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The Same God Who Works All Things: Inseparable Operations in Trinitarian Theology
Classical Trinitarianism holds that every action of Trinity in the world is inseparable. That is, the divine persons are equally active in every operation. But then, in what way did the Father create the world through Christ? How can only the Son be incarnate, die, and be resurrected? Why does Christ have to ascend before the Spirit may come? These and many other questions pose serious objections to the doctrine of inseparable operations.
In the first book-length treatment of this doctrine, Adonis Vidu takes up these questions and offers a conceptual and dogmatic analysis of this essential axiom, engaging with recent and historical objections. Taking aim at a common “soft” interpretation of the inseparability rule, according to which the divine persons merely cooperate and work in concert with one another, Vidu argues for the retrieval of “hard inseparability,” which emphasizes the unity of divine action, primarily drawing from the patristic and medieval traditions.
Having probed the biblical foundations of the rule and recounted the story of its emergence in nascent Trinitarianism and its neglect in modern theology, Vidu builds a constructive case for its retrieval. The rule is then tested precisely on the battlegrounds that were thought to have witnessed its the doctrines of creation, incarnation, atonement, ascension, and the indwelling of the Spirit. What emerges is a constructive account of theology in which the recovery of this dogmatic rule shines fresh light on ancient doctrines.
In the first book-length treatment of this doctrine, Adonis Vidu takes up these questions and offers a conceptual and dogmatic analysis of this essential axiom, engaging with recent and historical objections. Taking aim at a common “soft” interpretation of the inseparability rule, according to which the divine persons merely cooperate and work in concert with one another, Vidu argues for the retrieval of “hard inseparability,” which emphasizes the unity of divine action, primarily drawing from the patristic and medieval traditions.
Having probed the biblical foundations of the rule and recounted the story of its emergence in nascent Trinitarianism and its neglect in modern theology, Vidu builds a constructive case for its retrieval. The rule is then tested precisely on the battlegrounds that were thought to have witnessed its the doctrines of creation, incarnation, atonement, ascension, and the indwelling of the Spirit. What emerges is a constructive account of theology in which the recovery of this dogmatic rule shines fresh light on ancient doctrines.
- GenresTheology
368 pages, Hardcover
Published March 4, 2021
14 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Adonis Vidu
8 books10 followersAdonis Vidu (PhD, University of Nottingham) is associate professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, and is the author of several books, including Theology after Neo-Pragmatism. He previously taught at Emmanuel University and at the University of Bucharest in his home country of Romania.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 2, 2021
It is only April, so this is a way-too-early prediction, but it is hard to believe that this will not be my best theology book of the year for 2021. Vidu's working is erudite, clear, and so needed in today's muddy Trinitarian landscape. While the book is primarily dealing with the doctrine of inseparable operations, Vidu is instructive on a number of adjacent topics as well.
July 12, 2021
I cannot speak of this book highly enough. In terms of presentation, Vidu was riveting. By all accounts, this is a work of theological retrieval. Vidu is clearly a classicist. But he does not simply regurgitate arguments from the past he most enjoys, he engages them critically, compares competing traditions carefully, and brings them into meaningful conversation with modern scholarship. He also doesn't phone in his biblical-theological work either. All in all, a great example of what dogmatic theology in the 21st century should look.
May 21, 2024
”The spirit who binds us to Christ is not a being distinct from Christ, but the same God who works all things.”
For some time, like many modern evangelicals, I understood the Trinity as a divine family, 3 individuals sharing omnipotent power, united by a bond of eternal love, relating to each other in a hierarchical fashion and cooperating (performing mutually complimentary actions) in all they did.
In “The Same God who works all things”, Vidu argues that the Biblical doctrine of the trinity does not teach of 3 agents performing mutually complimentary actions at all. Instead there is a single divine agency, for if God is one there is a single divine power and a single divine will; so the divine works of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same works.
He further argues that it is precisely because the Bible identifies Jesus and the Holy Spirit as performing the same exact actions as the Father (particularly the singular act of creating out of nothing) that christians identified the 3 as God in the first place.
"Inseparable operations" was an essential part of trinitarian dogma for the majority of church history, in recent times (particularly the 20th century) it has been denigrated, ignored or denied. As a result, modern christians often have a sub-biblical concept of the trinity that is more like tritheism than orthodox trinitarianism.
This book works hard to rehabilitate inseparable operations and hence to take us back to the orthodox faith of our (spiritual) fathers. This is not a light or accessible read but I highly reccomend it for anyone going deep into theology or anyone who's a preacher.
Overall thoughts
This is a very helpful book for people thinking deeply about the nature of God, how God’s existence relates to his works and what it means for God to be one Being/Essence but three persons. I believe Vidu is correct that the modern rejection of this doctrine is a mistake and ultimately a departure from historic christianity, one we (christians generally) ought to correct. BUT it is not an accessible book, nor is it devotional. It is dense and hard work. There are other books like Matthew Barrett’s “Simply Trinity” that introduce “Inseparable Operations” in a style suitable for a wider audience - that’s not what this book is trying to do.
In each chapter, except for chapter 2 (which is a historical overview), Vidu makes his case in dialogue with other scholars, rather than laying out his case point by point he sets out the question and then navigates a path through some of the scholarship on the issue at times affirming points and at times rejecting points. This approach is useful for immersing his readers in the debate this topic brings BUT it comes at the cost of laying out the material in a simple positive case - it is often hard work to follow exactly where Vidu is intending to take you. Reading this book is like exploring a jungle of truth rather than inspecting it in a laboratory.
There are parts where I struggled to understand Vidu and parts where I may disagree - but I greatly appreciated reading the book and I intend to read it again.
Chapters One to Three
These three chapters introduce the doctrine of inseparable operations Biblically, Historically and Philosophically, they could stand on their own as a somewhat detailed introduction to the topic.
