05 Apr 2017
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
From time to time, the Protestant Reformers, especially the Calvinists, found it necessary to clearly distinguish the ways in which the two natures of Christ operate in His work of redemption, even explaining which aspects of the work were properly carried out by Christ's divine nature, which were carried...
Read more → 30 Jan 2017
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Augustine was not a legal positivist, which is to say, he knew that human laws and customs could not be ultimate. If they are out of accord with a higher law (viz. natural law or divine law), they are not truly binding because not truly just. The opposite of this position, of course, is the position...
Read more → 29 Dec 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
On to the next verse of the Advent/Christmas hymn Intende, qui regis Israel. Text and Translation Veni, redemptor gentium, ostende partum virginis, miretur omne saeculum, talis decet partus Deo. Come, redeemer of the nations, show forth the virgin's parturition; let all the world stand in awe: such...
Read more → 15 Dec 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Two days ago, I made some introductory remarks about the famous hymn of Ambrose known to many speakers of English as "Savior of the Nations, Come," and focused specifically on its authenticity and ancient witness. Today we will look at the first stanza of the hymn, which is omitted from our modern version. This,...
Read more → 13 Dec 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
Over the past few years I've posted Latin Advent and Christmas hymns with English translation and some comments. This year we're going to look at Ambrose's hymn Intende, qui regis Israel. Parts of this hymn are familiar in English as "Savior of the Nations, Come," which my family has recently been...
Read more → 13 Oct 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
A couple of months ago there was a lot of discussion as to whether the Son, or Word, as such stands in a relation of obedience to the Father. The suggestion was also floated a couple of times that there was a wealth of patristic support for such an idea. The following passage from Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration...
Read more → 11 Oct 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
I've noted before that the so called extra calvinisticum is really the extra patristicum, that is, that it's an idea found already in the Christology of the Fathers. One place we see this is in Athanasius, On the Incarnation 17: For [the Word] was not, as might be imagined, circumscribed in the body,...
Read more → 20 Sep 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
So Athanasius, anyway, from the end of the first section of On the Incarnation of the Word: And it is fitting that we who speak about this [i.e., salvation] first speak about the creation of all things, and about God, its [i.e., creation's] demiurge, in order that someone may contemplate that its [i.e.,...
Read more → 09 Sep 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson
It almost goes without saying that the state of play in the study of the fourth century Arian controversy has undergone a sea change over the course of the last century. This might lead one to conclude that the older writers are no longer worth reading. But that conclusion would be a mistake. To draw...
Read more → 10 Aug 2016
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 21, again. Though the term "person" in Trinitarian theology carries a lot of baggage with it now, and often imports misleading ideas into reflection on the Godhead (e.g. "individual center of self-consciousness," vel sim.), such ideas have little to do with the term as it was originally...
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