Judo Chop!

(This was originally posted by former contributor Zakk, and may be taken down at his request)

 

Could God save us from Annihilation without the Incarnation?

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.

Aquinas Conflating Person and Essence in God, Redux

This post was not actually written by MG, but by a former contributor named Zakk. If he requests that the post be removed, it will be removed.

 

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

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.

Metropolitan Jonah On the Future of Orthodoxy in America

His grace, Met. Jonah laid some much needed smack down on the subject of Orthodox Unity in America and how we should proceed forward with that task.  This is a VERY important Homily!