if I could ask everyone to take their seats please good morning and welcome
everyone I appreciate you taking the time on a
otherwise Business Saturday before Christmas to come out and spend the day
with us I know there are other things that most of you could be doing whether
it's finishing end of term papers revising for exams doing Christmas
shopping or maybe binge watching the second season of the crown which was
released just today on Netflix so thank you for taking the time today if you
haven't yet had a chance to fill in one of the registration forms of the table
at the entrance please do so at the break but I think it would be good if we
got underway now my name is father Jeffrey Reddy I am co-director of the
Orthodox school of theology here at Trinity College
remember the Faculty of Divinity here and I would like to before we do
anything else open us in prayer this morning and I thought in light of the
fact that we are in the Advent season preparing for the celebration of our
Lord saving Nativity that we could use a prayer from the service of Nativity this
is one of the Saqqara from the Vespers of Nativity in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen the kingdom of Christ our God is a
kingdom of all the ages and thy rule is from generation to generation made flesh
of the Holy Spirit and made man of the ever Virgin Mary
thou hast enlightened us by thy coming light of light brightness of the Father
that was made the whole creation shine with joy all that as breath praises thee
the image of the glory of the Father o God who art and has ever been who has
shone forth from a virgin have mercy on us amen
I'd now like to introduce our esteemed Dean here at the Faculty of divinity of
Trinity College Dean Christopher Britt
thank you everyone it's I'm delighted to be able to be here this morning to
welcome you on behalf of Trinity College and the Faculty of divinity here it's a
this is a wonderful event I'm also very glad to have a chance to to meet some
some of you who are students here who I have yet to meet and also to welcome
those of you who I only come across occasionally given that my my primary
engagement has been in teaching with with the Anglican program I'm also I'm
very grateful to those who have made this event possible to sink marks
Orthodox fellowship particularly dr. Ruth ed wah and of course the members of
the Orthodox school of theology here at Trinity College particularly
particularly our co directors Richard Schneider and father Jeffrey ready so
thank you to them welcome very much and this is a wonderful event I've I've
known certainly professor bears work but I was delighted to meet him in person on
Thursday to have the opportunity to get to know him a little bit and we're in
for a lovely day I would also apologize I can't be here
for the entire day I've got some friends getting ordained here today in Toronto
and we'll need to go celebrate with them but I'll certainly enjoy being part of
the lectures this morning and be girly in awaiting reports from you on how
things have gone and how its stimulated your thoughts so
blessings to you all and now professor Richard Snyder will introduce our
distinguished guest
this is both a particular pleasure and a particular privilege to play the
pleasure is that father John and I have known each other work together been
friends for what's going on 20 years now so I have the joy of telling a story
from the inside out a little bit the privilege is an ancient one in Rome in
Roman times when there was a great occasion there would be what was called
a panegyric which would be a celebratory speech in honor of the great man well
that's in a sense what this is going to be and it's extremely well deserved
because it's about in fact someone who's if I had to sum him up in one word has
been a game changer for all those all those years right almost 30 now whatever
father John does it has an impact that wakes everybody up and alters the course
of the way we the way we think about subjects now part of this is because his
first training was not in theology it was in philosophy his first degree was
in philosophy and I think it's quite fascinating that he would he worked on
the combination of Christian father and Immanuel
levy nas which shows he's right right up there in postmodernist this makes him a
very rare burden Orthodox circles and it has considerable impact on the way he
approaches work he's acutely conscious in everything he does that we can't
simply go back into the second century to the third century in the fourth
century and so on that we are getting back there by way of a long tradition of
understanding those periods all of which has impacted the way we're going to
think and the way we're going to see what they're trying to say and yet at
the same time and this is something he always tries to impart to students and
it's getting rarer and rarer these days what he does say is always based on
extremely close reading very very careful scrutiny of the text that's
that's an old and responsible scholarly tradition that in our day is I'm sad to
say somewhat disappearing under waves and waves of fear theory ideology and
speculation so the cunt the combination has been
extremely important his doctoral work was under callisto swear famous
metropolitan kallisto's ware at oxford and right off the bat moved it moved
attention back to the pre Nicene fathers who had been somewhat neglected and we
now to great extent thanks to his work realize the dynamism of the development
of christian thought in the years immediately after the gospel the first
book that was published was on anthropology and asceticism in Irenaeus
and clement published by Oxford University Press 2000 he is I believe
the most published Orthodox scholar from Oxford
in history that was the death was the beginning of it it was a version of his
doctoral thesis he went to st. Vladimir's seminary was called the st.
