Church Authority, Argument 4: Sola Scriptura vs. Prima Scriptura and Icons September 4, 2009
Posted by MG in Uncategorized.40 comments
In this post, I (1) distinguish Prima Scriptura and Sola Scriptura as distinct doctrines about Scripture and tradition; (2) argue that, given Orthodoxy’s theological approach, it is consistent to claim both “Scripture is the sole source of doctrine” and “it is Orthodox doctrine that icons are a necessary part of the Church”; (3) answer objections to the Orthodox teaching that icons are necessary; and (4) argue that in order to show that the Fathers believed Sola Scriptura, a Protestant would have to argue that the Fathers taught the doctrine of private judgment (which they do not).
(1) Prima Scriptura and Sola Scriptura
I was recently asked by Catz to answer this rather interesting question:
Can you tell me where icons are upheld in Scripture to the same degree as the 7th council does? Even going so far as declaring anathema those who do not venerate icons? Where in Scripture is the veneration of icons (in the Eastern Orthodox sense) required? (more…)
The Wheels on the Dialectic go Round and Round… September 3, 2009
Posted by Krause in Postmodernity.2 comments
“What we see, therefore, is a strangely disjointed history. These modern, secularist assumptions, which are questioned and brought into doubt more and more, certainly pervade much if not all the radical death of God theologies of the 1960’s. The question, which becomes the central question that this volume seeks to address, is the following: How do we get from the post-Christian, post-Holocaust, and largely secular death of God theologies of the 1960’s to the postmodern return of religion? Put otherwise, what happens when we move from the early claim that deconstruction is the hermeneutic of the death of God to the subsequent effort at deconstructing the death of God? What happens when the critical linking of the death of God with deconstruction comes full circle? And finally, how is it that this question of the return of religion is transmitted not by theologians and/or religious leaders but by and through philosophers and cultural theorists who heretofore had little or no expressed interest in religious or theological questions?”
–After the Death of God, John D. Caputo, Gianni Vatitimo, ed. Jeffrey W. Robbins p. 12-13.
Romans 8, Part 5: Called According to His/Our Purpose May 24, 2009
Posted by MG in Uncategorized.3 comments
Romans 8:28 is usually translated roughly as follows:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (KJV)
An often overlooked fact about this passage is the absence of the word “his” in the Greek. The passage can be read as talking about human free choice, so that we are “called according to our purpose/choice”. (more…)
Keeping the House Clean May 10, 2009
Posted by ZSDP in Uncategorized.4 comments
Dear Readers,
I wish it were not needful that I draw your attention to the recently implemented comment policy, but a recent string of provocative comments seems to make this necessary. Please, have a quick look at the comment policy. If you feel that your comment will be at odds with our policy, save us the trouble of reading and deleting it.
To the few of our readers who were targeted by these comments, I apologize on behalf of the Well of Questions. We do our best to cut this kind of thing off at the nub, but we are, of course, still only human. Please, bear with us as we work to implement our new comment policy and make this a good place for all people to converse.
Mournfully,
Ø
Could God save us from Annihilation without the Incarnation? April 21, 2009
Posted by MG in Atonement, Christology, Divine Attributes, Eastern Theology, Human nature, Incarnation, Patristics, Salvation.8 comments
The following is a summary of a paper I wrote defending Athanasius’ view of the necessity of the incarnation. I argued that given certain definitions of God, humanity, and annihilation, it is not possible for God to save humanity from the post-mortem annihilation of the soul unless Christ becomes incarnate.
In his On the Incarnation, Saint Athanasius explains that part of the fallen human condition is the possibility that every human being will be annihilated. (more…)
Aquinas Conflating Person and Essence in God, Redux April 14, 2009
Posted by ZSDP in Aquinas, Person, Quotations, Western Theology.35 comments
In a previous post, Krause presented us with a quotation that seemed to show, in language all too plain, that Aquinas conflates person and essence in God. A commenter, however, felt that it was unfair to summarize Aquinas’s position as a conflation, especially without calling into account other relevant portions of the Summa Theologica. So, in the interest of fairness and ease of access, I present our readers with the portions suggested by the aforementioned commenter.
St. Maximus on the Corruption of Christ’s Humanity April 10, 2009
Posted by MG in Uncategorized.add a comment
Ad Thalassium 42
Q. How is it that we are said to commit sin and know it (cf 1 John 1:8), while the Lord became sin but did not know it? How is it not more serious to become sin and not know it, than to commit sin and know it? For the Scripture says, For our sake God made him become sin who knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21).
A. Having originally been corrupted from its natural design, Adam’s free choice corrupted along with our human nature, which forefeited the grace of impassibility. Thus came sin into existence. The first sin, culpable indeed, was the fall of free choice from good into evil; the second, following upon the first, was the innocent transformation of human nature from incorruption into corruption. For our forefather Adam committed two “sins” by his transgression of God’s commandment: the first “sin” was culpable, when his free choice willfully rejected the good; but the second “sin,” occasioned by the first, was innocent, since human nature unwillingly put off its incorruption. Therefore our Lord and God, rectifying this reciprocal corruption and alteration of our human nature by taking on the whole of our nature, even had in his assumed nature the liability to passions which, in his own exercise of free choice, he adorned with incorruptibility. (more…)
