What is the Purpose of the Incarnation?
9.West had a post recently discussing Christmas Hymns. In it he links over to Issues, etc., and a conversation around What Child is This. Along the way, the question arises as to the point of the Incarnation. As is typically the case with Issues, etc., everything has to be about the cross. Jesus' death is what everything focuses on, and should focus on. In this case, the resurrection is included, but so often the focus is on the crucifixion that I both wonder why the LCMS doesn't put Good Friday ahead of Easter Sunday as to relative importance, and also what they think the purpose of the resurrection was? I'll leave that for another day.
In this case, the incarnation serves only as a means of getting the second person of the Trinity to die. I'm not denying that this is a reason, perhaps even one of the most significant reasons, but to focus on it exclusively is to miss a key element of Christianity. Christ assumes our nature in order to heal it. Hence the significant focus in the Gospels on healing in Christ's ministry. It is a flaw in Augustine, and more significantly in the Reformers, that they focused so much on St. Paul's letters to the Romans and Galatians (and, of course, their interpretation of such), that they missed the point of the Gospels. It is significant that the Dispensationalist school of thought developed the notion that the Gospels were targeted toward the Jews, not the Gentiles, and it was [their interpretation of] Paul's teaching that is binding upon Christians.
To quote St. John Chrysostom:
For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit, that He may save me. - Homily on Christmas Morning
The point of Christ's assuming human nature wasn't merely to die, but rather to transform that nature. Death was the avenue for conquering death ("Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death), but the incarnation was the avenue for transforming human nature. To quote C.S. Lewis, "The Incarnation worked 'not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by the taking of the manhood into God.'... Humanity, still remaining itself, is not merely counted as, but veritably drawn into, Deity." - The Weight of Glory.
In a 2005 lecture presented at C.S. Lewis Summer institute in Oxford, College English teacher Chris Jensen had the following to say:
As Vladimir Lossky has observed, a treatise of St. Anselm of Canterbury called Cur Deus Homo (completed in Italy in 1098 AD) deeply colored popular Western notions f salvation by presenting the idea of redemption in isolation from the rest of Christ's life and work. By so doing, the main focus of salvation became the cross and passion, where Christ is seen to have effected a change in the Father's attitude toward fallen men. Oddly, this forensic model suggests that an angry God needs to be cured rather than the sinful or mortal human beings. Salvation as deification, in contrast, accents human healing and transformation, looking to the Cross but additionally to the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
As Mr. Jensen furthers state, the implications are significant, making Christianity about the change of the man, not just the acceptance of an idea. I find that Pastor Wilkens limited world fails to live up to the glorious message of the full Gospel.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Orthodox Therapy for Homosexuality
Fascinating first person story of a transvestite healed by a modern day "fool for Christ".
"I was a transvestite for almost ten years. I believed at the time that happiness could be found in the ephemeral pleasure that bodily contact can arouse. I dressed provocatively; I used to be furious with people. I confronted life as though it were a vessel for pleasures, which I had to make sure I filled, on a daily basis. I experienced the mire of Hell, more than a human mind could ever imagine. That is why I used to regularly change my place of residence, since society had rightly perceived me as an outcast. And that was essentially what I was. I believed that quarrels, insults and disappointments were the best kind of defence, in my literally vehement obsession to pursue something that deviated from what was socially correct - from the ideals and the values of the Gospel. At the time, I had looked upon my illness as a human right, and was under the illusion that it was an outright normal thing - a thing that nowadays, even top-level leaders tend to advertise as a mere supposed "otherness"."
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Gee, Can We Be Rational for a Minute?
The headline, splashed across Fox News this morning was that the first species has gone extinct purely due to (duh duh duhhhhhhh).... Global Warming!
Now, this is a cute little critter, and it would certainly be a shame if it went extinct, but there are so many holes in this story, that Fox should have been ashamed to carry it (especially in the truncated form), and the Courier-Mail could have done a better job highlighting the issues in order to make this fair and balanced.
The first thing, of course, is that we don't actually know if the possum is gone. Yes, it hasn't been sighted in the last 3 years, but that only accounts for 20 hours of looking. Normally they would have expected to have seen about 27 given the reported sighting rate. This certainly warrants some concern, but its not like people have been living up in the mountains for three years and haven't seen any, its just a handful of expeditions.
Next we learn that this species, for whatever reason, is unable to maintain its body temperature above 30 degrees. That probably explains its limited range, and argues that the animal may have inadvertently evolved toward a dead end. Species do that. Since global temperatures have not always been static (a fact which seems to elude most of the media), then inability to adapt to the rising and falling global temperatures would be an evolutionary disadvantage. If this species has been killed off from the purported warming of the last few years then why didn't it get killed off during the medieval warm period (before you Google the term, be aware of the infamous hockey stick problems)? I suspect that there are two possible reasons. One is that this extreme sensitivity to temperature is a recent development, likely due to inbreeding of a small population. The other is that they moved further up into the mountains where it was cooler - which may be what happened today.
Finally, of course, there is the unstated backdrop that all of this is caused by mankind. If, perhaps, that is not the case, then this story while sad, wouldn't really have hit the news. After all, what could we possibly do about this?
Why didn't any of these questions get posed in the article?