Both/And...Ouch My Head Hurts!

Notes for Season 5, Episode 3 – Both/And… Blowing Your Mind

Father Anthony, Doug, Perkins decided Jonathan did not have enough of the good ole’ Orthodox way (Ukrainian Orthodox to be specific) and joins us again as a guest host for this episode. They decided to take it slow and easy and to talk about the nature of the incarnation, i.e. how Jesus can be understood as both God and human. First off, we all need to remember that Doug and Jonathan are talking about a mystery of God and will never be able to fully explain or understand what it is that they are talking about. But that is not new.

They share views from two different schools of thoughts:

Alexandrian School

·      Focuses on the saving nature (soteriological character) of Christ through the incarnation

o   In order to be salvific the human is made divine and thus must be united with the divine nature of God

·      God becomes human so that humans might become (like) God

·      Cyril of Alexandria is one of the poster kids of this school of thought

·      Through this approach the ethical life is lifted up

Antiochine School

·      Concerned with the moral life

·      The Word (God) assumes a specific human being

·      Redemption is based on a new obedience of humanity

o   To get this there must be a unity of human and divine

·      Hypostatic union is one way of explaining/speaking about that union

·      Athanasius is one of the poster kids of this school of thought

With both we are called to consider the miracle of the incarnation and the implication that it has for us. I.e. through uniting with God we are brought into a new life/are lead to live an ethical life. Neither school is right and both are slightly confusing. If you learned Greek then it would only be slightly less confusing.

Here is the altar that Jonathan had to keep nervously avoiding eye-contact with throughout the whole conversation:

Scripture:

Acts 7:55-60 – the death of Stephen

Remember the martyrs of your faith tradition, the witness they gave to the person of Christ and his ministry. Be a martyr, but don’t look to die in doing it… just be a good witness.

Into:

Jonathan just read an interesting book about the Boston Molasses Flood in 1919 – Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo

Anthony is reading and working on the ideas of Jonathan Haidt’s work The Righteous Mind

Both need to get their noses out of the books and go outside and play. Nerds!

Thanks again for listening and don’t forget to leave a comment on iTunes or send a note to 12ecast@gmail.com