DOCSLIB.ORG

That Creation Is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor Jordan Daniel Wood

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

That Creation is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor Jordan Daniel Wood A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the department of Theology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Graduate School September 2018 ©Copyright 2018 Jordan Daniel Wood That Creation is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor Jordan Daniel Wood Advisor: Boyd Taylor Coolman, PhD Abstract This dissertation argues that Maximus conceives the logic of creation from nothing as the logic of the divine Word’s historical Incarnation. It first studies the peculiar features of Maximus’s Neochalcedonian christology in order to understand what he means by “Incarnation” (Chapter 1). It then discovers this same logic operative in Maximus’s protology (Chapter 2) and eschatology (Chapter 3). I therefore conclude that Maximus’s declaration, “The Word of God, very God, wills that the mystery of his Incarnation be actualized always and in all things” (Amb 7.22), ought to be interpreted literally. Nicht jedwedem ist gegeben, das Ende zu wissen, wenigen, die Uranfänge des Lebens zu sehen, noch wenigeren, das Ganze vom Ersten bis zum Letzten der Dinge zu durchdenken. ~ F.W.J. von Schelling, Die Weltalter In hac autem consideratione est perfectio illuminationis mentis, dum quasi in sexta die videt hominem factum ad imaginem Dei. Si enim imago est similitudo expressiva, dum mens nostra contemplatur in Christo Filio Dei, qui est imago Dei invisibilis per naturam, humanitatem nostram tam mirabiliter exaltatem, tam ineffabiliter unitam, videndo simul in unum primum et ultimum, summum et imum, circumferentiam et centrum, alpha et omega, causatum et causam, Creatorem et creaturam, librum sciliet scriptum intus et extra; iam pervenit ad quandam rem perfectam, ut cum Deo ad perfectionem suarum illuminationum in sexto gradu quasi in sexta die perveniat, nec aliquid iam amplius restet nisi dies requiei, in qua per mentis excessum requiescat humanae mentis perspicacitas ab omni opere, quod patrarat. ~ St Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum VI.7 ἀπεκρὶθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Οὐκ ἔστιν γεγραμμὲνον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ὑμῶν ὅτι Ἐγὼ εἶπα· Θεοὶ ἐστε; εἰ ἐκεὶνους εἶπεν θεοὺς πρὸς οὓς ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ οὐ δύναται λυθῆναι ἡ γραφὴ, ὃν ὁ πατὴρ ἡγὶασεν καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ὑμεῖς λὲγετε ὅτι Βλασφημεῖς, ὅτι εἶπον· Υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ εἰμι; ~ John 10.34-6 αὐτου γὰρ ἐσμεν ποὶημα, κτισθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς οἷς προητοίμασεν ὁ θεὸς ἵνα ἐν αὐτοῖς περιπατήσωμεν. ~ Ephesians 2.10 Βούλεται γὰρ ἀεὶ καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος καὶ Θεὸς τῆς αὐτοῦ ἐνσωματώσεως ἐνεργεῖσθαι τὸ μυστήριον. ~ Maximus Confessor, Ambigua ad Iohanem 7.22 Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 1. The Middle: Christo-logic 33 1.1 Introduction 33 1.2 Neochalcedonianism and its discontents 34 1.3 Maximus’s fine point: hypostatic identity 46 1.4 Hypostatic identity generates natural difference 67 1.5 Perichoresis in christology: a new mode of unifying natures in act 74 1.6 Incarnation: event discloses logic, logic applies solely to fact 84 1.7 Conclusion 88 2. The Beginning: Logoi, pt. 1 – Word Becomes World 90 2.1 Introduction 90 2.2 Unqualified descriptions of creation as Incarnation 93 2.3 First qualification: no natural mediation between God and world 107 2.4 Second qualification: the Logos becomes logoi, not ideas (the participated) 115 2.5 Third qualification: the logoi of created hypostases (the participants) 125 2.6 The Word proceeds: one act, two modes of activity 131 2.7 Conclusion 141 3. The End: Logoi, pt. 2 – World Becomes Trinity 144 3.1 A longer introduction 144 3.2 Human vocation: hypostatic identity of created and uncreated natures 151 3.3 God by grace: an innate and supra-natural process 178 3.4 Perichoresis, the logic of deified creation 206 3.5 Christ’s Body and analogy 222 3.6 Conclusion 236 Conclusion 238 An Analytic Appendix 248 Bibliography 259 v Acknowledgments Incredible how something so mean as a dissertation can reveal so much about weighty matters like divine munificence. That’s evident enough when I try to recall all those who have instructed, chided, and cheered me throughout my theological formation—all to my gain. Their mostly unsung succor is for that very reason more the Lord’s. Here I acknowledge those more or less directly linked to this project and leave the rest to their reward. Thanks first to my committee. John Betz, one of those rare interlocutors in academic theology whose generosity and intelligence actually allows iron to sharpen iron. Paul Blowers, whose expert and cautious guidance bears a most amazing attribute— joviality. Fr. Brian Dunkle, SJ, the most meticulous, exacting, and wildly indulgent reader I’ve known. And especially to Boyd Taylor Coolman: his intellectual and personal hospitality to me and to my family has made this work a true labor of love, a thing of joy. That ability, I suspect, must be the mark