04 — Dialectic and Simplicity

The negative core of Farrell’s argument: what “dialectic” means as his diagnostic category, and how the Augustinian doctrine of absolute divine simplicity is alleged to install that dialectic at the very source of Western theology, from which the Filioque and the whole cultural pathology are said to follow.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (modern theological literature; Trinitarian theology)

Overview

This section examines the engine of the book. Farrell claims that a particular metaphysical premise — absolute divine simplicity — forces the persons of the Trinity to be understood as subsistent relations of opposition within a single simple essence, and that this lodges dialectic (distinction by mutual negation) in the doctrine of God itself. Because the doctrine of God is the deep grammar of a civilization, the dialectic then “works itself out” through history. The section separates carefully: the Orthodox denial of absolute divine simplicity (grounded in the essence-energies distinction) is Church teaching; the claim that simplicity is the mono-causal root of Western cultural history is Farrell’s thesis; and whether Augustine’s own doctrine is as rigidly dialectical as Farrell needs is a disputed scholarly question.

Files in This Section

  • What “Dialectic” Means in the Book — dialectic as a structure of distinction-by-opposition; how it enters the doctrine of God; why Farrell claims it “works itself out” in history; and the non-dialectical Palamite alternative.
  • Absolute Divine Simplicity as the Alleged Root — the specific doctrine Farrell targets; the argument from simplicity to relations-of-opposition to the Filioque; the real Orthodox critique of ADS (Bradshaw, Palamas); and what is distinctively Farrell’s own.

See Also