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Unknown God, Known in His Activities: Incomprehensibility of God during the Trinitarian Controversy of the 4th Century (European Studies in Theology, Philosophy and History of Religions) &#160;Tomasz Stepien (Author), Karolina Kochanczyk-Boninska (Author), 2018.&#160;What can man know about God? This question became one of the main problems during the 4th-century Trinitarian controversy, which is the focus of this book. Especially during the second phase of the conflict, the claims of Anomean Eunomius caused an emphatic response of Orthodox writers, mainly Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. Eunomius formulated two ways of theology to show that we can know both the substance (ousia) and activities (energeiai) of God. The Orthodox Fathers demonstrated that we can know only the external activities of God, while the essence is entirely incomprehensible. Therefore the 4th-century discussion on whether the Father and the Son are of the same substance was the turning point in the development of negative theology and shaping the Christian conception of God.(Text by the authors)&#160;ContentsAbbreviations  The origins of Christian Negative Theology1.1 The ambiguity of the Holy Scripture concerning the knowledge of God1.2 Philo of Alexandria – transcendence and negative theology1.3 The apologetic usage of negative theology in the 2nd century1.4 Clement of Alexandria – the unknown Father revealed in the Son of God1.5 The incomprehensible Father in Origen  Incomprehensibility of God in the First Phase of the Arian Controversy2.1 The knowledge of God in Arius2.1.1 The problem of Platonism of Arius2.1.2 Monad and Dyad – the problem of creation2.1.3 Creation ex nihilo? The problem of a “non-being”2.1.4 The attributes of God from Arius’ perspective2.1.5 Negative theology of Arius2.2 The transcendence and knowledge of God in Athanasius2.2.1 The knowledge of the image of God2.2 Knowing God from the creations2.3 Positive and negative theology reconciled in Marius Victorinus2.3.1 God as non-existent above existents2.3.2 Negative theology in speaking of God as the One  “You Worship What You Do Not Know”3.1 “Ingeneracy” as a positive attribute and the essence of God3.2 Worship and knowledge – a puzzling question3.2.1 The distinction between “that is” and “what is”3.2.2 Faith and understanding3.3 You are like the Samaritans&#160; Ousia and Energeia (Substance and Activity)4.1 Eunomius and the two ways of theology4.2 The philosophical sources of οὐσία and ἐνέργεια4.2.1 Aristotle – the origins of ἐνέργεια4.2.2 The use of ἐνέργεια  in Middle-Platonism and Plotinus4.3 The Holy Scripture and early Christian concepts of ἐνέργεια4.3.1 The Holy Scripture on the activities of God as away to know His attributes4.3.2 The Church Fathers and the sources of Eunomius’ methods4.4 The knowledge of the Unbegotten substance in two ways4.4.1 The ﬁrst method – from substance to activity4.4.2 The second method – from activity to substance4.5 Basil of Caesarea on language and comprehensibility of God4.6 Gregory of Nyssa on knowing the activities and the essence of God4.6.1 The ontological status of God’s activities4.6.2 The criticism of the second way of Eunomius4.6.3 The activity of generation and other activities of God4.6.4 Activities and incomprehensibility of God  The Development of Negative Theology in the Latter Half of the 4th Century5.1 Basil of Caesarea’s incomprehensibility of οὐσία5.2 Negative theology and mystical experience in Gregory of Nyssa5.3 Unknown God of Gregory of Nazianzus5.4 John Chrysostom against Eunomius ConclusionBibliographyIndex