1. A Biblical Theology of Inseparable Operations
This chapter begins with the question “what is monotheism?” (and what was 2nd temple Jewish monotheism), Vidu argues that historical Jewish (and christian monotheism) taught that one God meant one singular divine agent, he also argues that this is what the Bible teaches, against modern “softer” positions that allow for multiple divine agents whilst still claiming to be monotheistic.
Vidu further argues that the way the Bible attributes deity to the Son and the Spirit is by ascribing to them the same actions that the Father performs - in particular the act of creating out of nothing - a singular action performed once is ascribed to Father and Son and Spirit by the Bible. It is because of this that we must believe that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are the same divine agent, the same God.
2. The Rise and Decline of Inseparable OperationsChapter 2 is probably the most accessible part of the book. It is an engaging, though brief and selective, historical survey of inseparable operations from the early church to the present day.
A mixture of primary and secondary sources are used to show that Inseperable Operation was a key component of Nicene trinitarianism and remained key throughout theological history, including in the works of Augustine, the Cappadocians, John of Damascus, Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas. So, in both Eastern and Western theology the doctrine of the trinity was built on the idea that the works of Father, Son and Spirit were the same works performed indivisibly.
But the modern era has largely abandoned it, arguing that if the persons work inseparably we would not be able to know each of the persons, if they have no separable will and actions then under the modern definition of person we have no definition of them at all. A modern definition of personhood normally focusses on psychology and the will, whereas Vidu shows that historically will was ascribed to nature not person, in attempting to squeeze the doctrine of the trinity into this modern concept of personhood the result is substantially different from the historic doctrine of the trinity:
“The primary interest of modern Trinitarianism is to recover the personal distinctiveness of the triune hypostases… The question, though is whether in doing so it has not sawed off one of the Scriptural branches on which the Trinitarian edifice rested.”
3. Unity and Distinction in Divine Action
In Chapter 3 Vidu explores how we can best discuss unity and distinction in divine action, where do we see the unity of God and where do we see the distinction between the persons? If (as he has already argued) the Bible teaches that each work of God is indivisibly the work of Father, Son and Spirit how do we differentiate??
This chapter is fundamentally considering what distinguishes a triune causality from a tritheist causality.
Vidu argues that modern endeavours to differentiate by defining person based on will and hence to see the uniqueness of the persons of the trinity in their unique wills and actions stems from the enlightenment and has the effect of dividing the persons from the nature - it becomes unclear what it is to be God; and further we are left struggling to define what monotheism actually means.
Instead we should not seek to divine actions between the persons at all as actions are a function of nature and there is one divine nature not three. However Vidu does introduce the concept of “Appropriations” asserting that we can observe a differentiated causality in the works of God with different aspects appropriated to each of the three persons (the Son is associated particularly with knowledge and the Spirit with love), however he argues that this should only be done secondarily after we have distinguished the persons by their Missions.
The divine missions (the incarnation of the Son and the outpouring of the Spirit), reveal that the Son is from the Father and the Spirit is from the Father and the Son; these relations revealed in the missions are where we see differentiation within the one God. Vidu explains that whilst the whole Trinity created the human nature of Christ it was only God the Son who was united in hypostatic union with that nature. Similarly the miracle of the outpouring of the Spirit was brought about by the trinity as a whole but it is specifically the Spirit who is poured.
Whilst we can observe this differentiation from the missions and consider the works of God can be appropriated to each of the persons - they remain the works of the whole trinity - appropriation is not division.
Chapters Four to Nine
Building on the foundation laid in the first three chapters the remaining chapters explore how this concept of inseparable operations fits with various works of God, In places these chapters are highly philosophical and speculative, Vidu’s aim is to show that the doctrine of Inseparable Operations complements (and does not contradict) each of these areas of the works of God.
On a first read, particularly as someone new to some of these concepts, these chapters were particularly hard work, I believe they’ll benefit from a second read (and maybe a third).
4. Creation and Trinitarian Mediation
What does it mean for God to create the universe and relate to it in a Trinitarian way? if he acts indivisibly? In what sense is creation “through” and “by” the Son?
5. The Incarnation of the Son Alone
How does God trinity working indivisibly bring about the incarnation of God the Son only? Vidu seeks to explain how it can be the work of the Trinity to cause the incarnation but only the Son is incarnate - imagine God is a magnet and the human nature of Christ is a needle, the whole magnet attracts the needle but it only sticks to one pole of the magnet.
6. Christology and Trinitarian Agency
Are the works of the man Christ Jesus, the works of the whole Trinity or are they specifically the works of the Son; Vidu argues that whilst divine works are performed by virtue of the one divine nature, the human nature of Christ belongs specifically to the Son of God and so is in a sense separable from the Father and the Spirit.
“The natural operations of Christ’s human nature properly belong to the Son in virtue of the union with him alone… Christological agency could be described as the whole Trinity efficiently causing certain effects precisely through the human operations of the Son”
7. Atonement
An indivisible God cannot be divided, the somewhat popular narrative of God the Father (alone) pouring out wrath on God the Son (according to his divinity) is not compatible with the biblical witness to inseparable operations.
Vidu attempts to present an alternative description of atonement - which he nonetheless argues is a form of penal substitution but one that does not involve dividing the Trinity. Of course if God is unchanging, divinity as divinity cannot suffer and so the suffering of Christ must be according to his humanity.
Whilst I agree with those points, I found this chapter specifically harder to follow than some of the others and I’m not sure I’m convinced by the whole of the model that Vidu presents here. I believe Vidu is arguing that the cross is a consequence of redemption and not the means of it, as God is omnipotent and unchanging, Vidu argues that the cross cannot change something in God - I’m conscious I may be misunderstanding Vidu on this as I struggled to follow the chapter but it seemed to me that the confessional reformed doctrine of the atonement is a middle option he did not consider between the views he rejected and the one he presents.
