Hilary and the Homoiousians: Using New Categories to Map the Trinitarian Controversy

Abstract

Hilary of Poitiers and Basil of Ancyra were unlikely companions. The former was a Latin bishop from a backwater part of Gaul who had only recently become immersed in the Trinitarian controversy. The latter was a leading figure in the East, schooled in classical Greek theology and a veteran in the ongoing struggle over the nature of God. It is also true that their political fortunes diverged significantly. Though both Hilary and Basil's parties “lost” at the Synod of Constantinople in 360, Basil thereafter slipped into obscurity while Hilary's pro-Nicenes would eventually secure political and theological victory in 381. This pairing is so unlikely, in fact, that scholars have long been reluctant to acknowledge the depth of Hilary's relationship with Basil. Among other issues, such a relationship creates a number of historiographical problems by challenging the traditional mapping of the various theological and political alignments of the mid-fourth century. In the traditional version, Hilary is commonly portrayed as the “Athanasius of the West,” who, in the late 350s, emerged as the leading supporter of the pro-Nicenes in the West. Basil, on the other hand, is regarded as a “semi-Arian,” who rejected the Nicene doctrine that the Son was homoousios to the Father, preferring instead to call the Son “like according to substance” (homoios kat’ ousian).