Does eternal functional subordination replace the two natures theory?
Upvote:4
Both Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches believe in the eternal hypostatic subordination of the only-begotten Son to His everlasting Father; however, the former affirm two natures in Christ, whereas the latter confess to just one.
The Roman Catholic and traditionally Protestant churches, on the other hand, whilst also following Chalcedon's wholesale rejection and condemnation of Monophysitism, nevertheless espouse certain scholastic views, partially at odds with the theology of the other two ancient and apostolic churches, best captured by an omission in the aforementioned quotation from the Athanasian creed:
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood.
What matters here is not so much what is actually being said in the statement, but rather what is conspicuously absent from it, namely timeless personal obedience of the other two divine hypostases towards the one God and Father, their equality of nature notwithstanding.
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To my mind, the two issues are orthogonal.
The questions of the relationship between the Father and Son and whether or not the Son is eternally generated, whether the Father has authority over the Son, whether the Father is above the Son only in their work in the universe or also ontologically, these are all questions that monophysites must deal with also.
On the other hand, the questions of the nature of the union between God and man in the person of Christ, to what extent he had a human nature, whether Christ has any dual faculties, whether the divine nature is limited by the human nature and whether the human nature obtains omni- characteristics from the divine nature, these are all questions that need to be answered regardless of whether you think that it is right or wrong to say the Son is subordinate to the Father.
So no, no theory of subordination replaces the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. The two natures of Christ are not recognised in order to resolve the passages that appear to show the subordination of the Son under the Father, but to resolve the passages which show the full divinity and the full humanity of Christ.
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Yesterday, when I again read in the Chalcedonian Creed that the Son is h*m*ousios (of the same substance) as God AND h*m*ousios (of the same substance) as man, I realized what the answer to my question is. My question involves a category error. There are different categories of equality/inferiority:
- Ontological (Essence or substance)
- Relational (Begotten, implying that the Father is the Ultimate Source of all things)
- Functional (role)
Since the two natures theory addresses the substance of the being of the Son and the Father, it deals only with the first category while eternal functional subordination deals only with the third. Eternal functional subordination, therefore, does not replace the two natures theory because these are different categories of things.
I think Curiousdanni makes the same point when he says that these two matters are orthogonal (at right angles with one another) and when he says that the two natures theory does not explain the subordination of the Son; it explains how the Son can be both human and divine.
I think Lucian also made the same point when he quotes the Athanasian Creed:
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood.
And points out that that states “their equality of nature” but does not address the matter of “obedience.”
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