Pak-Wah Lai: Rhetoric and Therapy in John Chrysostom’s Trinitarian Discourse

John Chrysostom is one of the most ecumenical church fathers, whose writings have been well researched in the last century. Interest in his theology, however, has been far less due perhapsto the popular image of John as a pastor and moralist rather than a theological heavyweight. Between the years 1990-2015, less than 2% of Chrysostomic research has focused on his theology, with only three devoted to his Trinitarian doctrine. Recently, both Thomas Karmann and Pak-Wah Lai have demonstrated that Chrysostom’s Trinitarian theology is indebted greatly to Meletius of Antioch, Basil of Caesarea, and the Eusebian-Meletian faction that they operate within. This is to be seen in main features of Chrysostom’s teachings. Like the two church fathers, Chrysostom emphasises the incomprehensibility of God, shows a readiness to employ Eusebian and Homian motifs, and uses hypostaticlanguage as a safeguard against Sabellianism. Like Basil, he also makes a clear distinction between theousiaand hypostasisof God, and argues for the Son’s divinity from the fact that He shares the same knowledge, power, honour, and authority with the Father (that is, a logic of equivalence).This being said, Chrysostom also takes these Trinitarian teachings further by applying them as a means of philosophical therapy for Christians. This innovative use of philosophical rhetoric will be demonstrated in an analysis of Chrysostom’s Homilies Against the Anomeans.