Whether through the hands of another human being, in the narrative text of the Holy Scriptures, or through some sense of direct connection, it has always been Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ, who draws me toward Christianity and who keeps me circling in a whirlpool of love with Jesus at its center. But I [...]
Athanasius continues to look at the efforts by God to make the Word known to man. Earlier we saw how he had placed the divine image in man, but that had not sufficed as man turned and worshiped that which was no God.
But since men’s carelessness, by little and little, descends to lower things, God [...]
In the next chapter, Athanasius emphasize that God not only created us from nothing, but freely gives us life.
For God has not only made us out of nothing; but He gave us freely, by the Grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God. … “God made man for incorruption, and as an image [...]
In this next section of Athanasius’ treatise, we begin to encounter an idea that seems to have largely been lost in modern, Western Christianity. Namely, it is the central idea that it is entirely within God that we live and move and have our being. God is. Evil is not.
For transgression of the commandment was [...]
Now we move right to the middle of the third century with St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. Today, we’ll look at his letter to St. Cornelius, Bishop of Rome. (As an interesting side note that I’m not sure many Protestants know, the Latin papa (or pappa) meaning ‘father’ is the word that Romans in particular [...]
I hesitate to include Tertullian in my series. He is not, strictly speaking, a Father of the Church since he is not recognized as a saint and actually ended his life as a schismatic. I tend to tread carefully and mostly stick to the recognized Fathers. That’s why you won’t see me referring to Origen [...]
We’re going to examine most of Chapter II, Book V, Against Heresies in today’s post. Before we start, I will note that Irenaeus is refuting a specific group of those who held that our corruptible flesh is incapable of incorruption and resurrection. This was likely one of the gnostic groups, but I’m struck by the [...]
Today we’ll look at a small excerpt I’ve chosen from Book IV, Chapter XVIII of Against Heresies. If you have not read the full work, some of the things he says may not make much sense. Remember, the primary purpose of this writing was to refute specific heresies and heretical groups — thus the title. [...]
I’m now going to move forward a few more decades to a period around 170-180 AD as we focus on Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons. We know that when Irenaeus was young he knew Polycarp. Polycarp, as you may recall, was a disciple of John the Beloved. So there remains a close, direct connection between the [...]
This post concludes my reflections on Justin Martyr’s First Apology. I saved for last Chapter LXVI which focuses explicitly on the Eucharist.
And this food is called among us Eukaristia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and [...]