Properties Participating in Substance: the Trinitarian Theology of Severus of Antioch and Damian of Alexandria

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Trinitarian theology of Severus of Antioch and Damian of Alexandria. It makes the case that in his polemic against the Chalcedonians Severus equates the hypostases with the hypostatic properties and further argues that the properties gain their substantial component through participation in a common substance that is located “above” the hypostases and thus different from them. It suggests that this understanding of the Trinity was later elaborated by the Monophysite patriarch Damian of Alexandria who engaged in a controversy with the Tritheists.