@neofugue Not sure where to post this, but I thought you should know this.

I’ve very recently purchased Seraphim Rose’s book on St Augustine. While it is true he is most known for his piety, the sources that Fr. Seraphim uses show that he is also an Orthodox theologian of high authority - in the Fifth Ecumenical Council he is considered a theologian of first rank, commanding the same respect as Gregory the Theologian. The sources that Fr. Seraphim used suggest that Augustine‘s “errors“ for the most part aren’t really errors, but exaggerations due to Augustine living in a specific time and space. People tend to forget that Augustine was at that time combatting the Pelagians.

And on the question of “absolute“ divine simplicity - another reason for thinking that ADS is no different from DS if Augustine is claimed to teach ADS is that what he said about God’s attributes in the sense that they are internal is a logical conclusion from DS. This means: “to the extent that God has any ’internal attributes’, they must be the same as His essence.” This is exactly what must be said if it is admitted that God is not made of differentiated parts. What has no differentiated parts must be self-same so everything within Him, if there is anything at all, must be the same as each other.

This also has other implications. If God is simple, God in Himself can have no name, which automatically means any name of God must apply to the “things around God”. God cannot be knowable by the natural activities of creatures, for creatures are complex and thus their activities are also complex and not simple like God.