How do we experience the love of God? I think a better question is to ask how we can become aware of the unceasing and unfailing love of God which is always being poured out upon us. It is not that God does not love us and so we do not experience his love rather […]
How do we become Orthodox? How do we become more Orthodox? It might seem that the answer is concerned only with external things such as a familiarity with the forms of worship and prayer used by Orthodox Christians, and a knowledge of the particular doctrines which the Orthodox Churches teach. But in fact, Orthodoxy insists […]
This a draft of the first half of a small book I am working on, once more for visitors, enquirers, youth, and non-Christians. What is the Coptic Orthodox Church? The Coptic Orthodox Church is the ancient Christian Church of Egypt. It is one part of the worldwide Orthodox Church, established by the Apostles in the […]
On the Incarnation – Chapter 4 Text 1. You are wondering, perhaps, for what possible reason, having proposed to speak about the Incarnation of the Word, we are presently considering the origin of mankind. But this, too, properly belongs to the aim of our treatise. 2. For when we speak about the appearance of the […]
On the Incarnation – Chapter 3 Text 1. This is the way they vainly speculate. But the godly teaching and the faith which is according to Christ shows that their foolish language is godlessness. For our teaching knows that the universe did not come about spontaneously, because there is intelligent planning present in it; nor […]
St Athanasius – On the Incarnation – Chapter 2 Text 1. Many people have taken different views about the making of the universe and the creation of all things, and each man has laid down the law just as he pleased. Some say that all things have come into being by themselves, and only through […]
Over the next two months I intend to post a chapter each day, as far as is possible, from the important work by St Athanasius the Apostolic, the 20th Pope of Alexandria – On The Incarnation. This relatively short, but foundational text, describes with authority the Orthodox understanding of salvation in the incarnation of the […]
On the Incarnation – Chapter 11 Text 1. When God the Almighty One was making mankind through His own Word, He saw that they, owing to the limitation of their nature, could not of themselves have any knowledge of their Creator, the Incorporeal and Uncreated One. He took pity on them, and did not leave […]
The Encomium of St Severus upon the Archangel Michael contains some interesting material which is well worth study. An encomium, in this context, is essentially a form of homily which praises a particular saint or angelic being. In this case St Severus is concerned with the Archangel Michael, and his encomium was preached on the […]
On the Incarnation – Chapter 10 Text Now in truth this great work was peculiarly suited to God’s goodness. 1. For a king, having built a house or a city, if he finds it attacked by bandits because of the carelessness of those who live in it, does not neglect it and ignore the situation, […]