8. Ascension and Pentecost
How do we understand the ascending of Christ - and the arrival of the Spirit? How do omnipresent Persons come and go?
Also why did Christ say he had to depart or the Spirit could not come?
God the Son and the Holy Spirit are always omnipresent as God, and yet their missions - their specific unions with created effects have a historical sequence and order.
In an argument that he develops more fully in his separate work on Divine Missions, Vidu argues that the missions are the extension into history of the divine processions (the Son is begotten from the Father, the Spirit Proceeds from the Father and the Son) and to reflect this they had to be ordered as they were.
Vidu also argues that the Spirit unites believers to Christ, including specifically to the humanity of Christ - the perfected post-resurrection humanity of Christ that has lived the life we ought to have lived etc.
9. The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Love
What does it mean that the Spirit specifically indwells believers? Again he is omnipresent - what activity in the believer makes the Spirit especially present in us? Following Aquinas, Vidu argues that the indwelling of the Spirit is seen in the love poured into our hearts; but departing from Aquinas, Vidu argues that it is not merely our love that is created in us BUT the love that Jesus, according to his human nature, has for God.
For some time, like many modern evangelicals, I understood the Trinity as a divine family, 3 individuals sharing omnipotent power, united by a bond of eternal love, relating to each other in a hierarchical fashion and cooperating (performing mutually complimentary actions) in all they did.
In “The Same God who works all things”, Vidu argues that the Biblical doctrine of the trinity does not teach of 3 agents performing mutually complimentary actions at all. Instead there is a single divine agency, for if God is one there is a single divine power and a single divine will; so the divine works of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same works.
He further argues that it is precisely because the Bible identifies Jesus and the Holy Spirit as performing the same exact actions as the Father (particularly the singular act of creating out of nothing) that christians identified the 3 as God in the first place.
"Inseparable operations" was an essential part of trinitarian dogma for the majority of church history, in recent times (particularly the 20th century) it has been denigrated, ignored or denied. As a result, modern christians often have a sub-biblical concept of the trinity that is more like tritheism than orthodox trinitarianism.
This book works hard to rehabilitate inseparable operations and hence to take us back to the orthodox faith of our (spiritual) fathers. This is not a light or accessible read but I highly reccomend it for anyone going deep into theology or anyone who's a preacher.
Overall thoughts
This is a very helpful book for people thinking deeply about the nature of God, how God’s existence relates to his works and what it means for God to be one Being/Essence but three persons. I believe Vidu is correct that the modern rejection of this doctrine is a mistake and ultimately a departure from historic christianity, one we (christians generally) ought to correct. BUT it is not an accessible book, nor is it devotional. It is dense and hard work. There are other books like Matthew Barrett’s “Simply Trinity” that introduce “Inseparable Operations” in a style suitable for a wider audience - that’s not what this book is trying to do.
In each chapter, except for chapter 2 (which is a historical overview), Vidu makes his case in dialogue with other scholars, rather than laying out his case point by point he sets out the question and then navigates a path through some of the scholarship on the issue at times affirming points and at times rejecting points. This approach is useful for immersing his readers in the debate this topic brings BUT it comes at the cost of laying out the material in a simple positive case - it is often hard work to follow exactly where Vidu is intending to take you. Reading this book is like exploring a jungle of truth rather than inspecting it in a laboratory.
There are parts where I struggled to understand Vidu and parts where I may disagree - but I greatly appreciated reading the book and I intend to read it again.
Chapters One to Three
These three chapters introduce the doctrine of inseparable operations Biblically, Historically and Philosophically, they could stand on their own as a somewhat detailed introduction to the topic.
1. A Biblical Theology of Inseparable Operations
This chapter begins with the question “what is monotheism?” (and what was 2nd temple Jewish monotheism), Vidu argues that historical Jewish (and christian monotheism) taught that one God meant one singular divine agent, he also argues that this is what the Bible teaches, against modern “softer” positions that allow for multiple divine agents whilst still claiming to be monotheistic.
Vidu further argues that the way the Bible attributes deity to the Son and the Spirit is by ascribing to them the same actions that the Father performs - in particular the act of creating out of nothing - a singular action performed once is ascribed to Father and Son and Spirit by the Bible. It is because of this that we must believe that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are the same divine agent, the same God.
2. The Rise and Decline of Inseparable OperationsChapter 2 is probably the most accessible part of the book. It is an engaging, though brief and selective, historical survey of inseparable operations from the early church to the present day.
A mixture of primary and secondary sources are used to show that Inseperable Operation was a key component of Nicene trinitarianism and remained key throughout theological history, including in the works of Augustine, the Cappadocians, John of Damascus, Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas. So, in both Eastern and Western theology the doctrine of the trinity was built on the idea that the works of Father, Son and Spirit were the same works performed indivisibly.
But the modern era has largely abandoned it, arguing that if the persons work inseparably we would not be able to know each of the persons, if they have no separable will and actions then under the modern definition of person we have no definition of them at all. A modern definition of personhood normally focusses on psychology and the will, whereas Vidu shows that historically will was ascribed to nature not person, in attempting to squeeze the doctrine of the trinity into this modern concept of personhood the result is substantially different from the historic doctrine of the trinity:
“The primary interest of modern Trinitarianism is to recover the personal distinctiveness of the triune hypostases… The question, though is whether in doing so it has not sawed off one of the Scriptural branches on which the Trinitarian edifice rested.”
3. Unity and Distinction in Divine Action
In Chapter 3 Vidu explores how we can best discuss unity and distinction in divine action, where do we see the unity of God and where do we see the distinction between the persons? If (as he has already argued) the Bible teaches that each work of God is indivisibly the work of Father, Son and Spirit how do we differentiate??
This chapter is fundamentally considering what distinguishes a triune causality from a tritheist causality.
