A Devotional Commentary

12 06 2010

From St. John of Damascus’ Fountain of Knowledge, works on philosophy, first paragraph of Chapter 67:

Philosophy is knowledge of things which are in so far as they are; that is to say, a knowledge of their nature. Philosophy is a knowledge of divine and human things. Philosophy is a study of death, both that which is deliberate and that which is natural. Philosophy is a becoming like God, in so far as this is possible for man. Now, it is in justice, sanctity, and goodness that we become like God. And justice is that which is distributive of equity; it is not wrongdoing and not being wrong, not prejudicing a person, but rendering to each his due in according with his works. Sanctity, on the other hand, is that which is over and above justice; that is to say, it is the good, the patience of the one wronged, the forgiving of them that do wrong, and, more than that, the doing of good to them. Philosophy is the art of arts and the science of sciences, for, since through philosophy every art is discovered, it is the principle underlying every art. Philosophy is love of wisdom. But, the true wisdom is God. Therefore, the love of God – this is the true philosophy.

John covers quite a bit in this passage, but he indicates that part of theosis (what he says is “Becoming like God,” or what Protestants say, “More like Christ”) is the study of philosophy. How does philosophy aid in us becoming like God? Philosophy teaches us the reality of the world. It tells us where we came from and how we know what we know. From there, we deduce how we should act. Philosophy teaches us that we should be just in our actions and go even further and be sanctified in how we act toward others, to go beyond justice.

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Categories : Applied Theology, Devotional, Philosophy, Theology

A Thinking Christian

10 06 2010

In reading through St. John of Damascus’ trilogy (Fountain of Knowledge, Heresies, and An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith) I am struck by a pattern that I believe Christians have missed.

The first book, Fountain of Knowledge, deals with philosophy and logic. The entire book (about 60 pages) explains to readers in an lucid fashion how to think properly. He doesn’t tell the reader what to think, but instead how to think.

His next book, Heresies, deals with the heresies up to that point. What is interesting is with most he doesn’t say why they are wrong or even that they are wrong. Merely, he points out what each heresy taught and moves onto the next one.

He finally comes to An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, the biggest book in the trilogy. It is here that he lays out, in order, what we should know about God, what we should know about creation and God’s interaction with creation, what Christ accomplished on the cross, and how all of the above applies to Christians. Essentially, if Christianity had a “Buyer’s Guide” that explained Christianity (including the Bible) in detail, this book would be that guide.

What is interesting is the structure of his trilogy seems to imply that in order for a Christian to come to a deeper understanding of his faith, he must first know how to think and then know what is false. This is not to say that before one comes to Christ one must know logic and what heresies are out there, but instead before one begins to truly have a deep relationship with Christ, one must think properly.

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Categories : Applied Theology, Theology

Applied Theology – The Image of God

15 02 2009

 

APPLIED THEOLOGY SERIES

Introduction | The Incarnation | The Image of God | The omniscience/omnipotence of God 

 

What is it?

The image of God is a doctrine that isn’t exactly clear-cut, mainly because it’s never fully described in Scripture. Most theologians, however, define the Imago Dei (the Latin term for “image of God”) as the human capability to reason, have a heightened sense of emotions, understand morality, desire to create, and enjoy aesthetics. For instance, we don’t see dogs visiting art galleries in an attempt to interpret the artistic endeavors of the artist. Likewise, we don’t see a council of animals in Africa putting a lion on trial for killing a gazelle. Whereas all animals rely on nature in order to survive, humans seek to control nature and shape nature to serve humans. This is done because we are rational beings – most orthodox theologians believe this comes from being made in God’s image.

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Applied Theology – The Incarnation

13 02 2009

APPLIED THEOLOGY SERIES

Introduction | The Incarnation | The Image of God | The omniscience/omnipotence of God 

What is it?

One of the central aspects of Christian theology is the belief in the Incarnation – that Christ came down and became human, taking on a human nature, but keeping His divine nature. It is also generally accepted that the incarnation is a mystery, that is, there really is no comprehensive or even adequate understanding of how the incarnation works. The best work dealing with this subject is Athanasius’ On The Incarnation, but even this work only shows how the incarnation works logically – it doesn’t explain how it actually works.

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Categories : Applied Theology

Applied Theology

12 02 2009

APPLIED THEOLOGY SERIES

Introduction | The Incarnation | The Image of God | The omniscience/omnipotence of God 

I’m going to start a series (I’ll attempt to have the first post up tonight) on how to apply theology. Often times we spend great lengths discussing what a theology means, but I think we should also discuss the application of each theological point. 

All true theology has a practical application. This is not to say that theology is true only if it has a practical application, but that because it is true it can be applied. This involves all forms of theology, including ecclesiology, soteriology, theology proper (theology about the nature of God), Christology, and so on. 

The purpose of this series is two-fold:

1) To show the importance of theology – often times people want us to live the right way and live as Christians and leave theology to the Cemeteries seminaries. I want to show that this view is completely wrong – one cannot live a good life until one has proper theology. This doesn’t mean a person has to have a formal education on philosophy, but simply understands that certain things about Christianity are true and certain things are false. If we abandon theology, or treat it as unimportant, it will eventually affect our actions. 

2) To show that theology is more than reading a book – in Christian circles, when people think theology they think “study.” They think it’s all about reading a book and getting to know God better. While this is partially true, there is also an application to theology. I want people who are book smart to learn that theology expands beyond the intellect (it is not anti-intellect and it uses the intellect, but theology also requires using all other aspects of humanness) and requires that we act on theology as well. 

I don’t know how long this series will be, but I expect it to be sporadic as I want to write about other stuff as well.


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Categories : Applied Theology, Church Related, Theology