Conclusion

The Conclusion provides a summary of the arguments of each chapter and shows how they cohere in Hilary of Poitiers’s trinitarian anthropology. In his autobiographical section of De Trinitate Hilary claims to have found “a hope greater than expected” (Trin. 1.11) in his contemplation of the infinite God, in which humanity, aided by its educative embodied existence (1.14), is destined for life and progress, not death and regress. Hilary’s theology reconstructed within his framework of trinitarian anthropology illuminates his own thought and provides avenues to reassess the nature of fourth-century theology and its controversies in a way that implicates the nature of humanity in that theological discourse. For Hilary, imperfect, mutable, finite human existence is defined by God’s perfect, immutable, and infinite life, so as to place the human condition in a state of perpetual progress from potentiality to perfection.

Divine Generation and Human Potentiality

Chapter 1 demonstrates that divine generation is the beginning of Hilary of Poitiers’s trinitarian anthropology. This chapter frames the discussion of divine generation within the boundaries of early Christian interpretation of John 1:1–4, Hilary’s favored text for the discussion. This illuminates the importance of divine generation in fourth-century Christianity and also Hilary’s unique contributions and the significant anthropological implications therein. In his reading of the passage (in polemical engagements with Homoian theology) the nature of God as eternally generative is seen to directly implicate humanity in that productivity. Hilary argues that in the eternal generation of the Son all things are potentially created, so that the nature of humanity is directly dependent upon the eternal generation of the Son, as this is where it finds its origin. This chapter also provides a trenchant reading of third-century ideas of divine generation (in Origen, Tertullian, and Novatian), which provide the foundation on which Hilary builds.

The Divine Image and Human Destiny

This chapter explores Hilary of Poitiers’s use of “divine image” language. Through this investigation, this chapter demonstrates how Hilary’s trinitarian anthropology takes on a particular Christological form. For Hilary, Christ is the locative expression of normative divine-human relations, and this is uniquely articulated by Hilary within the context of Christ’s suffering and human experience, the most controversial aspect of his thought. This chapter also discusses Hilary’s view of the relationship of the body and soul. In these interrelated concepts of the divine-human image, the body and soul, and Christ’s suffering, Hilary’s trinitarian anthropology carries its prime polemical weight and yields perhaps its most creative theological constructs. Here Hilary’s trinitarian anthropology is both expressed and lived out in the human condition, so that the “image of the invisible God” not only reveals divinity to humanity, but humanity to itself. This chapter also provides an extensive discussion of Hilary’s appropriation of Stoic philosophy.

Divine Infinity and Human Progress

Hilary of Poitiers’s doctrine of divine infinity lies at the foundation of his theological project, and its full significance for his overall thought has not been realized. This chapter argues that it cannot be without an exploration of the exegetical foundation of the doctrine in De Trinitate, namely, John 1:1–4. The argument begins by showing first how infinity transforms Hilary’s argument of Father-Son relations. Second, this transformation aids Hilary toward a working definition of divine infinity. Third, this chapter shows that Hilary provides a new interpretation of the critical text of Proverbs 8:22 due to his John 1:1–4 interpretive foundation. This has immense implications for his trinitarian anthropology. Fourth, these implications are elucidated through his understanding of a progressus in infinitum of the mind toward the infinite God. Hilary’s discussion of divine infinity has significant epistemological conclusions, which reorient how humanity is seen to know and relate to God.

Divine Humanity

Chapter 5 defines the culmination of Hilary of Poitiers’s trinitarian anthropology, which cannot be understood without an in-depth reading of his intertextual interpretation of John 17:1–6, 1 Corinthians 15:21–28, and Philippians 3:21. In this chapter, the human destiny in Christ parsed in the previous chapter comes to fruition. This has to do initially with the novelty of Hilary’s discussion of the incarnation. He uses adsumere, language traditionally reserved for Christ’s ascension, in reference to the incarnation, tying incarnation and glorification together as one movement. Hilary speaks of Christ’s incarnation as an assumption of all humanity in the assumption of one particular human. The perfection of human potentiality is a concorporeal conforming to Christ. Humanity’s progression through Christ’s incarnation and glorification makes Christ himself the fulfillment of human potentiality. For Hilary, Christ is both the origin and destiny of humanity’s hopeful mutability.

Divine Unity and the “Ladder of Our Nature”

This chapter places Hilary of Poitiers’s polemical opponents into sharper focus and shows how Hilary brings his epistemological and anthropological insights, described in the previous two chapters, to bear on them. Hilary develops his understanding of divine unity through an intertextual reading of John 10:30 and 14:9 in polemical engagement with Homoian and “Sabellian” theologies and by expanding upon this intertextual reading in previous Latin tradition, and this understanding both depends and elaborates upon his epistemological foundation of divine infinity. Hilary’s arguments for divine unity are based on the condescension of God in the humanity of Christ. For Hilary, humanity’s finite epistemological restrictions require this sort of material, bodily revelation, and by it, humanity is nourished and educated to move beyond its limitations to the vision of the triune God, and led to its fullness in divine perfection. This chapter also discusses divine unity in third- and fourth-century polemical contexts.

Introduction

The Introduction presents the central argument of the book and the rationale behind it. This involves placing the argument in conversation with past and current scholarship on Hilary of Poitiers, and clarifying why this study is needed. Hilary’s thought is often either overlooked in favor of more approachable figures of the period or seen to be incoherent, as readers have difficulty systematizing or categorizing his work. The Introduction states that it is by approaching Hilary’s thought through the framework of his overarching trinitarian anthropology that its ingenuity, impact, and internal coherence can be fully appreciated. An outline of the chapters of the book and their central arguments is also given.