III. God, Humanity, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 29
About This Presentation
Title:

III. God, Humanity,

Description:

Higher than any being, any divinity, any goodness! Guide of Christians in the wisdom of heaven! ... Lead us up beyond unknowing and light, up to the farthest, ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:65
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 30
Provided by: donaldmfa
Category:
Tags: iii | divinity | god | humanity

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: III. God, Humanity,


1
III. God, Humanity,
  • and the World
  • in Orthodoxy

2
III.A. Apophaticism

3
III.A. Apophaticism
  • Trinity!! Higher than any being, any divinity,
    any goodness!
  • Guide of Christians in the wisdom of heaven!
  • Lead us up beyond unknowing and light,
  • up to the farthest, highest peak of mystic
    scripture,
  • where the mysteries of Gods Word
  • lie simple, absolute, and unchangeable
  • in the brilliant darkness of a hidden silence.
  • Amid the deepest shadow
  • they pour overwhelming light
  • on what is most manifest.
  • Amid the wholly unsensed and unseen
  • they completely fill our sightless minds
  • with treasures beyond all beauty.

4
III.A. Apophaticism
  • Some nasty isms
  • Cataphaticism theology which proceeds by
    affirmation
  • Mysticism rejection of a knowledge-based
    approach to spirituality/theology
  • Apophaticism theology/spirituality which
    proceeds by negation

5
III.A. Apophaticism
  • Biblical roots of apophaticism
  • The darkness of Sinai (Ex. 1916-18)
  • The darkness of the cloud over the tent of
    meeting (Ex. 4034-38)
  • The blackness inside the Holy of Holies

6
III.A. Apophaticism
  • Schmemann on apophaticism (p. 32)
  • God of scholars vs. living God
  • Definitions vs. a sense of holiness
  • God as other vs. God as the end of our hunger
  • God as unknowable vs. God as the only one worth
    knowing

7
III.A. Apophaticism
  • Does apophaticism imply agnosticism?
  • Two key distinctions
  • 1) Rational vs. personal knowledge
  • 2) Essence vs. energies

8
III.B. The Trinity

9
III.B. The Trinity
  • Two Major Mistakes to Avoid
  • Sabellianism (a Western tendency) --
  • One God (Son-Father)
  • _______________________________________
  • Father/Judge Son/Servant Spirit/Helper
  • (OT period) (Christs life) (Church Age)

10
III.B. The Trinity
  • Two Major Mistakes to Avoid
  • Subordinationism (an Eastern Tendency)
  • God (Father)
  • ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
  • Son
  • Holy Spirit

11
III.B. The Trinity
  • Two ways of looking at the Trinity
  • West East
  • Father Father
  • (God)
  • God
  • Son Spirit Son Spirit

12
III.B. The Trinity
  • The filioque controversy
  • The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Holy Spirit
    proceeds from the Father.
  • The addition of the phrase and from the Son
    (filioque) in Spain during the 6th century.
  • The acceptance of the altered version in the
    West.
  • The rejection of the altered version in the East.

13
III.B. The Trinity
  • This is why the East has always opposed the
    formula of filioque which seems to impair the
    monarchy of the Father either one is forced to
    destroy the unity by acknowledging two principles
    of Godhead, or one must ground the unity
    primarily on the common nature, which thus
    overshadows the persons and transforms them into
    relations within the unity of the essence.
  • -- Vladimir Lossky

14
III.C. Creation,
  • Vocation, and Fall

15
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Two views of humanity at creation
  • In fellowship with God
  • With the capacity for fellowship and union with
    God

16
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Image and likeness (Gen. 126-27)
  • The image does not possess everything perfectly,
    as we have seen, but has a propensity towards
    perfection the defect is amended by the faculty
    of likeness. In the likeness refers to the
    tendency of the self-determining faculty to
    acquire perfection by painfully struggling in an
    endless course of progress. This means that man
    is not something perfected, but something which
    is formed with struggle.
  • -- Panagiotes Chrestou

17
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Humanitys vocation Theosis
  • Literally deification (see Ps. 826, 2 Pet.
    14)
  • Better transformation,
  • transfiguration,
  • union with God

18
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Theosis does not mean
  • A denial of Gods transcendence
  • That we become gods in essence
  • That we possess God
  • That we become equal with God in any way

19
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Biblical roots of theosis
  • Gods revelation to Moses on Sinai (Ex. 3429-35)
  • The transfiguration (Lk. 928-36)
  • Pauls vision (2 Cor. 122-4)

20
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Three aspects of theosis
  • Developing godly qualities (2 Pet. 15-9)
  • Participation in Gods immortality (2 Tim. 110,
    2 Pet. 14)
  • Communion with God (1 Jn. 48)

21
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • Theosis is cosmic, not individual
  • By uniting these diverse elements within
    himselfthus uniting the whole of creationand
    simultaneously surrendering himself to God in a
    complete abandonment of love, man would have
    expressed the willful self-offering of the whole
    of the creation unto the Creator. God, in his
    turn, would have given himself unto man, and thus
    effected the deification of the whole of his
    creation in and through his last creature (man).
    This is the potential, the divinely appointed
    function that was given to man.
  • -- Hieromonk Auxentios

22
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • The Fall
  • Not a drastic departure from a perfect state
  • Rather, the turning aside from a pathway

23
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • For the Greek Fathers, the fall of manand for
    that matter, sinis not to be understood as
    bringing about something new, but as revealing
    and actualizing the limitations and potential
    dangers inherent in creaturehood, if creation is
    left to itself.
  • -- John Zizioulas

24
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • The infinite distance between the created and
    uncreated, the natural separation of man from God
    which ought to have been overcome by deification,
    became an impassable abyss for man after he had
    willed himself into a new state, that of sin and
    death.
  • -- Vladimir Lossky

25
III.C. Creation, Vocation, Fall
  • East West
  • Creation Capacity for union State of fellowship
  • Calling Journey to God Foster fellowship
  • Fall Leaving a path, Drastic departure
  • a journey from a state
  • Salvation Elevation to union Restoration of
  • fellowship

26
Discussion
  • Apophaticism revisited
  • The Trinity
  • Creation and fall

27
Discussion
  • Apophaticism Revisited
  • 1) How much does our creaturely perspective
    distort our understanding of God?
  • 2) Is there a danger in partial knowledge?

28
Discussion
  • The Trinity
  • 1) Does the procession of the Holy Spirit really
    matter?
  • 2) Where should one locate the unity of the
    godhead?
  • 3) Does the West actually lose sight of the
    personal character of God?
  • 4) Does the West minimize the paradox of Gods
    identity and diversity?

29
Discussion
  • Creation and Fall
  • 1) What do we make of the image/ likeness
    distinction?
  • 2) Humanitys calling ascent or maintenance of
    a relationship?
  • 3) The effects of the fall
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com