Vladimir's seminary in 1999 1999 - - I'm sorry 1993 to teach patristic s-- and he
has been there ever since a long career the list of books is way too long to
enumerate if I did that I'd be here all day
it's an average of about a book a year
again he brought here Irenaeus to the world's attention by his publication in
what became started to become the popular patristic series that I think
everybody knows about it now it's almost 50 volumes and it has made these
patristic texts available in English translation at a very reasonable price
to call attention to the primary sources and what he put out was a little
attended text by Irenaeus on the Apostolic preaching but to do it he had
to learn Armenian by the way but then this is an example of the game-changing
he put out an overview overview of the development of thought in the patristic
period and the whole world knows about these books that the world - Nicaea the
waiting Isaiah and the Nicene faith we're still holding our breath waiting
for the third volume and we hope it will come out but what made these books gave
changes was that the whole approach to petrology changed it became individuals
all struggling with key questions of theology and the key questions of
theology were focused on I stand who Christ is and it was not
presented as in the older tradition of Harnack at the hand works as a synthesis
or systematic development it was dialogue and debate between individuals
struggle attempts to cove an ongoing process really really exciting and
generated a lot of attention but then he synthesized that into a book that I
think every Christian should have on their nightstand the mystery of Christ
in which he found the underlying theology and theological issues and
theological hollows which prompted that ongoing patristic debate you can see all
these books on our display table I apologize
normally we have a book sale but crooks books it's a sign of our times has had
to close because of under use by theology students and so what's on the
table is for display only but you can get you can order these books online
from st. Vladimir's seminary press or of course from Amazon and he's continued to
do that along with editing the whole series he's continued to do that with
today's talk is all centered around his translation of Athanasius on the
Incarnation which came out five years ago
but then he publishes big books on scholarly problems again often in
renegade sort of people texts outliers like Dai adore and Theodore that came
out in 2011 I'm happy to be able to announce it his new translation of
origins on first principles just appeared just a couple of weeks ago so
it will be on the bookshelves this is a total GameChanger we've all we've all
been using for 50 years really badly edited
we translated text of origins on first principles and now finally we're going
to have a responsible reliable wonderful text with a very fine 150 page
introduction he's currently at work on a book called John the theologian which is
any examination of where this theological debate starts it starts with
the Gospel of John on the writings of John but there is of course a pun in the
title and a pun reflux is a serious bun because it reflects exactly that
principle of we come we come to theology through the whole tradition of reading
and interpretation and grasp and meaning and we have to find a way to work our
way back through that tradition it's a very postmodern approach to what it
means to read a text father John comes from a long and distinguished family of
priests his great-grandfather was the first Russian Orthodox missionary in
England he has monastics in his family theologians men and women the family
tree is extensive and while I was warned that I did I should follow a tradition
and not mention this he also happens to be an expert on the antique bicycles and
if you go down in his basement you will see some real treasures and he's also
himself an avid cyclist there's an annual hiatus in his family life in
which the whole family stops and watches the Tour de France for three weeks
it's a great privilege for us to have father bear here so i present to you the
george florovsky distinguished professor or patristic s-- from st. Lattimore
seminary and also the professor of patristic sigh forgotten the title of
the chair the Bishop kallisto's professor from Amsterdam from the
universe from Amsterdam
okay this is on thank you very much for the invitation for the event for the
words introduction it should very much appreciated because you can gather as
which I told you I'm from England I've been here for 25 years or so but as you
can hear slick up my English accent if it's a problem put your hand up if I'm
not making myself clear I realize that having kept my English
accent is to my advantage because I know that whatever I have been told whatever
I saved sounds intelligent you know it's a saving grace in that respect okay as
first Tschida mentioned I've been working on the father's for some 30-plus
years before my dogs will work then we've made dogs for working the calluses
and so on and I have to say I'm finding it ever more difficult you would think
that reading the fathers year in year out have probably read this text at
least twice a year for the last 30 years and you would think a patch to know it
by now but actually it becomes ever more difficult and I realize that one of the
most important things we can do I can do as a teacher do it with my students back
at st. Vladimir's in Amsterdam do it today is just reflect on what it means
to learn to read a text okay so when I was invited to come here we spoke about
what we could do and that's just we're coming up with a nativity period that we
simply take this text I asked everybody read it beforehand and that we then go
through it I realize not everybody's got their copy so I prepared a list of some
quotations from it and to actually just pay attention to what it what is going
on in it we all think we know theology we all think we know you know Trinity
Incarnation how it all holds together the systematic theology and then we read
early texts and we find yes he's already saying this he's really saying that and
so on but the more I read this text especially the more perplexed and become
really and to things and I'm going to be asking you questions
okay so I want to be a bit a bit more interactive it won't just be lecturing
and just just talking and you sitting there passively and listening I'm good
ask questions what do we mean by incarnation how many times do we talk
about the Incarnation especially students of theology talk about the
Incarnation all the time we're coming up to the Feast of the Incarnation and so
what do you mean became flesh and we've talked about John 1:14 and 1:14 we would
then say that it's John 1:14 the word became flesh this is when Jesus is born
of Mary yeah something like that does John 1:14 talk about of birth just
as a matter of fact does it talk about a birth no do the infancy narratives in
Matthew and Luke talking about Mary giving birth to Jesus do they talk about
the Word of God so what are we doing putting them together like that yeah
okay so there's something to reflect on this is the first book called on the
Incarnation the first but devoted to this very topic written by st.
