Is the Athanasian Creed consistent with the “Monarchy of the Father?”
To answer this question, this article analyzes and summarizes the Athanasian Creed and then compares this summary to the doctrine of the “Monarchy of the Father” of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Christianity originated in the Eastern Roman Empire but the Muslim military conquests considerably weakened Christianity in the east. But that also helped to ensure that Eastern Orthodoxy retained the theology of the church fathers of the first centuries. This article shows that, in the Athanasian Creed, the “one God” is the Trinity, existing in one single substance and mind. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the “one God” is the Father, and the trinity have three distinct substances and wills. Furthermore, while, in the AC, the strong emphasis on the single undivided substance and only allows relational subordination, in Eastern Orthodoxy, the Son is ontologically, functionally, and relationally subordinate to the Father.