ONTOLOGICAL SUBORDINATION IN NOVATIAN OF ROME‘S THEOLOGY OF THE SON By

De Trinitate. It argues that Novatian presents the Son as ontologically subordinate to the Father, which is not a conclusion shared by a majority of recent scholars. This conclusion is reached by comparing Novatian‘s presentation of the Father‘s divinity with that of the Son. The first half of this work, therefore, demonstrates the manner by which Novatian affirms that the Father is transcendent, supreme, and unique in His attributes. Novatian employs a range of concepts and terms found in Christian and non-Christian sources. Specifically, I present and analyze Novatian‘s indebtedness to technical terminology of divine ontology and divine attributes which were common to his intellectual environment, especially in Middle Platonism. I show that Novatian expresses the Father‘s transcendence through negative theology, but also acknowledges an array of necessary attributes such as oneness and simplicity. Novatian‘s understanding of the Son‘s nature depends on his conviction that the Father alone is supreme in all of His divine attributes. The arguments Novatain assembles to identify the Son as God do not suggest that the Son‘s divinity is based o