The equality of Divinity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

The Three Hypostases of the Holy Trinity have the same Essence; each of the Hypostases

has the fullness of Divinity unharmed and immeasurable; the Three Hypostases are equal in

honor and worship.

As for the fullness of Divinity of the First Person of the Holy Trinity, there have been no

heretics in the history of the Church of Christ who have denied or lessened it. However, we do

encounter departures from the authentic Christian teaching regarding God the Father. Thus, in

antiquity under the influence of the Gnostics, and more recently under the influence of the so

called philosophy of idealism in the first half of the 19th century (chiefly Schelling), there arose a

teaching of God as the Absolute, God detached from everything limited and finite (the very word

“absolute” means “detached”) and therefore having no immediate contact with the world and requiring

an intermediary. Thus, the concept of the Absolute was connected with the name of God

the Father and the concept of the intermediary with the name of the Son of God. Such a conception

is in total disharmony with the Christian understanding and with the teaching of the word of

God The word of God teaches us that God is near to the world, that God is love, and that God —

God the Father — so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son so that all who believe

in Him might have eternal life. To God the Father, inseparably from the Son and the Spirit, belongs

the creation of the world and a ceaseless providence over the world. If in the word of God

the Son is called an Intermediary, this is because the Son of God took upon himself human nature,

became the God-Man, and united in Himself Divinity with humanity, united the earthly with

the heavenly. However, this is not at all because the Son is, some indispensable binding principle

between God the Father, Who is infinitely remote from the world, and the finite, creaturely

world.

In the history of the Church, the chief dogmatic work of the Holy Fathers was directed towards

affirming the truth of the Oneness of Essence, the fullness of Divinity, and the equality of

honor of the Second and Third Hypostases of the Holy Trinity.