ayres on augustine on the trinity

Over the past few years, Lewis Ayres and Michel Barnes have together offered a brilliant and very necessary re-reading of Augustine’s trinitarian thought, correcting misconceptions that have dominated trinitarian theology for the past couple of decades. My exciting news of the day is that Ayres Augustine and the Trinity is slated for publication in [...]

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impassibly he suffered

The final chapter of Paul Gavrilyuk’s fine book, The Suffering of the Impassible God, is an excellent discussion of Cyril of Alexandria’s controversy with Nestorius, explaining the polemical context and significance of Cyril’s claim that in the incarnation the Word suffered impassibly. It includes these lovely quotations from Cyril, highlighting with great beauty the [...]

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a really long book

One of the tedious comments often made against classical theism is that it is ‘Hellenistic’, rather than biblical. The accusation stems from the seminal work of Adolph von Harnack, and is all to common in contemporary theology. I’ve commented on this before, albeit in somewhat riper language than I would now use, quoting [...]

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unfathomable depths

One of the great joys of studying Scripture is that there is plenty of low hanging fruit: food for the youngest and simplest believer; yet, at the same time there are unfathomable depths to enjoy. Let Augustine (certainly brighter than you or me, and a great student of Scripture) spur you on to be [...]

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perfect freedom

The Word was made flesh in order to remake a world that was decreating because of sin. When Christ returns, he will complete the new creation inaugurated by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Therefore, one way to meditate on the glories of the incarnation is to meditate on the glories of that [...]

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perfect peace

The Word was made flesh in order to remake a world that was decreating because of sin. When Christ returns, he will complete the new creation inaugurated by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Therefore, one way to meditate on the glories of the incarnation is to meditate on the glories of that [...]

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God, our reward

The Word was made flesh in order to remake a world that was decreating because of sin. When Christ returns, he will complete the new creation inaugurated by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Therefore, one way to meditate on the glories of the incarnation is to meditate on the glories of that [...]

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sin demonstrates God’s goodness

It seems to me that the problem of evil is the problem faced by Christian theology. Not that the alternatives are any better, just that, precisely because sin is an act of madness, fundamentally irrational, the existence of evil in the world is not, ultimately susceptible to rational analysis. Nevertheless, this is an [...]

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the justice of eternal punishment

In The City of God, XXI.11, Augustine considers whether it’s just for the punishment of sins to last longer than the sins themselves. It’s still a live question, one I’ve been asked by a few unbelievers.
Augustine replies first by noting that this is just how punishment works:
[I]f scourging is a reasonable penalty for kissing [...]

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perfect begetting and the filioque

A friend drew my attention to this great quotation from Augustine, which demonstrates the correctness and necessity of the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed ([the Holy Spirit] proceeds from the Father and the Son).
We find that the Spirit proceeds from the Son also. But the Father gave Him this too, not as to [...]

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