Vidu argues that modern endeavours to differentiate by defining person based on will and hence to see the uniqueness of the persons of the trinity in their unique wills and actions stems from the enlightenment and has the effect of dividing the persons from the nature - it becomes unclear what it is to be God; and further we are left struggling to define what monotheism actually means.
Instead we should not seek to divine actions between the persons at all as actions are a function of nature and there is one divine nature not three. However Vidu does introduce the concept of “Appropriations” asserting that we can observe a differentiated causality in the works of God with different aspects appropriated to each of the three persons (the Son is associated particularly with knowledge and the Spirit with love), however he argues that this should only be done secondarily after we have distinguished the persons by their Missions.
The divine missions (the incarnation of the Son and the outpouring of the Spirit), reveal that the Son is from the Father and the Spirit is from the Father and the Son; these relations revealed in the missions are where we see differentiation within the one God. Vidu explains that whilst the whole Trinity created the human nature of Christ it was only God the Son who was united in hypostatic union with that nature. Similarly the miracle of the outpouring of the Spirit was brought about by the trinity as a whole but it is specifically the Spirit who is poured.
Whilst we can observe this differentiation from the missions and consider the works of God can be appropriated to each of the persons - they remain the works of the whole trinity - appropriation is not division.
Chapters Four to Nine
Building on the foundation laid in the first three chapters the remaining chapters explore how this concept of inseparable operations fits with various works of God, In places these chapters are highly philosophical and speculative, Vidu’s aim is to show that the doctrine of Inseparable Operations complements (and does not contradict) each of these areas of the works of God.
On a first read, particularly as someone new to some of these concepts, these chapters were particularly hard work, I believe they’ll benefit from a second read (and maybe a third).
4. Creation and Trinitarian Mediation
What does it mean for God to create the universe and relate to it in a Trinitarian way? if he acts indivisibly? In what sense is creation “through” and “by” the Son?
5. The Incarnation of the Son Alone
How does God trinity working indivisibly bring about the incarnation of God the Son only? Vidu seeks to explain how it can be the work of the Trinity to cause the incarnation but only the Son is incarnate - imagine God is a magnet and the human nature of Christ is a needle, the whole magnet attracts the needle but it only sticks to one pole of the magnet.
6. Christology and Trinitarian Agency
Are the works of the man Christ Jesus, the works of the whole Trinity or are they specifically the works of the Son; Vidu argues that whilst divine works are performed by virtue of the one divine nature, the human nature of Christ belongs specifically to the Son of God and so is in a sense separable from the Father and the Spirit.
“The natural operations of Christ’s human nature properly belong to the Son in virtue of the union with him alone… Christological agency could be described as the whole Trinity efficiently causing certain effects precisely through the human operations of the Son”
7. Atonement
An indivisible God cannot be divided, the somewhat popular narrative of God the Father (alone) pouring out wrath on God the Son (according to his divinity) is not compatible with the biblical witness to inseparable operations.
Vidu attempts to present an alternative description of atonement - which he nonetheless argues is a form of penal substitution but one that does not involve dividing the Trinity. Of course if God is unchanging, divinity as divinity cannot suffer and so the suffering of Christ must be according to his humanity.
Whilst I agree with those points, I found this chapter specifically harder to follow than some of the others and I’m not sure I’m convinced by the whole of the model that Vidu presents here. I believe Vidu is arguing that the cross is a consequence of redemption and not the means of it, as God is omnipotent and unchanging, Vidu argues that the cross cannot change something in God - I’m conscious I may be misunderstanding Vidu on this as I struggled to follow the chapter but it seemed to me that the confessional reformed doctrine of the atonement is a middle option he did not consider between the views he rejected and the one he presents.
8. Ascension and Pentecost
How do we understand the ascending of Christ - and the arrival of the Spirit? How do omnipresent Persons come and go?
Also why did Christ say he had to depart or the Spirit could not come?
God the Son and the Holy Spirit are always omnipresent as God, and yet their missions - their specific unions with created effects have a historical sequence and order.
In an argument that he develops more fully in his separate work on Divine Missions, Vidu argues that the missions are the extension into history of the divine processions (the Son is begotten from the Father, the Spirit Proceeds from the Father and the Son) and to reflect this they had to be ordered as they were.
Vidu also argues that the Spirit unites believers to Christ, including specifically to the humanity of Christ - the perfected post-resurrection humanity of Christ that has lived the life we ought to have lived etc.
9. The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Love
What does it mean that the Spirit specifically indwells believers? Again he is omnipresent - what activity in the believer makes the Spirit especially present in us? Following Aquinas, Vidu argues that the indwelling of the Spirit is seen in the love poured into our hearts; but departing from Aquinas, Vidu argues that it is not merely our love that is created in us BUT the love that Jesus, according to his human nature, has for God.
September 5, 2025
Super dense. Much more academic read than Barrett’s Classical Trin — but worth the fight to access precise theological language.
25 - While the doctrine of creation out of nothing may not have been explicitly formulated until the third century in Christian circles, and not until the Middle Ages in Judaism, it does not mean that it had not been already implicit in the theology of the divine uniqueness and sovereignty over creation.
46 - "Knowledge and vision of the Father, of the Son, and of the Paraclete are equipollent" It is precisely this mutual indwelling, this inseparability, which must be kept in view as the background to John 14:28: "If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I" Stripped of this background of mutual indwelling and inseparable operations, texts such as 14:28 have a decidedly subordinationist bent, as indeed they were read by Arians and others in the first few centuries. However, given this mutual indwelling, which is such a trademark of Jesus's discourses in John, it is impossible to read these "greater than I" texts in a subordinationist manner since, quite simply, the Father has no properties or actions that are not already shared with the Son (except the property of being a Father to the Son).
155 - In a mission, a union takes place between a particular triune person and a created reality.
157 - Creation is not simply grounded in the divine ideas, but in the procession of the Son and the spiration of the Spirit. It follows that creation is not simply the external production of divine ideas but something intended for union with God and participation in him.
