It may sound neat and tidy to say there is something ontological (essence) and something functional (hierarchal roles) in the immanent Trinity, and one need not affect the other. But that bifurcation divorces essence and person and misunderstands what a divine person is and how each person relates to the essence. The person don't have an ontological side to them and a functional side (let alone one of hierarchy). As subsistences of the essence, the persons are ontological through and through. EFS doesn't recognize this because it has added a novel category, a social category (roles of authority/ submission) that does not fit with Nicene language. We would be wise to listen to the Great Tradition, which does not miss the connection between essence and person: "For to God it is not ony thing to be and another to be a person, but it is altogether the same thing," says Augustine. "Just as for him to be is to be God, .... thus also for him to be is to be personal" (The Trinity 7.6). Or as Bavinck explains, in "each of the three persons ... the divine being is completely coextensive with being Father, Son, and Spirit" (Reformed Dogmatics 2:304, 305).
(Matthew Barrett, Simply Trinity, 234)
The funny thing about Matthew Barrett is how vehement he is in attacking straw men. Just to repeat one more time, function is not part of the immanent Trinity, but rather function is in the inner life of the Trinity, because the Triune God has an inner life that is not part of His being. Anytime we talk about the intra-Trinitarian love of God, there the inner life of the Trinity can be seen.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with agreeing with Nicene language, and agreeeing with the quotes from Augustine and Bavinck. All of them pertain to the being of God, and the persons of the Godhead obviously subsist ontologically in that one essence. Again, functions pertain to God ad extra, which includes both the works of God as well as the workings of God. Unless this supposed "Great Tradition" excludes Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise the "Great Tradition" does have a social category in the energies of God.
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