Perry Robinson writes to correct my comments about Nestorian soteriology early this week: “Nestorius didn’t underwrite a synergistic soteriology in his Christology since he explicitly advocated a monothelite Christology. The divine used the human and produced a single appearance which . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Grace and Christology in the Early Church (Oxford Early Christian Studies) , Douglas Fairbairn argues that the Christololgical debates of the fifth century were also debates about the nature of grace. Is grace only an assisting power that enables us to cooperate with God (Nestorian) or . . . . Continue Reading »
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a bloody business. At the beginning of the plagues, Yahweh turns the Nile to blood, and in the last plague the Israelites protect themselves by slaughtering lambs and smearing blood on the doorways of their houses. Passover is the beginning of new . . . . Continue Reading »
Knowledge cannot be separated into natural and supernatural. Why not? Because the object of both is the same: The object of both is Christ. Augustine over-schematized Colossians 2:3, but he was on the right path when he interpreted it to mean, “In Him are hid the treasures of wisdom . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m not convinced Gregory’s argument from opposites ( Against Eunimius 9.4) is sound, but it’s intriguing and engaging. Here’s the argument: Certain realities have direct opposites that cannot coexist. Light cannot coexist with darkness, but expels and destroys it. . . . . Continue Reading »
Gregory charges Eunomius (10.2) with believing he can climb past the word to a direct encounter with the Ungenerate Father. As Gregory sees it, Eunomius is saying that “the human mind, scrutinizing the knowledge of real existence, and lifting itself above the sensible and intelligible . . . . Continue Reading »
In 2006, Pope Benedict came under intense criticism for citing the harsh words of a fourteenth-century Byzantine emperor about Islam. The Pope’s point was to highlight the importance of Greek philosophy in the Christian tradition. He cited the following passage from the . . . . Continue Reading »
In his The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought (Oxford Early Christian Studies) , Paul Gavrilyuk challenges the “fall into Hellenism” thesis especially as it pertains to the patristic use of the notion of impassibility. Early in the book, relying . . . . Continue Reading »
God is Lord of light. Everyone says that. But that’s not much help to me, since I’m lost in the dark. If God is going to be my Lord, He has to be Lord of light and dark, death and life. It’s not enough for Him to have first place in creation. He has to be . . . . Continue Reading »
Barth famously describes the incarnation as the Son’s journey into a far country, borrowing a phrase from the story of the Prodigal Son. Is Jesus the Prodigal? The parable of Luke 15 doesn’t completely work as an allegory of Jesus; it’s an allegory of Israel in the first . . . . Continue Reading »
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