Editor: One of the leading motifs of your book Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011) is the conviction that we need to trace patiently the logic of the development of the doctrine of the Trinity; otherwise, it is impossible to understand it. What is the inherent relation between the history and the truth of this doctrine?

Anatolios: According to Christian revelation, truth is, on the one hand, eternal and changeless and, on the other hand, historical and cumulative. Christians believe that truth is the very person of Jesus Christ, according to his own self-identification: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6; cf. Origen, On First Principles, pref.). Christ is the truth inasmuch as he is the Word who perfectly expresses and radiates forth the glory of the Father (Heb 1:3), and since the Father’s being and glory are...

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