Athanasius a great the great defender of Nicaea what does he mean by Incarnation
here yeah we all think well we know what he is meant by incarnation therefore
this is what he's talking about is it and if it's not what are we talking
about and where do we get that fun the second reason my reading a text like
this is so difficult is because it's in some level so familiar to us we all know
what this book says it says he became man
that we might become good yeah we all know that's what Athanasius says in this
where does he say it in this chapter 54 what is chapter 54 what part of the work
is it located in what's he doing when he gets to chapter 54 how's the work
structured is this a conclusion of his work is it the center of his work if not
why have we reduced this work to this passing statement in others we're not
reading the work yeah we think we know what what what incarnation is we think
we know what he says in it because we've heard it so many times and then we
stopped reading the actual work itself so what I want to do today is to simply
go through this work we're not going to go through every page obviously but we
can look at the key structure we can look at what it's doing we and hopefully
through all of that we're going to come to some understanding of what he might
mean by incarnation what he's talking about how he's talking about how this
work works and so on okay are you ready yeah okay so let's start
off chapter 1 honey in carnation in what physic which is the first quotation you
shade okay in what preceded we're sufficiently treated a few points and
many regarding the era of the Gentiles concerning idols and their superstitions
how the invention was from the beginning that out of the wickedness human beings
device from the cells of worship of idols by the grace of God we also noted
a few points regarding the divinity of the word of the Father and the father
and his Providence and power and all things that through him the good father
arranges all things by him all the things are moved in him a given life
come now blessed one true love of Christ let us next with a with a faithful
religion relate also the things concerning the incarnation of the word
expanded divine manifestation to us we should Jews slander the greeks mark but
we ourselves venerate so that all a more from is apparent degradation you may
have an ever greater more fuller piety towards him for the more he's marked by
unbelievers by so much more he proves a greater witness of his divinity because
what humans cannot understand is impossible the easy shows to be possible
what human beings market as unseemly these he renders fitting by his own
goodness what human beings thought of as sophist tree that through sophist read
laughs that is merely human these buyers power shows to be divine overturned the
illusions variables by his own apparent degradation through the curse invisibly
persuading those who mark and disbelieve to recognize the divinity empower okay
so what's the first thing you should get from this from the opening words no and
I'm asking what owned into action I'm not going to simply tell you all the
answers big boundary issue let's get you in the
habit of reading what's the first thing you should get from the opening words no
no there's a book that came before yeah in what receded okay so it's a two-part
work yeah and he tells you what he did in the first part of the work yeah but
the fact is it's a two-part work you can't just jump over that so we've now
got to go back to the first part of the work to see what's happening in the
first part of the work to which this second part is responding okay
he gives us a very brief illustration of what's going on in the first part I
think about idols and so on but there are many other things that we need to
actually examine in that first part of the work okay so the quotation number
two is from the opening paragraph of country gent E's against the pagans he
actually starts off just to give you a background it's not immediately starting
with but he starts off by saying that although the knowledge of religion and
the truth can be learned without human teachers since its revealed every day
shining more brightly than the Sun for the teaching of Jesus Christ yet as
we've been asked to expound a little of the Christian faith we will do so and
then he continues but since we do not have a quotation of Petunia shade but
since we do not have the work of these teachers to hand we must expand for you
in writing what we have learnt from them I mean the faith in Christ our Savior
so that just leave it at that for now what do we get from the first two lines
okay now what do we do with that so one of the great paradoxes about the work on
the Incarnation consciousness and enclosure is it never mentions Arius the
Arian controversy broke out 318th engine 22 so you've got that question did he
write it before the Arian controversy broke out which would have meant he
would have been a teenager yeah early 20s perhaps be really young okay
or did he write it much later but if it's much later why not mention areas
because mmm struggle continued thereafter in the 30s and so on so some
people would say since we do not have these works of the teachers to hand
he must have this must be a reference to him being in exile in fear whose Exide
most of his episcopal life you know was always in trouble for one thing or
another he spent a long time in exile one of the times as an exile his entry
air and so perhaps is early 3 30s 3 3 3 3 3 4 that kind of time so perhaps this
is a reference to the work being written at that point while he's in exile and
