St. Athanasius the Great: On the Incarnation (edition 1987)

Athanasius wrote the work to explain the incarnation to one Macarius, who was possibly a new convert. In so doing, he gave a summary of orthodox Christian belief as he understood it, and argued for its veracity. I confess I wasn't persuaded by all of his arguments: it was not that I disagreed with his theology, but rather that his arguments for why that theology should be accepted occasionally seemed to boil down to 'you should believe this because it's obviously true' - when often the truth isn't obvious at all. There is, however, an awful lot here to ponder, and to meditate upon. The early sections in particular contain some wonderful passages on the theology of the incarnation. I shall need to read it a couple more times to appreciate it properly, I think.

The historical context is interesting: writing at the time when Christianity was newly religio licita and was spreading rapidly, and with the recent personal memory of Christian martyrs unafraid to die rather than deny their faith, he sees all this as irrefutable evidence of the truth of Christianity. His arguments here, while not without a kernel of truth, are less than convincing to the modern (especially Western) reader, but they must have seemed far more convincing in his own day.

I was a little apprehensive about the section 'Refutation of the Jews', fearing an unpleasant tirade; in that, I did Athanasius a disservice. The section essentially amounts to Athanasius expressing his bafflement that so many of his Jewish contemporaries remain unconvinced that Jesus is the fulfilment of the prophecies within their own Scriptures. He systematically addresses the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures that are applied by Christianity to Jesus, metaphorically wringing his hands and saying 'it's obvious, why can't you see it?', seemingly oblivious to the fact that people are capable of drawing very different conclusions from the same data, and that some people have considered the evidence and just don't agree with him. (However, if any Christian wonders whether they really need to pay that much attention to the Old Testament - here they will find a resounding 'yes'.) His 'Refutation of the Gentiles' is similar: his plea for the Greeks to abandon paganism and philosophy and turn to Jesus is deeply earnest but shallow in argument.

The edition I have also contains a short but superb introduction by CS Lewis, which is worth reading by itself. It discusses why reading works such as this has merit for the ordinary Christian, as opposed to the professional theologian whose preserve such works are usually considered. It also discusses why reading 'old books' as well as new books is a useful exercise: "Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct that characteristic mistakes of our own period. ... People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. ... Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction." (pp. 4-5) A tad over-optimistic, perhaps, but an excellent incentive to read the book. ( )

Is it possible to review this? This is one for the coat pocket- to be read again and again and again. Essential Christianity here. Awesome (and I rarely use that word).

CS Lewis' introduction is a classic in its own right. ( )

Read C S Lewis introduction first.

http://quettandil.blogspot.com/2009/06/incarnation-of-word-of-god.html ( )

Glorious!