185 - as we have seen in our discussion of the patristic development of Trinitarian doctrine, the church fathers did not quite move directly from activity to persons.
193 - The divine person of the Word pre-exists and actual-izes the human nature, which does not have its own human hypostasis.
207 - It is fundamentally mistaken, we would argue, to distinguish between discrete activities of Christ: This carried in virtue of his human nature; that carried in virtue of his divinity. By becoming flesh, by entering into time and space, all divine activities unfold in a finite dimension and therefore are necessarily manifested in this way. All of the Godhead's supernatural activity is thus carried out through natural means, the healing (divine) through the touching (human), or the speaking (also human). Christ does everything in a theandric way, which is not to deny the distinction between the operations but only to refuse to distinguish different works by this.
⭐️222, 223 - McCormack, Ontological Presupp of Barth’s Doctrine of the Atnmnt, “in time, he does that which he determined for himself in eternity, no change is brought in him on an ontological level. To God's being-in-act in eternity there corresponds a being-in-act in time; the two are identical in content" (357). “The subject who delivers Jesus Christ up to death is not the Father alone. For the Trinitarian axiom opera trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa means that if one does it, they all do it. So it is the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who gives himself over to this experience" (364).
232 - God does not have to procure the instruments that would enable him to act redemptively. The inherited Trinitarian metaphysic insists that the identity of the divine persons, and their nature, is already established prior to anything they work in the economy. The Father can acquire no new capacity to forgive through anything that the Son accomplishes in the economy of the incarnation.
259 - Schillebeeckx tends to conflate the full realization of Christ's sonship with the full deification or glorification of Christ's human nature.
In his account, once Christ's sonship is realized the Spirit is bestowed. Chal-cedonian Christology, on the other hand, holds that his sonship is a once and for all hypostatic union, from conception. The human actions of Christ are instrumentally the actions of the eternal Son of God.
263 - Dogmatically it must be said that the whole Trinity is operative efficiently in Jesus’ life.
273 - We would be prepared to argue additionally that such an increase in the beatific vision throughout the life of Christ is proportionate and instrumental to an increase in Christ's own human capaciousness for God. In this way Christ recapitulates human destiny, leading to his glorified postresurrection human nature. Just as Adam was destined to arrive at his supernatural end through obedience, so Christ inaugurates that end also through obedience-and yet obedience even unto death (Phil 2:8; Rom 5).
275 - Unfortunately, Rahner seems to conflate the resurrection and the ascension, a slippage quite common in modern theology but one that is not legitimized by Scripture. What Rahner adequately grasps, however, is the fact that the resurrection-ascension sequence does not leave Christ as it found him. The sequence involves a transformation, though not to the point of an abandonment of the humanity of Christ.
276 & 267 - …intrinsicism confuses the Spirit of God… The doctrine of inseparable operations also sheds light on the biblical conditioning of Pentecost upon the ascension of the resurrected Christ. Here, as elsewhere mythology must be resisted. 'This is not the story of one divine being ascending back up the ontological ladder and being substituted by another divine being who comes down the ladder. Nonetheless the bodily absence of Christ needs to be taken seriously and not trivialized by cavalier appeals to ubiquity.
281 - More than simply a restoration to an original state or even the resumption of a process of spiritual development, salvation's ultimate aim is ontological communion with God. All Christians affirm that such communion is not simply eschatological but is already inaugurated in some way.
292 - Closer attention to this discussion will quickly reveal that it is not an authentic counterexample. Stump defines the soul as something that emerges together with the body.? Even as the soul informs the matter of the body, making it this body, the soul can survive the expiration of the body, thus creating the appearance that it does not depend on the body. However, it can be argued that the soul that survives the body is this particular soul because of its having informed this particular matter (which became this body, now dead). The very particularity of this soul is its having informed this matter-body. The soul's surviving the body is conceptually distinct from its being independent, as a particular, from the body.
299 - Distinct possession of a Trinitarian person refers not to a separation among Trinitarian actions, but to their common orchestration of a return to God whereby the creature comes to resemble their distinct relations. To be distinctly related to a Trinitarian person is, in this key, understood as participating in his distinct personal property, which in turn is the personal fruition ad extra of the immanent processions.
The Scriptures also indicate that our ultimate transformation according to the likeness of the Son takes place in the operational order: "What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is' (1 John 3:2). Our becoming like Christ takes place through our operation of seeing him. In response to Rahner's con-cern, this transformation is not an exclusively eschatological reality, for we are already being remade in his likeness (2 Cor 3:18).
303 - It is therefore not simply the divine Spirit that descends but particularly the Spirit of Christ that proceeds from his divinized and glorified human nature. This is too important a detail to be circumvented by any account of the indwelling.
305 - The connection between the universal work of the Spirit, then, and the historical work of Christ is not causal, lest it compromise divine immutability, but rather intentional and conceptual. In this case, there doesn't seem to be a fundamental difference between the operation of the Spirit in Old Testament saints and in Christians.
313 - From a Protestant perspective it is not an embarrassment but an advantage that the form of the Spirit's indwelling is someone else's (Christ's) love. Not only does this prevent a confusion between indwelling and incarnation but it is a source of Protestant assurance and comfort that the formation of grace does not depend on anything on the recipient's side. Christ has already obeyed all and loved to the end. It is precisely this obedience and this love (Rom 5:5) which is given to us.
⭐️ 316 - This knowledge (revelation) and this confession of lordship (love and attachment) cannot be merely intellectual gestures, for the human intellect operates precisely by division and abstraction. They are fundamentally experiential, which is to say they do not objectify. Authentic revelation (knowledge by the Son) and transformation (love by the Spirit) are possible to the extent that God is subject and not object. Distinct experience of the persons proceeds not by way of conceptual mastery, but by being under the impress of the divine Persons themselves.
