Tomus damasi: historical context and theological content

The article considers one of the most important doctrinal documents of the period of the Arian controversy: the Tomus Damasi. The author makes an attempt to reconstruct the history of the creation of this text and provides a contextual analysis of its theological content. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the Tomus Damasi is a confession of the Roman Council of 382, convened by the Emperor Gratian with the support of St. Damasus of Rome and St. Ambrose of Milan. This council was to have a church-wide character, but in fact, its decisions can be seen as stating the consolidated position of the Western episcopate at the final stage of the Arian controversy. Te Tomus Damasi condemns a wide range of heresies, both subordinationist and monarchist. Te positive theological teaching of the text is based on the thesis of the unity of the Godhead and the substance of the Holy Trinity, which is the one, God. Despite the fact that the doctrine of the unity of the Trinity is indicated in the text somewhat more definitively than the doctrine of the difference of the Divine Persons, the Tomus Damasi does not provide grounds to conclude about the presence of pro-Monarchian tendencies in the Roman theological tradition of the 4th century