of a truly good man. Several professors have given much and selflessly to my formation at Boston College. Brian Robinette, an encourager, a capacious mind, a truly great theologian, a Catholic mystic, and most importantly a constant friend. Stephen F. Brown, that giant we stand on. Andrew Prevot, a fearless Catholic thinker. Fr. Gary Gurtler, SJ, master of Plotinus’s thought and a philosopher himself. And Fr. Maximos Constas, my introduction to Maximus, the best English translator of Greek patristic texts, and involuntary catalyst for exploring Maximus’s speculative genius. Fr. John Behr and Aristotle Papanikolaou have read parts or versions of this project and offered timely encouragement for which I’m grateful. vi I’ve incured many debts to my doctoral peers. Katie Wrisley-Shelby, John Kern, Christopher McLaughlin, Fr. Ryan Duns, SJ—all lended their ears and cheers indulgently. To Thomas Tatterfield, a long-time fellow wayfarer and ever sharp mind. Ty Monroe, a lover of truth. These latter two have influenced me deeply. Christopher Iacovetti and Taylor Ross, remote but unfailing encouragers along the way. And above all to Justin Coyle, who more than anyone has suffered my mind and strived to instruct it. I could never repay that debt. To my parents, who first incarnated love for me. My brothers, Justin and Shane, whose friendship I covet. To Shane for reading and discussing the entire dissertation. To their families, for solace. To my daughters, Rayna, Edith, and Magdalena. In you I’ve experienced the truth of God’s goodness, the infinite mystery of personhood, and the love God is. To my wife and greatest friend, Alexis. With you I’ve experienced the truth of that mystery between Christ and the Church of which Paul spoke. And it’s to the Church, my Mother, that I give this meager offering. You’ve taught me to behold the Incarnate God, to gaze upon “the beautiful exchange” between Creator and creature in the face of Jesus Christ (Amb 7.22). vii Abbreviations Maximus’s works Lib. ascet. Liber asceticus Quest. et dub. Quaestiones et dubia CC Capita de charitate CT Capita theologiae et oeconomiae Ep Epistula 1-45 Opusc Opuscula theologica et polemica Amb Ambigua ad Thomam et Iohanem QThal Quaestiones ad Thalassium Exp. Orat. Dom. Expositio orationis dominicae In psalm 59 Expositio in psalmum 59 Myst Mystagogia Pyr Disputatio cum Pyrrho On Maximus MC Actes du symposium sur Maxime le Confesseur TOHMC The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor ACMC The Architecture of the Cosmos Others ACO Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum PG Patrologia graeca SC Sources chrétiennes CCSG Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca LSJ A Greek-English Lexicon Lampe A Patristic Greek Lexicon viii Introduction Topic & Thesis John Scotus Eriugena attributes many insights to Maximus Confessor, above all insight into the riddle of the world’s procession from God. So Eriugena writes in the preface to his versio Latina of Maximus’s Ambigua ad Johannem: to mention a few of many points, [Maximus most lucidly explains] in what way the Cause of all things, who is God, be both a simple and manifold One: what sort of procession there be—and here I mean the multiplication of divine Goodness through all things that are—which descends from the summit all the way down, first through the general essence of all things, then through the most general genera, then through less general genera, still further through more specific species right into the most specific species, even into differentia and properties. And again, concerning the same divinity, we see what sort of reversion of Goodness there be—I mean the gathering together, through those same grades, from the things that exist in infinite diversity and multiplicity right up to that simplest unity of all things, which is in God and which God is. So [we see] that God is all things and all things are God. And [we understand] indeed in what way this divine procession into all things is called ἀναλυτικὴ, that is, unraveling, but reversion [is called] θέωσις—deification.1 Maximus taught Eriugena how the sheen of God’s ineffable transcendence most glisters when we see that and how God and world are “one and the same.”2 And to see this you need the crucial lens Maximus cuts: the “primordial reasons” of all things not only find 1 Eriugena, JOANNIS SCOTI VERSIO AMBIGUORUM S. MAXIMI, praef., my translation; CCSG 18, 3-4, ll.25-37: “Exempli gratia, ut pauca de pluribus dicam, quomodo causa omnium, quae Deus est, una sit simplex et multiplex; qualis sit processio, id est multiplicatio divinae bonitatis per omnia quae sunt, a summo usque deorsum, per generalem omnium essentiam primo, deinceps per genera generalissima, deinde per genera generaliora, inde per species specialiores usque ad species specialissimas per differentias proprietatesque descendens; et iterum ejusdem divinae videlicet, bonitatis qualis sit reversio, id est congregatio, per eosdem gradus ab infinita eorum quae sunt variaque multiplicatione usque ad simplicissimam omnium unitatem, quae in Deo est et Deus est, ita ut et Deus omnia sit et omnia Deus sint.
Recommended publications
  • Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor: an Analysis and Critical Evaluation of Their Eschatological Doctrines

    Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor: an Analysis and Critical Evaluation of Their Eschatological Doctrines

    Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor: An Analysis and Critical Evaluation of Their Eschatological Doctrines by Edward Moore ISBN: 1-58112-261-6 DISSERTATION.COM Boca Raton, Florida USA • 2005 Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor: An Analysis and Critical Evaluation of Their Eschatological Doctrines Copyright © 2004 Edward Moore All rights reserved. Dissertation.com Boca Raton, Florida USA • 2005 ISBN: 1-58112-261-6 Origen of Alexandria and St. Maximus the Confessor: An Analysis and Critical Evaluation of Their Eschatological Doctrines By Edward Moore, S.T.L., Ph.D. Table of Contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................VII PREFACE.....................................................................................................................VIII INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 ORIGEN, MAXIMUS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ESCHATOLOGY ....................................... 1 THE HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE OF ESCHATOLOGY IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT – SOME BRIEF REMARKS. ............................................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 1: ORIGEN’S INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND................................... 15 BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH......................................................................................
  • 15Th-17Th Century) Essays on the Spread of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary (15Th-17Th Century) Edited by Giovanna Siedina

    15Th-17Th Century) Essays on the Spread of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary (15Th-17Th Century) Edited by Giovanna Siedina

    45 BIBLIOTECA DI STUDI SLAVISTICI Giovanna Siedina Giovanna Essays on the Spread of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary Civilization in the Slavic World Civilization in the Slavic World (15th-17th Century) Civilization in the Slavic World of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary Essays on the Spread (15th-17th Century) edited by Giovanna Siedina FUP FIRENZE PRESUNIVERSITYS BIBLIOTECA DI STUDI SLAVISTICI ISSN 2612-7687 (PRINT) - ISSN 2612-7679 (ONLINE) – 45 – BIBLIOTECA DI STUDI SLAVISTICI Editor-in-Chief Laura Salmon, University of Genoa, Italy Associate editor Maria Bidovec, University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy Scientific Board Rosanna Benacchio, University of Padua, Italy Maria Cristina Bragone, University of Pavia, Italy Claudia Olivieri, University of Catania, Italy Francesca Romoli, University of Pisa, Italy Laura Rossi, University of Milan, Italy Marco Sabbatini, University of Pisa, Italy International Scientific Board Giovanna Brogi Bercoff, University of Milan, Italy Maria Giovanna Di Salvo, University of Milan, Italy Alexander Etkind, European University Institute, Italy Lazar Fleishman, Stanford University, United States Marcello Garzaniti, University of Florence, Italy Harvey Goldblatt, Yale University, United States Mark Lipoveckij, University of Colorado-Boulder , United States Jordan Ljuckanov, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria Roland Marti, Saarland University, Germany Michael Moser, University of Vienna, Austria Ivo Pospíšil, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Editorial Board Giuseppe Dell’Agata, University of Pisa, Italy Essays on the Spread of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary Civilization in the Slavic World (15th-17th Century) edited by Giovanna Siedina FIRENZE UNIVERSITY PRESS 2020 Essays on the Spread of Humanistic and Renaissance Literary Civilization in the Slavic World (15th- 17th Century) / edited by Giovanna Siedina. – Firenze : Firenze University Press, 2020.
  • Saint Maximus the Confessor and His Defense of Papal Primacy

