Chapter 7

They object that the phrase “with him” is strange and unusual, while “through him” is familiar throughout Holy Scripture and common in the speech of the brethren. What shall we answer? Blessed are the ears that have not heard your teaching and the hearts that have been spared the wounds of your words.

But to you who love Christ I say this: the Church acknowledges both expressions and rejects neither as though one destroyed the other. Whenever we contemplate the majesty of the Only-begotten’s nature and the excellence of his dignity, we testify that his glory is with the Father. Whenever we consider the good gifts bestowed on us through him, our access to God, and our reception into God’s household, we confess that this grace comes to us through him and by him.

Thus “with whom” is especially fitting in the ascription of glory, while “through whom” is especially fitting in thanksgiving. Nor is it true that “with whom” is unfamiliar to the devout. Those who, because of the soundness of their character, honor the dignity of antiquity above mere novelty and have preserved the tradition of their fathers uncorrupted—whether in cities or in the countryside—have used this expression. It is those who are tired of what is familiar and customary, and who arrogantly despise what is ancient as stale, who welcome novelty, just as people eager for display in clothing prefer the newest fashion to what everyone ordinarily wears. Even now the speech of country people preserves the ancient form, while the language of our clever specialists in verbal disputes bears the mark of the new philosophy.

We say what our fathers said: the glory of the Father and the Son is common, and therefore we offer the doxology to the Father with the Son. Yet we do not rest merely on the fact that this is the tradition of the Fathers. They themselves followed the meaning of Scripture and began from the evidence that I have just set before you. “Radiance” is always thought of together with “glory,” the image together with the archetype, and the Son always and everywhere together with the Father. Neither the close connection of the names, much less the reality of their nature, permits separation.