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Athanasius on the incarnation sparknotes
Athanasius on the incarnation sparknotes
Athanasius of Alexandria on the incarnation analysis
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Introduction Made in God’s image and according to his likeness, the corruption of man tainted the works of God’s hand. Athanasius described the state of man, before the incarnation of the Word, as a perishing race. He also states that because of humanity’s sinful nature, death has gained upon men and corruption lies within them putting the handiwork of God in dissolution (section 6). Man was being drawn away from God. “For it had been better for him to be made simply like a brute animal, than, once made rational, for him to live the life of the brutes (section 13).” Thesis Statement Why was it necessary for the Incarnation Of Jesus? Providing an illustration to express God’s strong desire to draw man back to Himself, Athanasius compared the plans of God to restore mankind to the plans of a king to restore his servants. In the same manner that a king would visit and rebuke servants who had revolted so that they would not serve another king, God would do so much more to protect His creatures from corruption and being lead astray by “serving things of nought” (section 13). Also, because of humanity’s corruption, the image of God has been stained. As proposed …show more content…
by Athanasius, in order to restore God’s image and establish His deity among the unbelievers, the Incarnation of the Word, who is the image of the Father, was the only means of restoration since man was just a copy of an image and the angels were not even created in God’s image (section 13). What is it that Jesus could do that no other could do? In addition to preserving and protecting the image of God, the Incarnation of Jesus served another purpose.
He had to shed his immortality and take on the nature of man without sin so that He could stand in man’s stead and put death away from all His peers by offering Himself as an equivalent” (section 9). Athanasius claims that “of His becoming Incarnate we were the object, and for our salvation, He dealt so lovingly as to appear and be born even in a human body” (section 4). The incarnate Jesus can be described as a barrier between humanity and corruption. “For because the Word dwelling with them, even their natural corruption did not come near them (section 5). According to Athanasius, through Jesus’ teaching, He restored all that was man’s by correcting their neglect through His own Power (section
10).
The telling of this story provokes many questions. Why didn’t God, being all-good and benevolent, "immediately restore His fallen creatures to their original union with...
sin and avarice; the Elect could come and perfect themselves, if they were prepared to
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
With each religion comes things to learn and understand. Some things are easy to grasp onto, while others can be impossible to comprehend. Why was it necessary for Jesus to be human? How did Jesus overcome the most powerful of human leaders? Why did God send His only son for us? In the book On the Incarnation by Athanasius, these questions are thoroughly explained. Beginning with the creation of man, God promised to protect and care for us. This promise He fulfills through Jesus His son.
This thesis is shown by John Hick in his article Evil and Soul-Making. As Hick explains, humans already exist in God’s image but have “not yet been formed into the finite likeness of God . . . Man is in the process of becoming the perfected being whom God is seeking to create. However, this is not taking place – it is important to add – by a natural and inevitable evolution, but through a hazardous adventure in individual freedom . . . this involves an accumulation of evil as well as good” (Hick 1-2). In other words, humanity is slowly progressing toward a world in which evil does not exist, as implied by the term “finite likeness of God,” but in order to reach that state, we must first deal with acts of evil, in order to learn what good truly is. On a personal level, this is known as soul-builder
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."(New Revised Standard Version, John 1:14) As the only son of God in the Christian theology, Jesus Christ was tasked with a multitude of trials, and horrors the common man would have rebuked and refused to undertake. However, as a demi-god born of the divine Christian deity and the mortal, virgin Mary, Jesus was not the average mortal man.
... an opportunity to escape his unjust conviction. He tells his would be saviors what we call today a social contract. A social contract states, simply, that you must obey all laws, no matter if they cause you an injustice because it is the same laws that protect the citizens. There would be no point of laws if people could ignore the ones that they felt were unjust or inconvenient.