does not have the works of the teachers to hand just but that's a way a lot of
people would take it and it comes to the very question of what's going on in
these works that's why I'm laboring with it now how else could it be taken since
we do not have these work so if he's not in exile ok that's a possible
interpretation but if he's not in exile how else could it be taken
well since we do not have the works of these teachers to hand okay what I think
is going on and I'll explain why as we go through what I think is going on is
that no in fact we've got these writings to hand but he doesn't think much of
them and so what he's doing see we've got these writings but don't read them
read this okay and the writings in question would be Eusebius of Caesarea
okay and that would help us locate the date of the work and I'm falling Khalid
Anatolia sin this the the date of the work is in the years immediately
following the Council of Nicaea arias has been vanquished there's only in
three three eight fifteen three to eight three three nine that he gets brought
back by Constantine but in those years immediately following it seems the
problem is over and done with he doesn't need to mention it but what's
happening at this point is that Eusebius is now praising constant time for having
brought peace to the whole world yeah and what Athanasius is doing is saying
no it's not constant time who brought peace is Christ to brought peace yeah so
there's a the battle going on in in in regard to this and so his emphasis is
that all the demons have been put to flight all idolatry has been overthrown
by the work of Christ not by constant time it comes time might have been a
mediator for that but it's not his work its Christ's work okay together with the
fact that you zebras of Caesarea they're real difficulties with his theology it's
much more kind of sympathetic towards Aryans and Athanasius and so he's saying
but you see versus the respected teacher he's eighteen ninety years old he's
written more than anybody else he's done all he thinks he's the respected teacher
Athanasius is just after the counselor constant in Nicaea
he's newly appointed as a bishop Yant bishop
alexander dive engine 26 he's appointed to engine 27 he's still very young he's
got to establish his credentials he's writing this handbook of Christian
theology the simple book presentation and he's saying this is what you should
be looking at don't look at Eusebius okay that's what's going on I think in
these passages the opening day but let's carry on since but so kalisch number two
but since we do not have the words of these teachers to hand we must we must
expand for you in writing what we've learned from them this is a takeaway
which you should get from them anyway yeah I mean the faith in Christ the
Savior that no one may regard Howard the teaching of our doctrine log us as
worthless or suppose faith in Christ to be irrational our logos such things the
pagans misrepresent and scorn greatly mocking us though they have nothing
other than the cross of Christ to cite an objection is particularly in this
respect that one must pity their insensitivity because in slandering the
cross they do not see that its power has filled the whole world and that through
it the effects of the knowledge of God have been revealed to all but if they
had really applied their minds to his divinity they would not have mocked at
so great a thing but would rather have recognized that he was the savior of the
universe and the cross not Constantine the cross was not the ruin but the
healing of creation for if after the cross this emphasis on advocate the
cross is a defining point in all of this if after the cross all idolatries been
overthrown all demonic activities put to flight by this sign and Christ alone is
worshipped and through him the father's known and the opponents put to shame
while he invisible everyday invisibly converts their soul it's all Christ on
the cross that's doing this not Constantine if all is happening through
Christ on the cross then how one might reasonably ask them is this matter still
to be considered in human terms and should
one not further confess that he who ascended the cross is the Word of God
and the savior of the universe okay so he establishes a two-part work this is
part one and this is an opening paragraph of part one what does he say
this work is going to be what does he say this work is going to be what's he
going to do in this work specific us on the cross isn't it he's going to show
it's really interesting that last nine the order of the words he's going to
show that the one who ascended the cross is the word of God notice the order of
identification it's a 1 on the cross who we're confessing is a word of God yeah
it's fundamentally that way around and because we confess this one to be the
Word of God the logos of God the Christian faith is not our logos without
a word irrational yeah so the whole thing is in fact an apology for the
cross the one on the cross is a Word of God therefore the Christian faith is not
without a word Allah Gus therefore you cannot say it's irrational and it's
specifically this one at the cross if after the cross all idolatry has been
overthrown all demonic activities been put to flight Christ alone is worshipped
this is a defining moment in all of it yeah and this is what he's saying he's
doing in these two works part one is contra gentes against pig of
patters on the Incarnation yeah so both of these works are oriented toward sense
okay so it becomes really surprising for instance when somebody like um Richard
Hanson who is a great patristic scholar in there in 1980s and 1990s he wrote a
