As I mentioned in previous entries, one of my chosen reading nodes these days is early Christian writings, roughly dating from the times of the Apostles up to the Council of Nicea. This was a formative period for the Church as we know it, yet very little literature and theology survives.
Previously I read The History of The Church by Eusebius of Ceasaria, followed by a compilation of early Christian writings which included the final letters of St. Ignatius, St. Clement and the report of the martyrdom of Polycarp. I continued on this path by reading the theologian probably most important in the all-important Council of Nicea; St. Athanasius. I chose this text because I am running out of early Christian texts in my library, for one, and for two, because of how important St. Athanasius has been in forming the foundational theology of the Church itself. The introduction by C.S. Lewis was the an added bonus.
I began reading this as somewhat skeptical of the author, his orthodox positions and the unenviable task he had in squaring Old Testament creation chapters with ‘new’ Christian theology. The early part of ‘On The Incarnation’ came off, to me, as an attempt to explain some of those theological gaps. This book did answer a lot of questions I had. At times it gave me answers to parts and terminologies of Christianity that I still didn’t really grasp, and, at the very least, I came away with a grasp of it thanks to St. Athanasius’ work.
It was also the first theological writing I had ever read, despite having a degree in history. As in real life discussions, I’ve found our own ‘rational’ discussion about God, creation and the nature of the world to be very bland and dry. Although we may have words and explanations for these phenomenon, it really is something none of us can grasp, and so the theology itself, logical as one may make it to be, feels very deconstructive. I’m not sure if St. Athanasius was the first theologian to recognize this, but he did, and at the end of this treatise he advises the reader to seek to speak not of the whole, but rather to recall one thing, and leave the whole for us to marvel at.
“Wherever one looks,” he says, “seeing there the divinity of the word, one is struck with exceeding awe.”
I have found that to be my own life’s experience, well before I considered becoming Christian.
The latter parts of the book describe why the Jews were wrong and why the Greeks were wrong. Actually, this book itself was only the continuation of ‘Against the Gentiles,’ where he explains why those practicing in the religions of the Classical world were wrong. The concept of Idolatry, of worshipping God’s creation instead of the Creator himself, surfaced again and again, as well as the The latter parts of this book give the same scrutiny to the Jews and to the various philosophies of the Greeks.
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