318 - Far from reifying this love into an intermediary substance, we noted that not only is the love a consequent of the Spirit's personal presence (thus an ontological priority of uncreated over created grace), but this love is specifically Christ's love of the Father. The Spirit who indwells the believer is, then, precisely the Spirit that has first been formed by Christ's humanity. This has provided a Protestant qualification of Aquinas's understanding of the created grace. It is not the believer's own love that enables the Spirit to indwell him.
Rather, it is the love by which Christ loves the Father, and the Father loves Christ, that is poured into our hearts. Love is not our contribution to the gift of grace. Rather, love is itself a gift that is prepared for us by Christ.
25 - While the doctrine of creation out of nothing may not have been explicitly formulated until the third century in Christian circles, and not until the Middle Ages in Judaism, it does not mean that it had not been already implicit in the theology of the divine uniqueness and sovereignty over creation.
46 - "Knowledge and vision of the Father, of the Son, and of the Paraclete are equipollent" It is precisely this mutual indwelling, this inseparability, which must be kept in view as the background to John 14:28: "If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I" Stripped of this background of mutual indwelling and inseparable operations, texts such as 14:28 have a decidedly subordinationist bent, as indeed they were read by Arians and others in the first few centuries. However, given this mutual indwelling, which is such a trademark of Jesus's discourses in John, it is impossible to read these "greater than I" texts in a subordinationist manner since, quite simply, the Father has no properties or actions that are not already shared with the Son (except the property of being a Father to the Son).
155 - In a mission, a union takes place between a particular triune person and a created reality.
157 - Creation is not simply grounded in the divine ideas, but in the procession of the Son and the spiration of the Spirit. It follows that creation is not simply the external production of divine ideas but something intended for union with God and participation in him.
185 - as we have seen in our discussion of the patristic development of Trinitarian doctrine, the church fathers did not quite move directly from activity to persons.
193 - The divine person of the Word pre-exists and actual-izes the human nature, which does not have its own human hypostasis.
207 - It is fundamentally mistaken, we would argue, to distinguish between discrete activities of Christ: This carried in virtue of his human nature; that carried in virtue of his divinity. By becoming flesh, by entering into time and space, all divine activities unfold in a finite dimension and therefore are necessarily manifested in this way. All of the Godhead's supernatural activity is thus carried out through natural means, the healing (divine) through the touching (human), or the speaking (also human). Christ does everything in a theandric way, which is not to deny the distinction between the operations but only to refuse to distinguish different works by this.
⭐️222, 223 - McCormack, Ontological Presupp of Barth’s Doctrine of the Atnmnt, “in time, he does that which he determined for himself in eternity, no change is brought in him on an ontological level. To God's being-in-act in eternity there corresponds a being-in-act in time; the two are identical in content" (357). “The subject who delivers Jesus Christ up to death is not the Father alone. For the Trinitarian axiom opera trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa means that if one does it, they all do it. So it is the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who gives himself over to this experience" (364).
232 - God does not have to procure the instruments that would enable him to act redemptively. The inherited Trinitarian metaphysic insists that the identity of the divine persons, and their nature, is already established prior to anything they work in the economy. The Father can acquire no new capacity to forgive through anything that the Son accomplishes in the economy of the incarnation.
259 - Schillebeeckx tends to conflate the full realization of Christ's sonship with the full deification or glorification of Christ's human nature.
In his account, once Christ's sonship is realized the Spirit is bestowed. Chal-cedonian Christology, on the other hand, holds that his sonship is a once and for all hypostatic union, from conception. The human actions of Christ are instrumentally the actions of the eternal Son of God.
263 - Dogmatically it must be said that the whole Trinity is operative efficiently in Jesus’ life.
273 - We would be prepared to argue additionally that such an increase in the beatific vision throughout the life of Christ is proportionate and instrumental to an increase in Christ's own human capaciousness for God. In this way Christ recapitulates human destiny, leading to his glorified postresurrection human nature. Just as Adam was destined to arrive at his supernatural end through obedience, so Christ inaugurates that end also through obedience-and yet obedience even unto death (Phil 2:8; Rom 5).
275 - Unfortunately, Rahner seems to conflate the resurrection and the ascension, a slippage quite common in modern theology but one that is not legitimized by Scripture. What Rahner adequately grasps, however, is the fact that the resurrection-ascension sequence does not leave Christ as it found him. The sequence involves a transformation, though not to the point of an abandonment of the humanity of Christ.
276 & 267 - …intrinsicism confuses the Spirit of God… The doctrine of inseparable operations also sheds light on the biblical conditioning of Pentecost upon the ascension of the resurrected Christ. Here, as elsewhere mythology must be resisted. 'This is not the story of one divine being ascending back up the ontological ladder and being substituted by another divine being who comes down the ladder. Nonetheless the bodily absence of Christ needs to be taken seriously and not trivialized by cavalier appeals to ubiquity.
281 - More than simply a restoration to an original state or even the resumption of a process of spiritual development, salvation's ultimate aim is ontological communion with God. All Christians affirm that such communion is not simply eschatological but is already inaugurated in some way.
292 - Closer attention to this discussion will quickly reveal that it is not an authentic counterexample. Stump defines the soul as something that emerges together with the body.? Even as the soul informs the matter of the body, making it this body, the soul can survive the expiration of the body, thus creating the appearance that it does not depend on the body. However, it can be argued that the soul that survives the body is this particular soul because of its having informed this particular matter (which became this body, now dead). The very particularity of this soul is its having informed this matter-body. The soul's surviving the body is conceptually distinct from its being independent, as a particular, from the body.
299 - Distinct possession of a Trinitarian person refers not to a separation among Trinitarian actions, but to their common orchestration of a return to God whereby the creature comes to resemble their distinct relations. To be distinctly related to a Trinitarian person is, in this key, understood as participating in his distinct personal property, which in turn is the personal fruition ad extra of the immanent processions.
