement can be interpreted in various ways. This article assesses the theology of Ulfila's creedal statement and argues that while representing some kind of triadic subordinationism, it does not match well with "Arian," homoean, or heteroousian creeds. Rather, it seems to follow, in broad terms and with certain twists, the subordinationism of Eusebius of Caesarea/"Eusebians." Ulfila's creedal statement is a short but vivid example of theology that does not fit perfectly into the existing categories of the fourth-century Trinitarian debates.