God’s goodness is greater than any evil that tried to neglect his creation. Developing his argument further more Athanasius discusses what other options besides the incarnation could have save God’s creation from the path of destruction. He writes in the book that human repentance was not enough to save humanity. Instead of human repentance as a way to save humanity the Son took to, “Himself a human body, a human body even as our own.” Corruption as it is described in the book could only have been abolished through death. The Father’s Son took into a human body, “...and not only so, but He took it directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father - a pure body body untainted by intercourse with man.”Later on in the book, Athanasius gives the effect incarnation had on God’s creation. He writes that it put an end to death and He became the “...Lord and Savior of all…” Athanasius provides two things that the sacrifice of His human body’s sacrifice accomplished; the first one is
Jesus Christ, the son of god, walked the Earth to vindicate His Father and His Father’s work as that of love and kindness. Jesus’s unnerving loyalty to God and unwillingness to change his beliefs to accommodate those of the Romans, who opposed him, ultimately led his crucifixion. Jesus’s loyalty was strong enough to cost him his life, however, in dying, he absolved mankind of their sins and wrongdoing. According to the Bible, Jesus died for the sins of man, and became far greater after proving his devotion. Thus, this loyalty brought about both death and liberation. This biblical example demonstrates the binary nature of loyalty, and proves it can have both positive and negative
Pope, in his Essay on Man, takes the religious approach when thinking about the common man. In the epistles, Pope suggests that the common man is ungrateful of God. He claims that man only blames God for their hardships, but does not thank him for their bounty. Pope brings to light a theological theory that man attempts to claim that they are better than God, to which he responds with scathing regard. Pope regards the common man as disrespecting because of their blasphemous lack of appreciation of their lord. In this philosophical poem, it could be seen that his distaste for the common man’s disregard of God is relates to Pope’s presentation of his view on the Universe; that no matter how imperfect, complex, inscrutable and disturbing the Universe
We have the impression that those in a position of power above us, be it our leaders or gods, are supposed to have our best interest at heart. A king is meant to lead his knights to victory in order to create an environment in which his people can thrive. A god, especially in a society where Christianity sets the norm for religions, is meant to look after his or her followers and grant them a prosperous life. Yet, there is a sense of unease in the morbid depictions of the gods alters in the Knight’s Tale. Venus had a thousand people caught in her snare, Mars relished in glory with wolf eating a dead man by his feet, and Diane simply turned those who wronged her into animals. Chaucer’s use of literary synesthesia brings these portrayals of the gods to life, giving readers the illusion of being able to see and interact with the almighty beings. Coupled with the problematic and
In the book One the Incarnation by Saint Athanasius it talks about why Jesus became human for our salvation. Jesus had no reason not to enter into the world as a human, because “it was right that they should be thus attributed to his as man, in order to show that his body was a real one and not merely an appearance” (Athanasius 15). Showing that it was important for Jesus to be a human and spread his knowledge among us; to help us learn and be able to teach other through oral and written tradition. It was now necessary for Jesus to come for our salvation because “had he surrendered his body to death and then raised it at once…which showed him to be not only a man, but also a God the word” (Athanasius 14). This connects back to by why Jesus wants humans to believe that he died a human death.
The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio embodies this verse. Until this time period, religion guided society like an invisible hand pushing everyone along. Throughout many generation religion evolved. From polytheism to monotheism, form idols to churches, people leaned on the virtues that religion presented, and led their lives accordingly. Everyone learned to submit themselves to the Church as they were too scared to pave their own virtuous way. Instead of using the Church as a guide they surrendered themselves completely becoming monkeys in the face of emperors. The Pope was no longer a messenger of God rather he was God-like himself for he too held scores of lives in his hands. The power that the sacred rulers grasped deceived them of their true abilities; they now acted as if they were gods despite their limiting human capabilities. The Popes now used “virtues” to elicit supremacy, opposed to using authority as an instrument to spread morality. Giovanni Boccaccio wishes to lift the veil and expose the church for what they have become. Using Satire he exposes the true actions of those in command. Though the road in revealing the corruption of the Church is jagged and rocky it allows for a new beginning. It allows everyone to discover “a most enchanting plain.” While many praise Boccaccio for his disclosure of the Church there still are menacing effects of such an action. He boots the Church off of its pedestal leaving an open seat for the next ruler. While the church may have been crooked Bo...
Then he proceeded to his larger idea, a universal interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil. The City of God was in conflict with the Earthly City as well as the City of the Devil. This was the first serious attempt at a philosophy or recap of history. The plan was to have incalculable influence in forming the Western mind on the relations of church and state as well as on the Christian's place in the temporal order. The original City of God contained twenty-two books and fills three regular-sized volumes. Vernon J. Bourke, author of Augustine’s Quest of Wisdom, has skillfully abridged this edition for the intelligent general reader. The heart of this monumental work is now available to a much wider and vast audience.
Who is Jesus Christ? What has he done to enable salvation from sin? What is the meaning and significance of what he has done?