    Saint Maximus the Confessor and His Defense of Papal Primacy

    Love that unites and vanishes: Saint Maximus the Confessor and his defense of papal primacy Author: Jason C. LaLonde Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108614 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2019 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Love that Unites and Vanishes: Saint Maximus the Confessor and his Defense of Papal Primacy Thesis for the Completion of the Licentiate in Sacred Theology Boston College School of Theology and Ministry Fr. Jason C. LaLonde, S.J. Readers: Fr. Brian Dunkle, S.J., BC-STM Dr. Adrian Walker, Catholic University of America May 3, 2019 2 Introduction 3 Chapter One: Maximus’s Palestinian Provenance: Overcoming the Myth of the Greek Life 10 Chapter Two: From Monoenergism to Monotheletism: The Role of Honorius 32 Chapter Three: Maximus on Roman Primacy and his Defense of Honorius 48 Conclusion 80 Appendix – Translation of Opusculum 20 85 Bibliography 100 3 Introduction The current research project stems from my work in the course “Latin West, Greek East,” taught by Fr. Brian Dunkle, S.J., at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in the fall semester of 2016. For that course, I translated a letter of Saint Maximus the Confessor (580- 662) that is found among his works known collectively as the Opuscula theologica et polemica.1 My immediate interest in the text was Maximus’s treatment of the twin heresies of monoenergism and monotheletism. As I made progress
  • Hart Templeton Colloquium Sch

    Hart Templeton Colloquium Sch

    This Templeton Colloquium at the NDIAS is offered due to the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation and through a grant to the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. Cover Image: A Lifetime of Looking Artist: David Plunkert Program for Mind, Soul, World: Consciousness in Nature A Templeton Colloquium led by David Bentley Hart Templeton Fellow at the NDIAS March 14-15, 2016 Notre Dame Conference Center 100-104 McKenna Hall In this two-day Templeton Colloquium, Professor David Bentley Hart will explore the mystery of consciousness (the entirety of mental life), posing critical questions such as the place of nature within mind, and probing more traditional assumptions about the physicalist emergentist accounts of the origins of consciousness. In dialogue with other scholars he will take up the idea that careful reflection on the nature of consciousness yields an understanding of consciousness to which certain classical understandings of the soul (Western and Eastern) may prove far better suited than more materialist reductionist approaches. This colloquium, made possible through the generosity of the John Templeton Foundation and a grant to the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS), brings together scholars from history and philosophy of science, philosophy, and theology to examine critical topics about consciousness including whether consciousness can evolve or emerge from matter, intentionality and the transcendental ends of consciousness, classical metaphysics of the soul, Eastern contributions to the understanding of consciousness, and the soul and the whole of being. Monday, March 14, 2016 8:00 a.m. Continental breakfast available 9:00 a.m. Introduction Presenter: David Bentley Hart, Templeton Fellow at the NDIAS Moderator: Brad S.
  • Maximus the Confessor and a Deeper Actualization of the Apostolic Dimensions of Pentecostal Movements

    Maximus the Confessor and a Deeper Actualization of the Apostolic Dimensions of Pentecostal Movements

    Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary Portland Seminary 2014 Maximus the Confessor and a Deeper Actualization of the Apostolic Dimensions of Pentecostal Movements Steve Overman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/gfes Part of the History of Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons BLOOD CRIES OUT Pentecostals, Ecology, and the Groans of Creation EDITED BY A. J. SWOBODA �PICKWICK Publications • Eugene, Oregon 6 Maximus the Confessor and a Deeper Actualization of the Apostolic Dimensions of Pentecostal Movements Steve Overman In his now famous and controversial 1967 lecture, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” medieval historian and Presbyterian layman Lynn White, Jr. suggested that many of the unhealthy and unsustainable attitudes toward and treatment of nature found in modern times were to a great extent made possible by the dogmas of especially medieval and modern western Christianity. In contrast to older pagan systems, which viewed humankind as one part of a much larger and animated whole, from the perspective of these dogmas human beings could be seen as separate from and superior to nature and free to objectify and exploit it for their own ends. In light of this, White challenged the churches to “rethink” how their faith might lead them to view their relationship with nature, calling them to move beyond exploitation, and even notions of “stewardship,” to a deeper mutuality he termed “a spiritual democracy of all God’s crea- tures.” As possible alternative Christian resources for this reform, White 98 maximus the confessor 99 called attention especially to St.
  • BETWEEN PHILOSOPHIES: the EMERGENCE of a NEW INTELLECTUAL PARADIGM in RUSSIA by Alyssa J. Deblasio Bachelor of Arts, Villanova

    BETWEEN PHILOSOPHIES: the EMERGENCE of a NEW INTELLECTUAL PARADIGM in RUSSIA by Alyssa J. Deblasio Bachelor of Arts, Villanova

    BETWEEN PHILOSOPHIES: THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW INTELLECTUAL PARADIGM IN RUSSIA by Alyssa J. DeBlasio Bachelor of Arts, Villanova University, 2003 Master of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 2006 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2010 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Alyssa J. DeBlasio It was defended on May 14, 2010 and approved by Tatiana Artemyeva, Professor, Herzen State Pedagogical University (St. Petersburg, Russia), Department of Theory and History of Culture Vladimir Padunov, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures James P. Scanlan, Emeritus Professor, The Ohio State University, Department of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: Nancy Condee, Associate Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures ii Copyright © by Alyssa J. DeBlasio 2010 iii BETWEEN PHILOSOPHIES: THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW INTELLECTUAL PARADIGM IN RUSSIA Alyssa J. DeBlasio, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2010 This dissertation takes as its primary task the evaluation of a conflict of paradigms in Russian philosophical thought in the past decade. If until the early nineties Russian philosophers were often guilty of uncritically attributing to their domestic philosophy a set of characteristics that fell along the lines of a religious/secular binary (e.g. literary vs. analytic; continuous vs. ruptured), in recent years the same scholarship is moving away from the nineteenth-century model of philosophy as a “path” or “special mission,” as it has been called by Konstantin Aksakov, Aleksei Khomiakov, Ivan Kireevskii, and later, Nikolai Berdiaev, among others.
  • To Hell and Back with David Bentley Hart

    To Hell and Back with David Bentley Hart

    Theology in Scotland 27.1 (2020): 61–74 https://doi.org/10.15664/tis.v27i2.2140 Review essay To Hell and back with David Bentley Hart David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019), pp. 222, ISBN 978- 0300246223. £20.00 Jonathan C. P. Birch Dr Jonathan Birch teaches theology at the University of Glasgow and is the Reviews Editor for Theology in Scotland. In 2019, that relative age of innocence when the United Kingdom’s primary concern was the terms of its departure from the European Union, Donald Tusk wondered ‘what that special place in Hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan’.1 The then President of the European Council was presumed to be speaking metaphorically, otherwise his remarks would have triggered even more righteous indignation than they did. But how should our inherited language concerning ‘Hell’ be understood? Perhaps the most fashionable and socially acceptable way to discuss any eschatological considerations in a European context is in terms of imminent environmental catastrophe: the judgement of God (or, safer still, ‘Nature’)2 against the human avarice which leads to climate change, and with a pronounced emphasis on the rapacious West. Elsewhere, talk of ‘sin’ or ‘final judgement’ offends many, especially when some of the worldviews and lifestyles that were once considered damnable are not only tolerated but celebrated in pluralistic societies. If David Bentley Hart is to be believed, however, no matter how socially relevant many in the Church may endeavour to make their public interventions, Christians largely maintain the conviction that Theology in Scotland 61 To Hell and back with David Bentley Hart when the end inevitably comes, eternal damnation awaits at least some.
  • Religious Studies 1.800.405.1619/Yalebooks.Com