huge book some 600 pages called the search for the Christian doctrine of God
look at the 4th century theology and he wrote of Athanasius he says when were
the curious results of this theology of the Incarnation he's talking about this
work is that it almost does away with the doctrine of the atonement of course
Athanasius believes in the intone meant in christ's death as saving but he
cannot really explain why Christ should have died at all the fact is that his
his doctrine of the Incarnation has almost swallowed up any doctrine of the
atonement has made it unnecessary yeah you know that Hanson is starting with
the idea which we all had at the beginning of this talk about what
incarnation is second part of Trinity becoming man becoming flesh born of Mary
that's incarnation and we all know that this work is he became man that we might
become God and we said well where's across in that he became man that we
might become God but now we've actually seen that the whole work the two-part
work is in fact presented and understood by the author as a defense of the cross
a defense of the rationality of the cross the one on the cross is a word of
God yeah he doesn't say the word of God became mad and then did it did it and
then went up the cross the one on the cross is the Word of God and therefore
the Christian faith is not a logos so clear so he's doing something very
different than we might have thought to begin with
King what I want to do is to go through a couple of passages from country
dentists and then pass we'll take the break and then we'll turn to on the
Incarnation itself okay because what if it's part 1 and part 2 what he does in
part 1 is essential to understanding what's happening in part 2 okay there as
it becomes clear from that quotation number 1 on your sheet there he's
understanding the curse as being the center of all of this and the cross has
put all idolatry as overthrown or idolatry has put old
manic activity deflate and has persuaded all to worship Christ if only we apply
our minds to it we would not have mocked at it so it's not just simply a matter
of seeing the cross you see the Carson remark yeah but if you apply your minds
properly to it this is in fact what you will see okay
so it's also defense of using your mind to see this they are seeing it in and of
itself doesn't do anything it's using your mind to see it okay so he sets it
up as the work of Christ on the cross is to overthrow idolatry and demonic
activity purge the world of all of that purse what turned everybody towards
Christ so at the beginning of contras entities after the introductory
paragraph he explains how all of this problem has arisen and it's fascinating
to see how he does it so quotation number two he says this is directly
continuing on creation of a fake continued affectation number two contra
Gentiles one country two entities two evil has not existed from the beginning
nor even now is it found among the holy ones nor does it exist at all with them
but it was human beings who later began to conceive of it and imagined it in
their own likeness hence a fashion for themselves a notion of idols reckoning
what was not as though it were the God the creator of the universe king of all
is beyond all being and human thought since he's good and exceedingly noble he
has made the human race according to his own image through his own word our
Savior Jesus Christ he also fashioned the human being to be
perceptive and understanding of reality through similarity to himself giving him
also a conception and knowledge of his own eternity
so that preserving this identity he might never abandon his concept of God
or leave the company of the holy ones but retaining the grace of him who
bestowed it having also God's own power from the paternal word he might rejoice
converse with the divine leading an idyllic and truly blessed immortal life
for having no obstacles to the knowledge of the divine he continuously
contemplates by his purity the image of God
of the father got the word after his image he was made he's all struck when
he crafts a Providence which through the word extends to the universe being
raised with every sensual every bodily appearance cleaving instead by the power
of his mind to the divine and intelligible realities in heaven for
when the mind of human beings has no intercourse with the body nor mingled
with it from outside anything of their desires but is entirely above them as it
was in the beginning then transcending the senses and all human things it's
raised up on high and beholding the world sees in him also the father of the
world taking pleasure in contemplating him and being renewed by its desire for
him just as Holy Scriptures save the first created human beings who was
called Adam in Hebrew that at the beginning had his mind fixed on God in
an in an unembarrassed boldness and lived with the Holy Ones in a
contemplation of intelligible reality which he enjoyed in that place which
holy Moses figuratively called paradise the purity of soul is sufficient to
reflect and behold through itself God as the Lord Himself said blessed are the
pure in heart for they shall see God okay and so opening chapter after the
introduction what's he doing why is he doing it what's he saying
student said symptoms get really really frustrated with me because I ask
questions like that and they you know they think I'm after a really highly
sophisticated theological methodological answer with and they try and give that
to me always fails I'm a much much more
pedestrian thinker just down here what is he doing in this passage we just read
yeah so yes it can but but more than that what's he doing in this passage and
