Page 135 - Prayer Book

Ι Heard You…
135
This experience of the uniqueness of the “other” found
expression in the language of the Cappadocian Fathers
with the term “person” (prosopon). For the Cappadocian
Fathers, a “person” is a being that is freely, absolutely
unique and irreplaceable, even if it shares the same natural
characteristics with other persons!
But how is this uniqueness of a “person” ensured?
For a being to become unique, to be a “person,” it must
be loved by another person in a unique way! A person is
truly a “person” because someone loves them uniquely,
without confusing them with other people or grouping
them together. In other words, a “person” is born out of the
unique love of another person for them!
However, this uniqueness, which makes each person
truly a “person,” also implies the distinctiveness of persons!
For each person to be unique, they must also be different,
they must be “other.” This means they have the freedom to
be “other”! Therefore, the personal/unique love that gives
birth to a “person” is the love that grants ontological free-
dom to the beloved “other person.” In other words, it grants
the other person the capacity to truly exist as “other”! In
philosophical language, this reality of being truly “other”
is called “otherness.”
The “Person” in the Trinitarian Theology
of the Cappadocian Fathers
The Cappadocian Fathers utilized this human experi-
ence of the “person”—which, as we shall see, is imperfect
as a human experience—to articulate the doctrine of the
Trinity. They employed the human concept of “person,” but