    Religious Studies 1.800.405.1619/Yalebooks.Com

    2019 RELIGIOUS STUDIES 1.800.405.1619/yalebooks.com Radical Sacrifice Restless Secularism TERRY EAGLETON Modernism and the Religious Inheritance Terry Eagleton pursues the concept of MATTHEW MUTTER sacrifice through the history of human Through a study of Wallace Stevens, thought, from antiquity to modernity, in Virginia Woolf, and other major writers, religion, politics, and literature. He sheds this thoughtful and provocative survey skewed perceptions of the idea, honing in of modernist literature explores how on a radical structural reconception that modernism understood the far-reaching relates the ancient world to our own in consequences of secularism for key fields terms of civilization and violence. of experience: language, aesthetics, Hardcover 2018 216 pp. emotion, and material life. 978-0-300-23335-3 $25.00 HC - Paper over Board 2017 336 pp. 978-0-300-22173-2 $85.00 & The New Cosmic Story Inside Our Awakening Universe & Before Religion JOHN F. HAUGHT A History of a Modern Concept In this inviting and thought-provoking BRENT NONGBRI book a foremost thinker on the intersec- Examining a wide array of ancient tion of science and religion argues that writings, Nongbri demonstrates that in an adequate understanding of cosmic antiquity, there was no conceptual arena history cannot be based on science that could be designated as “religious” alone. It must also take into account as opposed to “secular.” Surveying the implications of the awakening of representative episodes from a two- interiority and religious awareness. thousand-year period, Nongbri offers Hardcover 2017 240 pp. a concise and readable account of the 978-0-300-21703-2 $25.00 emergence of the concept of religion.
  • January 21, 2018 33Rd Sunday After Pentecost

    January 21, 2018 33Rd Sunday After Pentecost

    We would like to welcome all parish visitors and invite you to join us after the Liturgy for Coffee hour. ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OCA – Diocese of New York & New Jersey The Most Reverend Michael, Archbishop of NY & the Diocese of NY/NJ V. Rev. Dr. Matthew Searfoorce, Temporary Rector Sub-Deacon Edward Dawson Sub-Deacon Vlashi Parish Council President: Andrew Romanofsky Parish Council Vice President: Dean Inferrera HYMNS OF THE DAY Resurrectional Troparion in Tone 8 Thou didst descend from on high, O Merciful One! Thou didst accept the three day burial to free us from our sufferings! O Lord, our Life and Resurrection, glory to Thee! Troparion for Maximus the Confessor in Tone 8 Champion of Orthodoxy, teacher of purity and of true worship, enlightener of the universe and the adornment of hierarchs: all-wise Father Maximus, thy teachings have gleamed with light upon all things. Intercede before Christ God to save our souls! Troparion for Martyr Neophytus in Tone 4 Thy holy martyr Neophýtus, O Lord, through his suffering has received an incorruptible crown from Thee, our God. For having Thy strength, he laid low his adversaries, and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. Through his intercessions save our souls! Resurrectional Kontakion in Tone 8 By rising from the tomb, Thou didst raise the dead and resurrected Adam. Eve exults in Thy Resurrection, and the world celebrates Thy rising from the dead, O greatly Merciful One! Kontakion for Maximus the Confessor in Tone 6 The Thrice-radiant Light took up abode in thy soul, O all-blissful father, and displayed it as an elect vessel, manifest to the ends of the earth.
  • March 2019 RADICAL ORTHODOXYT Theology, Philosophy, Politics R P OP Radical Orthodoxy: Theology, Philosophy, Politics

    March 2019 RADICAL ORTHODOXYT Theology, Philosophy, Politics R P OP Radical Orthodoxy: Theology, Philosophy, Politics

