The ram caught by its horns in a bush beside the altar of Isaac is a clear type of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus. Church fathers pushed the analogy, partly based on the use of cornua to describe the extreme edges of the transverse of a cross. Justin combined this typology with the promise . . . . Continue Reading »
Drawing out the Adam-Christ parallel, Irenaeus notes that Luke’s genealogy highlights not only Jesus’ connection with Adam but His embodiment of the nations: “for this cause Luke points out that the genealogy which extends from our Lord’s birth until Adam, has 72 . . . . Continue Reading »
Tertullian offers this typological explanation for Jesus’ conception and birth from a virgin: “Since he came to give us a new life it was fitting that he himself should be born in a new manner. But this newness, as always, is prefigured in the Old Testament, the Lord’s birth of a . . . . Continue Reading »
In his excellent The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture , John McGuckin gives this brief, dispassionate account of the dynamics of Western Christology in the fifth century: “The Archimandrite Eutyches in the fifth century misunderstood [the . . . . Continue Reading »
TF Torrance in a selection from the anthology noted in an earlier post describes the rationale for the distinction of active and passive obedience in Reformed theology. They don’t differ with regard to time - Christ begins to suffer His passive obedience with the incarnation. Jesus is the . . . . Continue Reading »
If the populace thinks at all about Antiochene and Alexandrian theology, then the popular view is that the Antiochenes are the more earthy of the two, the school more interested in and grounded in the human life of the man Jesus. In a 2008 essay in St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly , . . . . Continue Reading »
In his The Poetics of Evil: Toward an Aesthetic Theodicy , Philip Tallon examines Marilyn McCord Adams’s use of “horrendous evils” as a starting point for theodicy. Tallon writes, “One key advantage of horrors is that their unrelentingly negative vision drives us to look . . . . Continue Reading »
Yeago again, explaining Maximus’s use of the soul/body distinction in his discussion of Christology. The spirit/soul union is his main example of a “union according to hupostasis . Maximus explains: “the features which mark off someone’s body from other bodies, and . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Modern Theology article on Maximus, David Yeago helpfully lays out the intentions and assumptions of what he calls Neo-Chalcedonian Christology. The overall aim, he says, “was to interpret the definition of Chalcedon in a manner faithful to the central christological insights of Cyril . . . . Continue Reading »
In a lengthy footnote to a brilliant article in Modern Theology on Maximus the Confessor’s cosmic Christology, David Yeago summarizes Maximus’ explanation of how Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer refutes Monothelitism: “According to Maximus, the words ‘let this cup pass from . . . . Continue Reading »
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