The Scriptures also indicate that our ultimate transformation according to the likeness of the Son takes place in the operational order: "What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is' (1 John 3:2). Our becoming like Christ takes place through our operation of seeing him. In response to Rahner's con-cern, this transformation is not an exclusively eschatological reality, for we are already being remade in his likeness (2 Cor 3:18).
303 - It is therefore not simply the divine Spirit that descends but particularly the Spirit of Christ that proceeds from his divinized and glorified human nature. This is too important a detail to be circumvented by any account of the indwelling.
305 - The connection between the universal work of the Spirit, then, and the historical work of Christ is not causal, lest it compromise divine immutability, but rather intentional and conceptual. In this case, there doesn't seem to be a fundamental difference between the operation of the Spirit in Old Testament saints and in Christians.
313 - From a Protestant perspective it is not an embarrassment but an advantage that the form of the Spirit's indwelling is someone else's (Christ's) love. Not only does this prevent a confusion between indwelling and incarnation but it is a source of Protestant assurance and comfort that the formation of grace does not depend on anything on the recipient's side. Christ has already obeyed all and loved to the end. It is precisely this obedience and this love (Rom 5:5) which is given to us.
⭐️ 316 - This knowledge (revelation) and this confession of lordship (love and attachment) cannot be merely intellectual gestures, for the human intellect operates precisely by division and abstraction. They are fundamentally experiential, which is to say they do not objectify. Authentic revelation (knowledge by the Son) and transformation (love by the Spirit) are possible to the extent that God is subject and not object. Distinct experience of the persons proceeds not by way of conceptual mastery, but by being under the impress of the divine Persons themselves.
318 - Far from reifying this love into an intermediary substance, we noted that not only is the love a consequent of the Spirit's personal presence (thus an ontological priority of uncreated over created grace), but this love is specifically Christ's love of the Father. The Spirit who indwells the believer is, then, precisely the Spirit that has first been formed by Christ's humanity. This has provided a Protestant qualification of Aquinas's understanding of the created grace. It is not the believer's own love that enables the Spirit to indwell him.
Rather, it is the love by which Christ loves the Father, and the Father loves Christ, that is poured into our hearts. Love is not our contribution to the gift of grace. Rather, love is itself a gift that is prepared for us by Christ.
June 21, 2021
A book like this requires and deserves a few more comments. The whole work of God is the work of the one God. That is what is meant by "inseparable operations."
Chapter 1 outlines the biblical material to support the doctrine, hence creation and rdemption are the work of the One Triune God.
However, this raises questions that relate to the Incarnation (how is it that it is the Son who is incarnate?), Christology, the atonement and the sending of the Spirit.
So in successive chapters Vidu addresses each of these questions in subtle and careful explanations, noting objections and countering arguments.
God is beyond our comprehension, all our theologising is partial and limited. But we can know God as he has revealed Himself. There are common operations, but distinctions between the persons, i.e., the Son becomes incarnate, not the Father and the Spirit. Yet the incarnation is the work of the Triune God. Vidu concudes, "Thus the experience of the persons in their hypostatic distinction takes place through the medium of their common operation, but it is a common operation in which we are drawn towards the persons distinctly." Hence, "We found the doctine of the incarnation of the Son alone to pose no real difficulty for the doctrine of inseparable operations since the Son doesn't "do" anything different from the other persons in the incarnation. Rather the whole Trinity actuates this human substance in the person of the Son."
Chapter 1 outlines the biblical material to support the doctrine, hence creation and rdemption are the work of the One Triune God.
However, this raises questions that relate to the Incarnation (how is it that it is the Son who is incarnate?), Christology, the atonement and the sending of the Spirit.
So in successive chapters Vidu addresses each of these questions in subtle and careful explanations, noting objections and countering arguments.
God is beyond our comprehension, all our theologising is partial and limited. But we can know God as he has revealed Himself. There are common operations, but distinctions between the persons, i.e., the Son becomes incarnate, not the Father and the Spirit. Yet the incarnation is the work of the Triune God. Vidu concudes, "Thus the experience of the persons in their hypostatic distinction takes place through the medium of their common operation, but it is a common operation in which we are drawn towards the persons distinctly." Hence, "We found the doctine of the incarnation of the Son alone to pose no real difficulty for the doctrine of inseparable operations since the Son doesn't "do" anything different from the other persons in the incarnation. Rather the whole Trinity actuates this human substance in the person of the Son."
October 3, 2021
One might wonder if a entire book defending the old idea that God's operations are inseparable is necessary. Vidu, defending a 'hard' view of inseparable operations, walks through the various objections to the doctrine as they attend various theological loci (e.g., creation, christology, atonement). In his defense of the doctrine, he demonstrates its positive value and indispensable importance for the various loci covered. His writing style is analytic (cf. Kathryn Tanner, Oliver Crisp, Richard Cross) yet readable for those with patience and some familiar with systematic theology. He is deeply dependent on Thomas Aquinas throughout which may be unpalatable for some readers. I would highly recommend this book for its clear and thorough defense of the doctrine in question and demonstration of the overall constructive value of the doctrine for Christian theology in general (which certainly fills a lacuna in academic theology).
December 3, 2023
In his book, The Same God Who Works All Things, Adonis Vidu carefully helps the church recover the classical doctrine of Inseparable Operations. While this doctrine has had its modern detractors (i.e., Colin Gunton), Vidu goes to lengths to demonstrate that inseparable operations are Biblical and orthodox. I would highly recommend it for any seminarian or pastor-theologian. It should be noted that Vidu does you highly technical and theological language. One might look into Matthew Barrett’s book which presents the doctrine at a more popular level.
November 5, 2024
I did it! This book was my Mount Everest for the year — And I think it's the most challenging book I've ever read. I'm thankful that I read it and it was a really good muscle-building exercise. I was working parts of my brain that haven't been used since seminary and it felt really good.