    Volume 5, no. 1 | March 2019 RADICAL ORTHODOXYT Theology, Philosophy, Politics R P OP Radical Orthodoxy: Theology, Philosophy, Politics Editorial Board Oliva Blanchette Michael Symmons Roberts Conor Cunningham Phillip Blond Charles Taylor Andrew Davison Evandro Botto Rudi A. te Velde Alessandra Gerolin David B. Burrell, C.S.C. Graham Ward Michael Hanby David Fergusson Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap. Samuel Kimbriel Lord Maurice Glasman Slavoj Žižek John Milbank Boris Gunjević Simon Oliver David Bentley Hart Editorial Team Adrian Pabst Stanley Hauerwas Editor: Catherine Pickstock Johannes Hoff Dritëro Demjaha Aaron Riches Austen Ivereigh Tracey Rowland Fergus Kerr, OP Managing Editor & Layout: Neil Turnbull Peter J. Leithart Eric Austin Lee Joost van Loon Advisory Board James Macmillan Reviews Editor: Talal Asad Mgsr. Javier Martínez Brendan Sammon William Bain Alison Milbank John Behr Michael S Northcott John R. Betz Nicholas Rengger Radical Orthodoxy: A Journal of Theology, Philosophy and Politics (ISSN: 2050-392X) is an internationally peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the exploration of academic and policy debates that interface between theology, philosophy and the social sciences. The editorial policy of the journal is radically non-partisan and the journal welcomes submissions from scholars and intellectuals with interesting and relevant things to say about both the nature and trajectory of the times in which we live. The journal intends to publish papers on all branches of philosophy, theology aesthetics (including literary, art and music criticism) as well as pieces on ethical, political, social, economic and cultural theory. The journal will be published four times a year; each volume comprising of standard, special, review and current affairs issues.
  • Revisiting the Franciscan Doctrine of Christ

    Revisiting the Franciscan Doctrine of Christ

    Theological Studies 64 (2003) REVISITING THE FRANCISCAN DOCTRINE OF CHRIST ILIA DELIO, O.S.F. [Franciscan theologians posit an integral relation between Incarna- tion and Creation whereby the Incarnation is grounded in the Trin- ity of love. The primacy of Christ as the fundamental reason for the Incarnation underscores a theocentric understanding of Incarnation that widens the meaning of salvation and places it in a cosmic con- tent. The author explores the primacy of Christ both in its historical context and with a contemporary view toward ecology, world reli- gions, and extraterrestrial life, emphasizing the fullness of the mys- tery of Christ.] ARL RAHNER, in his remarkable essay “Christology within an Evolu- K tionary View of the World,” noted that the Scotistic doctrine of Christ has never been objected to by the Church’s magisterium,1 although one might add, it has never been embraced by the Church either. Accord- ing to this doctrine, the basic motive for the Incarnation was, in Rahner’s words, “not the blotting-out of sin but was already the goal of divine freedom even apart from any divine fore-knowledge of freely incurred guilt.”2 Although the doctrine came to full fruition in the writings of the late 13th-century philosopher/theologian John Duns Scotus, the origins of the doctrine in the West can be traced back at least to the 12th century and to the writings of Rupert of Deutz. THE PRIMACY OF CHRIST TRADITION The reason for the Incarnation occupied the minds of medieval thinkers, especially with the rise of Anselm of Canterbury and his satisfaction theory.
  • A Philosophy of Christian Art

    A Philosophy of Christian Art

    A Philosophy of Christian Art Daniel Gustafsson PhD The University of York Department of Philosophy March 2014 Abstract This thesis offers an original and comprehensive philosophical approach to the understanding of Christian art. It draws on a range of sources, from analytic and theological aesthetics, philosophy and theology, to interpret and articulate a vision of the aims and prerogatives of Christian art. Works by William Blake, David Jones, and R. S. Thomas are among those receiving close attention; works which yield a picture of art and creative labour as deeply implicated in the central mysteries and practices of the Christian faith. In five chapters, the thesis addresses the nature and the implications of the Form, the Beauty, the Good, the Ontology, and the Love of Christian art. It is the aim of Christian art to manifest God under the particular forms and beauty of the artwork. These forms are realised and discerned in the context of a Christian life. The artwork’s beauty invites a response of delight, gratitude, and the reorientation of our desires and dispositions towards the infinite beauty of God. As a sacramental object, the Christian artwork is positioned in a Christian ontological narrative, in which we humans are entrusted with transformative stewardship of the world. Outside this conceptual and ontological context, the work will not be experienced as what it is. Ultimately, the Christian artwork begs to be perceived and engaged with – as indeed it is created – as an object of love. Thus the artwork finds its place within an understanding of Christian faith as the striving for a personal union with God.