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The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Gregory charges Eunomius (10.2) with believing he can climb past the word to a direct encounter with the Ungenerate Father. As Gregory sees it, Eunomius is saying that “the human mind, scrutinizing the knowledge of real existence, and lifting itself above the sensible and intelligible creation, will leave God the Word, Who was in the beginning, below itself, just as it has left below it all other things, and itself comes to be in Him in Whom God the Word was not, treading, by mental activity, regions which lie beyond the life of the Son, there searching for eternal life, where the Only-Begotten God is not.”
Powerful stuff. In response, Gregory points to the Johannine claim that the Word is eternal life, and that life is in Him. Why then seek eternal life by leaping over the word. To that we may add: As Gregory shows, Arianism dissolved into mysticism, as the Arian climbs past the eternal Expression of the Father to gain access to the now-wordless Father. Arianism is also a kind of gnosticism, not only because it’s claiming an extra-human degree of knowledge but also because it is leaving time and matter behind. In leaping over the Son to get to the Father, Arians inevitably also leap over redemptive history, where the Word is made flesh.
Gregory’s got it right: We need nor should we want anything beyond the Word, beyond the incarnate Word in whom we have seen the indwelling Father, beyond the words that the Word speaks and inspires to be write, beyond the visible words by which He comes near to us. There are no side or back doors to the Father, for Jesus and Jesus alone is the door.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 3:17 pm
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