how and why why does he start off evil as not existed from the beginning so
we're the ones who invented evil by Thoth so we were created for
contemplating God through his word okay that's what we're done yeah notice fate
is really striking how he says he he made the human race according to his own
image through his own word our Savior Jesus Christ
yeah he created the world and the human race through hit our save it is I mean
we almost everybody will think in terms of God creating everything through that
pre Incarnate Word I've never found the phase pre Incarnate Word in the father's
I find it all the time in modern scholarship modern theology but never in
the father's okay the point is we're talking about Christ and he's the one by
whom God created just like we see in the Creed one God the Father one Lord Jesus
Christ whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo so creation is
through and not just him to Jesus Christ but through our Savior Jesus Christ he's
created all of this so is he describing cosmological beginnings is he describe
it is he doing history is he explaining what happened at the beginning is he
interpreting Genesis is he is he instead giving us a
of what we are created to do and what we created to do is to be in the image of
the word Jesus Christ and through him contemplate the father but what we've
done from the beginning is turn away from that we've turned away from that
we've turned to that which is not we've given that which is not existence we've
conjured up idols we've made evil and all the rest of it yeah does the
important note see what key it is he's doing he's not doing in terms of
creation for salvation history than incarnation as we tend to do it yeah
he's already talking about our Savior Jesus Christ in this passage and then
most strikingly by the time we get to the end have it having having gone
through all of this we were created to contemplate it in the image of our
Savior Jesus Christ contemplated created to contemplate the word and through the
word come to knowledge of the Father and living this unembarrassed bolus of
purity towards God and so on he continues at the end in the last four
lines there just as you can see in the Holy Scriptures the first created human
being who was called Adam in Hebrew at the beginning had his mind fixed on God
so he turns to the scripture afterwards and he brings in Adam as an example of
the truth he's saying yeah he's not starting off with Genesis and Adam in
this setting the other he's starting off with what we are created to be in the
light of our Savior Jesus Christ and you can also see this is a case from Adam
yeah and notice what he does even more so he says just as a holy scripture
saith that the first created of human beings who was called Adam in Hebrew at
the beginning had his mind fixed on God in unembarrassed built boldness and live
with the Holy Ones in the contemplation of intelligible
reality which he enjoyed in that place which the holy Moses figuratively called
paradise yeah Moses description of paradise is figurative because it's not
being in a geographical place that enables you to see God in this
unembarrassed bolus of purity and so on and so on so he carries on so the holy
Moses figured record paradise so purity
soul is sufficient to reflect him behold God may behold that through itself God
as the Lord Himself said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
it's not blessed are those who managed to find Eden in the East a garden
planted somewhere else yeah Eden is a figurative description of the
state of purity of heart which enables us to see God which is the truth for
which we were created which we called into existence yeah so he's not doing a
reading of the Bible starting with Genesis starting with creation then
turns the thought and then doing this at the other end the other and then finally
coming to that incarnation and then later on turning to the crucifixion the
whole thing is written as an apology for the cross and in order to explain the
one on that why the one on the cross is a Word of God is got to show that
everything else is idolatry and demonic activity which we have brought into
existence because we've turned our mind away from our proper task which is to
contemplate God through our Savior Jesus Christ
that makes sense yes this is why it's important we the first work so Eden
carries on top of next page quotation number 4
he says in this way then this is it and the first three chapters of the work
consciousness are the most important and then it gets into it's actually really
boiling which is why I didn't translate it and put it here a long history of
pagan idolatry you know drawing upon all sorts of examples from Homer and
whatever else it might be and the pages and pages of your people worshiping cats
and cows and whatever else it might be yeah but but there there few passages at
the very beginning in the middle and at the end that are really heavy
theological ones and everyone's were looking at okay so creation number four
chapter three and continuing directly on so he says in this way then as has been
said did the Creator fashioned the human race and as such did he wish it to
remain but human beings contemptuous of the better things and shrinking from
their apprehension sought rather what was closer to themselves and what was
close to themselves was a body and it's sensation so they turned their minds
away from intelligible reality and began to consider themselves and by
considering themselves and holding to the body and the other senses and
deceived in their own things they fell into desire for themselves and
