Status
Available
Call number
Publication
St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (1982), Edition: New ed., rev., with a letter of St. Athanasius "On the interpretation of the Psalms" added as an appendix, 120 pages
Description
Nothing except the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a greater miracle or wonder in human history. God becoming flesh in human history is the greatest marvel. Jesus of Nazareth was foretold in the Torah and the Prophets centuries before his appearance and he was proved to be real and not a pretender due to his death and Resurrection. The early church grappled with all of this intellectually. Many heresies were confronted, answered, and dismissed. Throughout the 2000 plus years of church history, many of the early church heresies have reappeared over and over again. Whether you are Catholic or Protestant the answers are from the Word of God.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Eat_Read_Knit
Athanasius wrote the work to explain the incarnation to one Macarius, who was possibly a new convert. In so doing, he gave a summary of orthodox Christian belief as he understood it, and argued for its veracity. I confess I wasn't persuaded by all of his arguments: in general, it was not that I
The historical context is interesting: writing at the time when Christianity was newly religio licita and was spreading rapidly, and with the recent personal memory of Christian martyrs unafraid to die rather than deny their faith, he sees all this as irrefutable evidence of the truth of Christianity. His arguments here, while not without a kernel of truth, are less than convincing to the modern (especially Western) reader, but they must have seemed far more convincing in his own day.
I was a little apprehensive about the section 'Refutation of the Jews', fearing an unpleasant tirade; in that, I did Athanasius a disservice. The section essentially amounts to Athanasius expressing his bafflement that so many of his Jewish contemporaries remain unconvinced that Jesus is the fulfilment of the prophecies within their own Scriptures. He systematically addresses the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures that are applied by Christianity to Jesus, metaphorically wringing his hands and saying 'it's obvious, why can't you see it?', seemingly oblivious to the fact that people are capable of drawing very different conclusions from the same data, and that some people have considered the evidence and just don't agree with him. His 'Refutation of the Gentiles' is similar: his plea for the Greeks to abandon paganism and philosophy and turn to Jesus is deeply earnest but shallow in argument.
The edition I have also contains a short but superb introduction by CS Lewis, which is worth reading by itself. It discusses why reading works such as this has merit for the ordinary Christian, as opposed to the professional theologian whose preserve such works are usually considered. It also discusses why reading 'old books' as well as new books is a useful exercise: "Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct that characteristic mistakes of our own period. ... People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. ... Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction." (pp. 4-5) A tad over-optimistic, perhaps, but an excellent incentive to read the book.
Show More
disagreed with his theology, but rather that his arguments for why that theology should be accepted occasionally seemed to boil down to 'you should believe this because it's obviously true' - when often the truth isn't obvious at all. There is, however, an awful lot here to ponder, and to meditate upon. The early sections in particular contain some wonderful passages on the theology of the incarnation. I shall need to read it a couple more times to appreciate it properly, I think. The historical context is interesting: writing at the time when Christianity was newly religio licita and was spreading rapidly, and with the recent personal memory of Christian martyrs unafraid to die rather than deny their faith, he sees all this as irrefutable evidence of the truth of Christianity. His arguments here, while not without a kernel of truth, are less than convincing to the modern (especially Western) reader, but they must have seemed far more convincing in his own day.
I was a little apprehensive about the section 'Refutation of the Jews', fearing an unpleasant tirade; in that, I did Athanasius a disservice. The section essentially amounts to Athanasius expressing his bafflement that so many of his Jewish contemporaries remain unconvinced that Jesus is the fulfilment of the prophecies within their own Scriptures. He systematically addresses the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures that are applied by Christianity to Jesus, metaphorically wringing his hands and saying 'it's obvious, why can't you see it?', seemingly oblivious to the fact that people are capable of drawing very different conclusions from the same data, and that some people have considered the evidence and just don't agree with him. His 'Refutation of the Gentiles' is similar: his plea for the Greeks to abandon paganism and philosophy and turn to Jesus is deeply earnest but shallow in argument.
The edition I have also contains a short but superb introduction by CS Lewis, which is worth reading by itself. It discusses why reading works such as this has merit for the ordinary Christian, as opposed to the professional theologian whose preserve such works are usually considered. It also discusses why reading 'old books' as well as new books is a useful exercise: "Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct that characteristic mistakes of our own period. ... People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. ... Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction." (pp. 4-5) A tad over-optimistic, perhaps, but an excellent incentive to read the book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
Athanasius is the Father of Orthodoxy in many ways, and this is his magnum opus. For students of historical theology, this is a must. For students of Orthodox Christianity, this is important. I am not sure I would recommend to the run of the mill church goer, partially because the issues Athanasius
Show More
raises may seem remote to the issues facing today's church. In fact, this book MADE today's church, and that fact that we take so much of what he says for granted shows how deeply he influenced us. Show Less
LibraryThing member jason.rathburn
A great, short, and perfectly concise account of the narration and what it means to all.
LibraryThing member chriszodrow
Is it possible to review this? This is one for the coat pocket- to be read again and again and again. Essential Christianity here. Awesome (and I rarely use that word).
CS Lewis' introduction is a classic in its own right.
CS Lewis' introduction is a classic in its own right.
LibraryThing member matthewgray
This is a classic. the review of this by C.S. Lewis, his introduction to it which can be found online, sums it up well. This book helps so much in understanding and realigning ourselves with the faith of the early church fathers in its purity, rather than all the baggage and mystery that often
Show More
surrounds it from tradition. This is 'the faith once delivered to the saints' - challenging liberals, high churchmen and evangelicals alike. Show Less
LibraryThing member bicyclewriter
This is a hard one for me to "rank". The writing is many hundreds of years old, so it takes a while to get into the flow. The whole book was really just justification for a particular theological perspective, rather than any real "meat". If what a reader wants is a hard-core apologist defense of
Show More
the political/theological view that eventually held sway back in the 4th and 5th centuries regarding emerging Christianity, this is probably a good book to read. What made it particularly difficult was that many (or most) of the arguments that cited more ancient scripture were dramatic stretches of interpretation if not massive re-interpretation of what seems to be the earlier meaning. I love reading G-d books though, so it was worth trying. If you like them too, give it a try and see what you think. If nothing fun, the ancient style is interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member LeeBoiBoi
A classic explanation of the Incarnation as well as the Trinity. If more people read it, we'd have less people comparing the Trinity to a fidget spinner.
Language
Original publication date
bef 319
Other editions
Similar in this library
On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press) (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: Popular Patristics) by St. Gregory of Nazianzus
Three Treatises on the Divine Images (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series) by of Reading John
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality (Paperback)) (English and Ancient Greek Edition) by Pseudo Dionysius
The Book of Pastoral Rule: St. Gregory the Great (Popular Patristics Series) by St Gregory the Great
On The Human Condition: St Basil the Great (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press "Popular Patristics" Series) (ST. VLADIMIR'S SEMINARY PRESS ... SEMINARY PRESS "POPULAR PATRISTICS" SERIES) by Nonna Verna Harrison