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.