preferring their own things to the contemplation of divine things spending
their time in these things and being unwilling to turn away from things close
at hand they imprisoned in bodily pleasures their souls which had become
disordered and mixed up with all kinds of desires while they wholly forgot the
power they received from God in the beginning okay and we will Karen to the
next paragraph in a minute it's very important to note it's not as is often
said for early Christian fathers for the Alexandrians in particular the mind is a
true human person the body somehow attached to it yeah as often character
some kind of platonic dualism and whatever else it might be now we are
created to use our mind to contemplate God
that's what's distinctively human is what separates us from inanimate matter
from vegetables from animals you know is a motto with different kinds of power of
life in it we're out the power of life that we've been given is a rational
power to think and perceive and we're to live for that it doesn't mean that we're
that alone but everything should be ordered towards that yeah to paraphrase
Paul or to put it slightly round we should be eating in order to live not
living in order to eat yeah we should be eating enough that sustains our body so
that we can do what is proper for us as rational intelligent beings okay but
what we've done from the beginning is to turn it around and so he says what we've
done from the beginning we sought rather what was closer to ourselves and what
was closer to them was the body and it's sensation in the sense the body of more
immediately ours our mind is like a Faculty of orientation which way are we
looking are we looking towards God are we looking towards the body yeah the
body is what's ours yeah so there's absolutely no platonic dualism going on
here is wonder which way we're looking we're looking towards God as embodied
beings eating in order to live live living by contemplating God or have we
turned that upside down and are we contemplating the body okay and as soon
as we completely the body we give we fall into the desires of the body they
become ends in themselves we start living in order to eat to put it that
way around here so and he carries on again the second paragraph here going
back to back to Adam we can also see that this was so from the first created
man okay so he's bringing in Adam again as an example of the truth that he's
teaching he's not doing history it's being in as an example of the truth that
he's teaching we could also see this from so from the first creative man as
the Holy Scriptures relate of him for he also as long as he fixed his mind
on God and contemplation of him kept away from the contemplation of the path
of the body but when by the counsel of the serpent
he abandoned his thinking of God and began to consider himself then they fell
into the desire of the body and knew they were naked and knowing were ashamed
it's a really interesting sentence the fascinating sin look at goes from a
singular to the plural yeah when he
abandoned his thinking of God and began to consider himself then they fell into
the desire of the butt of the body known maketh not ashamed as long as that once
we turn our attention away from God we fall into plurality yeah we fall into
polenta because we're not falling into ourselves individually and the desires
of our body and all the other kind of things we find ourselves in worn in
competition okay so we ain't wind up doing all of that
so they fell in this way they knew that they were not so much naked of clothing
that but they become naked of contemplation of divine things and that
they turned their minds in the opposite direction for abandoning the
consideration of and desire for the one and the real
I mean God from then on they gave themselves up to the various and
separate desires of the body so we're falling into dive factor state of
fragmentation basically the only way from God which would unite us all
together as one that they may be one even as we are one turning away from
that into the turning attention to ourselves our body reform desires when
we fall into fragmentation okay and in this way he would say idolatry and evil
arises we give existence to that which has no existence in our sight in itself
we start to worship alligators and cats and whatever else it might be that he
gets from pagan history all the different examples we fall into all the
desires we fall into murder we fall into warring factions and all the kind of
things that human history is full of and that he chants serve after for the
next 30 or chapters just a couple of so that's the main problem that he sets up
in part one that part two is then meant to this address
yeah so part two is not simply a separate treatise on what we think the
term incarnation might be it's a response to part one yeah the whole
thing is set as an apology for the cross if we truly apply our minds we can see
that the one on the cross is a word of God therefore Christian faith is not a
logos irrational without reason and the way he's going to show that it's not a
logo so that the one and of course is the Word of God is by contrasting the
idolatry before the cross worship of the Cross after against the pagans
incarnation what does incarnation now mean okay something more is going up the
more you read the more complex it becomes okay so they're just a couple of
other passages from the rest of country gent ease which is one to read go
through with you where he does something a bit more like two baths in about five
and six would leave seven so having gone through 30 or 40 chapters of pagan
