Taxis, or order, in the patristic literature refers to the relationship that exists ists among the hypostases, in part on the basis of their «origin», and in part on the basis of their «sending» or other features. They are thus defined fined as First, Second, and Third….
All the hypostases are equally eternal, equally divine, and equally important in their mutual self-definition. Therefore, there is and can be no place for
origination
in the
taxis.
Taxis
should not be interpreted from the point of view of
origination,
either in its Catholic, Filioque-related sense, or in the sense of various forms of subordinationism, Arianizing, Stoic, or Neoplatonic.
Taxis
does not abolish the equi-divinity of the hypostases;
nor does it diminish their equi-divinity either with respect to the fullness of their consubstantiality or with respect to their hypostatic being. But the former, the nature, is diminished by the Catholic doctrine of the Filioque, which distinguishes the Son and the Holy Spirit with reference to the fullness of their nature;
and it is also diminished by Stoic subordinationism, which distinguishes quantitatively, as it were, the degree of the fullness of Divinity in the different hypostases. A second diminution is introduced by Neoplatonizing Origenism, which, to different degrees and in different forms, infiltrates patristic theology as well as the later scholastic theology, even up to the present day. Do we not see this in different interpretations of the phrase
"my Father is greater than I"
(John 14:28)
(in St. Basil the Great and in other supposedly anti-Arian but actually Arianizing authors)?
And do we not see it in the hesitation experienced by the fourth-century doctors of the Church when it came to proclaiming the Holy Spirit God, or in a certain relative diminution of the Holy Spirit in the Filioque (which considered the Holy Spirit to be the one barren hypostasis in the Holy Trinity alongside the two fruitful hypostases)?
In general, one can say that patristic and post-patristic theology could not overcome this temptation of subordinationism in connection with the trinitarian
taxis.
Nor is it overcome by the interpretation of the
taxis
as the
order of origination
of the hypostases from one another, as from their cause,
aitia,
or as from a common source,
divinitas.
The fruitful or productive hypostases are thus superior to the barren hypostasis, which does not produce but only proceeds.
…
… In effect, Orthodox theology never figures out what to do with the
taxis
of the baptismal formula.
… All the hypostases are equally eternal, equally divine, and equally important in their mutual self-definition. Therefore, there is and can be no place for
origination
in the
taxis.