[ Epinoia ]

 [ Kat' epinoian, epinoein ], conception . This is a word very common with Athanasius. It expresses the view taken by the mind of theological realities, whether that view be the true view or not; thus it is used both in reference to heretical error and to Catholic faith. Thus Athan., Orat. i. init., speaks of heresies as [ epinoesasai manian ], implying that there is no objective truth corresponding to those conceptions which they so vehemently insist upon. And Socrates, speaking of the decree of the Council of Alexandria, 362, against Apollinaris: for, not as originating, [ epinoesantes ], any novel devotion, did they introduce it into the Church, but what from the beginning the Ecclesiastical Tradition declared. Hist. iii. 7. And the Arians allowed what was imputed to them as far as this, that they were strenuous from the first in maintaining that the titles given to our Lord, viz. Word, Wisdom, etc., were not to be taken as expressing literal facts, but were mere names given to Him in honour and as a reward. Thus in the Thalia, He is conceived in numberless conceptions, [ epinoiais ]. de Syn. § 15. Hence Athan. says they held that He who is really Son is but [ kat' epinoian ] Word, as He is Vine, and Way, and Door, and Tree of Life, and that He is called Wisdom also only in name (vid. art. [ Onomata ]), the proper and true Wisdom of the Father, which co-exists ingenerately with Him, being other than the Son, by which He even made the Son, and named Him Wisdom as partaking of Wisdom. Orat. ii. § 37. Not that they even allowed Him really to be Son, except in the sense that we are sons of God, that is, because adoption involves a gift of the Spirit, which is a real principle of a new birth. Thus Athan. quotes or charges Arius elsewhere as saying, He is not the very and only Word of the Father, but is in name only called Word and Wisdom, and is called by grace Son and Power. Orat. i. § 9; and just after he contrasts true Son with the Arian tenet, Son by adoption, which is from participation of the Spirit and [ kat' epinoian ]. vid. also de Sent. D. 2. Ep. Æg. 12, 13, 14. Orat. iv. § 2.

 The word, however, has also a good meaning and use, as expressive of the nearest approximation in human thought to the supernatural truths of Revelation, and thus equivalent to economical . (vid. art. in voc.) Thus in our thoughts of the Almighty, though He is in reality most simple and uncompounded, without parts, passions, attributes, or properties, we consider Him as good or holy, or as angry or pleased, denoting some particular aspect in which our infirmity views in which alone it can view what is infinite and incomprehensible. That is, He is [ kat' epinoian ] holy or merciful, being in reality a Unity which is all mercifulness and also all holiness, not in the way of qualities, but as one indivisible Perfection, which is too great for us to conceive as It is. And for the very reason that we cannot conceive It simply, we are bound to use thankfully these conceptions, which are true as far as they go, and our best possible; since some conceptions, however imperfect, are better than none. They stand for realities which they do not reach, and must be accepted for what they do not adequately represent. But when the mind comes to recognise this existing inadequacy, and to distrust itself, it is tempted to rush into the opposite extreme, and to conclude that because it cannot understand fully, it does not realise anything, or that its [ epinoiai ] are but [ onomata ].