mythology quotation number five he says the pious religion must be ours and the
only true God he whom we worship and preach must be the Lord of all creation
in the Demiurge of all existence who then is this if not the fat old holy
father of Christ beyond all created beings who has supreme steersman for his
own wisdom and his own word our Lord and Savior Christ again the wisdom and the
word by which he's governing all of creation is Christ not a pre Incarnate
Word or in fact in Word and wisdom our titles of Jesus Christ okay it guides an
old soul the university our salvation and axis seems best to him for the
movement of creation was meaningless our logos
and the universe was carried around haphazardly one could well disbelieve
our statements but if it's created with Lagos wisdom and understanding and has
been arranged in complete order then he who governs and orders the universe can
be none other than the Word of God our Lord Savior Christ okay
so again is it he's looking at the whole of creation in Christic terms not a pre
Incarnate Word govern everything that Lord will save you Christ is the one
who's arranging and governing and keeping all things in harmony and this
is made even more emphatic in quotation of the sakes which is actually one of
the first full reflective statements about creation ex nihilo and it's
fascinating that that occurs in a work which is in fact dedicated as an apology
for the cross yeah sumon Petra Mont in one of her books
points out that the cross separates as well as unites it separates
God and creation far more radically that any notion of creation might do yeah the
cross is what really shows God's ways to be not our ways and at the same time
unites the two most effectively so that perhaps white what this reflection on
creation ex nihilo here the edition number six just a little bit on from
quotation number five chapter 41 and the cause why the Word of God really came to
created beings is truly wonderful and shows that things could not have
occurred otherwise than as they are that's the theme we're going to see
repeating on the Incarnation things could not have happened otherwise
than they did it makes some really dramatic statements in in on the
Incarnation but what's happening now is that he's using the language of the word
of God to creation which is a language that you
have from incarnation you're now applying it to cosmology yeah so that
the pattern of the coming of the Word of God the one on the cross is now applied
to cosmology as a whole yeah the reason why the Word of God really came to
created beings is truly wonderful the carries on for the nature of created
beings have been coming to being from nothing is unstable and is weak and
mortal when considered by itself so in love itself created being is caught
brought into being from nothing and is always tending back towards nothingness
it's always in this in this tension but the God of all is good and excellent by
nature therefore he also loves humankind for a good being would be envious of no
one so he envies nobody existence but rather wishes everyone to exist in order
to exercise his kindness so seeing that all created nature according to its own
definition is in a state of flux and dissolution everything's in inherently
dissolving everything it comes into being passes away we're always in that
flux but it says therefore lest it suffer this and the universe be
dissolved back into non being making everything by his own eternal word and
giving substance to creation he did not abandon it to be carried away and be
tempest-tossed for its own nature lest it run the risk of returning to nothing
but being good he governs and establishes a whole world through his
word who is himself God in order to creation illumined by the leadership of
Providence and ordering of the word may be able to remain firm the a meaning to
remain since it is and since it participates in the world who is truly
from the Father and is aided by him to exist and thus an effort and not thus
suffer what would otherwise have happened I mean a relax into
non-existence were it not protected by the word whose the image of the
invisible God firstborn of all creation for through
him in him all things subsisting things visible and invisible he's a head of the
church as a servants of the truth teach and holy writings creation creation ex
nihilo always tending towards none existence but God enables it to remain
in existence it's like his finger prints he makes everything through the word and
his finger prints the word is imprinted into the whole of creation it's in its
order and all the rest of it but the order is now specifically that of the
church he's gone from creation to the church the last line identifies the word
is holding all things in existence as being the head of the body his church so
there's more going on the sabine cosmological speculation about what
happened at the beginning okay he's looking at the whole of creation in the
light of the cross all things came into being for this all things are tending
back into non-existence but he's impregnated the whole of
creation with his rationality which holds it in existence insofar as it
remains within him okay we'll leave her Krishna by seven it's now actually it is
right on eleven I'm happy to carry on talking and I can't talk to the rest of
the day of life I enjoy talking but if we're going to follow the timetable then
this would probably the best time take a break and then we can turn to any
incarnation unless you all want to stay not just carry on talking ok how long we
have 10 minutes 10 minutes
you
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