Hiding in plain sight: Heterodox trinitarian speculation in the writings of niketas stethatos

Abstract

This article makes the case that Niketas Stethatos, and Symeon the New Theologian before him, constructed an alternative Trinity where the divine nature, now called Spirit, becomes the "father" of a "son" and where this "son" in turn becomes the "father" of another "son." This model is set out in exposés of the Imago Trinitatis where the human image, which is defined as a nature, the soul, with two faculties, the mind and its off- spring, the word, serves as a starting-point for a reorganisation of the divine archetype, which when considered in isolation seems to be entirely orthodox.