I will probably never re-read this book, but I highlighted the junk out of it and will definitely re-read my highlights (as well as the chapter conclusions, which are PHENOMENAL summaries).
Two negatives:
1. At times, the author engages in more responding to other voices than positive construction of the doctrine. This was tedious and usually left me, a less-informed reader, confused until he would return to positively construct the doctrine. (Basically, he would show the lack in OTHER positions before constructing his own)
2. The book suffers from a lack of definitions. Vidu used terms that I didn't know (and other authors use in different ways, e.g., anhypostasia vs enhypostasia) without defining them.
Notably, Vidu barely even defines inseparable operations. This is his actual definition: "Still others insist that the indivisibility of divine triune action means that the persons do not undertake separate actions—not simply that they do not act without each other’s support (this much is trivial), but that one cannot even individuate distinct actions of the persons."
I will probably never re-read this book, but I highlighted the junk out of it and will definitely re-read my highlights (as well as the chapter conclusions, which are PHENOMENAL summaries).
Two negatives:
1. At times, the author engages in more responding to other voices than positive construction of the doctrine. This was tedious and usually left me, a less-informed reader, confused until he would return to positively construct the doctrine. (Basically, he would show the lack in OTHER positions before constructing his own)
2. The book suffers from a lack of definitions. Vidu used terms that I didn't know (and other authors use in different ways, e.g., anhypostasia vs enhypostasia) without defining them.
Notably, Vidu barely even defines inseparable operations. This is his actual definition: "Still others insist that the indivisibility of divine triune action means that the persons do not undertake separate actions—not simply that they do not act without each other’s support (this much is trivial), but that one cannot even individuate distinct actions of the persons."
June 21, 2025
One of the most famous statements regarding the Trinity is opera Trinitatis ad extra indivisa sunt--the external works of the Trinity are inseparable. That is to say, the non-intratrinitarian works of God are always performed by all three persons. They may terminate on a specific person, but all three persons perform them.
Adonis Vidu's work sets out to defend this belief, known as the doctrine of inseparable operations, which has always been a key tenet of classical theology. He especially propounds it in light of creation, the incarnation, and the sending of the Spirit. The work is appropriately and sharply critical of the rise of social trinitarianism in the twentieth century, which knocked theology askew in quite deleterious ways--thankfully Vidu is part of a resurgence of classical theology that is recovering Augustine, Aquinas, Owen, and the rest.
I won't lie--the book is hard to follow at times. The argumentation is quite dense. A popular-level version of this work would be warmly welcomed. But in the family of doctrines that includes aseity, simplicity, impassibility, and immutability, inseparable operations is a vital ingredient of the glue that holds everything together. Vidu's work is indispensable.
Adonis Vidu's work sets out to defend this belief, known as the doctrine of inseparable operations, which has always been a key tenet of classical theology. He especially propounds it in light of creation, the incarnation, and the sending of the Spirit. The work is appropriately and sharply critical of the rise of social trinitarianism in the twentieth century, which knocked theology askew in quite deleterious ways--thankfully Vidu is part of a resurgence of classical theology that is recovering Augustine, Aquinas, Owen, and the rest.
I won't lie--the book is hard to follow at times. The argumentation is quite dense. A popular-level version of this work would be warmly welcomed. But in the family of doctrines that includes aseity, simplicity, impassibility, and immutability, inseparable operations is a vital ingredient of the glue that holds everything together. Vidu's work is indispensable.
June 22, 2024
Adonis Vidu’s book has been immensely helpful in my understanding of the doctrine of inseparable operations. This doctrine asserts that the divine persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are equally active in every divine operation. In The Same God Who Works All Things, Vidu provides a biblical defense of this doctrine, emphasizing its centrality to Trinitarian theology. He also traces its historical development, addressing objections along the way.
However, I must admit that the book can be challenging to read. Adonis has a penchant for using theological terminology that may be unfamiliar to ordinary readers. Nevertheless, it remains a valuable resource for both scholars and laypeople, offering insights into the inseparable work of the Triune God.
However, I must admit that the book can be challenging to read. Adonis has a penchant for using theological terminology that may be unfamiliar to ordinary readers. Nevertheless, it remains a valuable resource for both scholars and laypeople, offering insights into the inseparable work of the Triune God.
August 17, 2021
A little more than 2/3 of the way through, but had to write and comment on this really good book. Vidu makes difficult material more understandable and I find his arguments to be correct for the most part. His interaction with Theologians like McCormack, Tanner, Pannenberg and Philosophical Theologian Bernard Lonergan, are worth the price of the book. Especially good and personally helpful, was what He as to say about the Atonement and the Insseparable Operations and Missions of the Persons of the Trinity. He makes respectful, but cogent, criticisms of McCormack's Christological theodicy, as I would label it. Well worth getting and reading. Will be referred to in the future.
October 25, 2021
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I am thankful for the healthy Trinitarian renaisannce happening among evangelicals. Vidu is better than most of the authors doing retrieval from the "great tradition." My qualms with this book is it felt more of a book length research paper rather than constructive theology as he claims. He spends a lot of time commenting on, disagreeing with, and interpreting various primary sources. I know its valuable to understand opposing views, but I grew weary of what felt like endless sparring with other view points.
June 19, 2021
This will be an unsatisfying review, but I'll simply say it's a leading contender for my book of the year. I'm already planning a reread for early 2022, DV.
P.S: Might help to read a little beforehand on magnets :)
P.S: Might help to read a little beforehand on magnets :)
August 30, 2024
A demanding work to read and to comprehend (have I?) but enormously rewarding and stimulating! This is a much needed reassertion of Augustinian and Thomistic inseparable operations. Moreover it offers a splendid Trinitarian “grammar”. I will unquestionably need to re-read this valuable book!
December 27, 2021
Magisterial
August 7, 2022
Serious, heavy stuff. Almost on the level of the things Dominicans write.
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