THEOLOGICAL REFERENCES.
General theological references may be grouped under three heads: the soul's salvation, the procession of the divinity, and the trinity.
As to the soul's salvation, God is the opposite of the evil of beings,[551] which, when created in honor of the divinity[552] is the image of the Word, the interpreter of the One,[553] and is composed of several elements;[554] but it is a fall from God,[555] and its fate is connected with the "parousia."[556]
This going forth of the soul from God, when considered cosmically, becomes the "procession of the soul."[557] This is the "eternal generation,"[558] whereby the Son is begotten from eternity,[559] so that there could be no (Arian) "ên hote ouk ên," or, "time when he was not."[560] This is expressed as "light of light,"[561] and explained by the Athanasian light and ray simile.[562] We find even the Johannine and Philonic distinction between God and the Good.[563] The world is the first-begotten,[564] and the Intelligence is the logos of the first God,[565] as the hypostasis of wisdom is "ousia," or "being,"[566] and it is the "universal reason."[567]
As to the trinity, Plotinos is the first and chief rationalizer of the cosmic trinity, which he continuously and at length discusses.[568] God is father and son,[569] and they are "homoousian," or "consubstantial."[570] The human soul (as image of the cosmic divinity), is one nature in three powers.[571] Elsewhere we have discussed the history of the term "persons," but we may understand the result of that process best by Plotinos's simile of the trinity as one head with three faces,[572] in which the "persons" bear out their original meaning of masks, "personare." Henceforward the trinity was an objective idea.