Home :: Books :: Religion & Spirituality  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality

Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
St. Athanasius the Great: On the Incarnation

St. Athanasius the Great: On the Incarnation

List Price: $3.95
Your Price: $3.95
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Restores a lost doctrine!
Review: "For He was made man that we might be made God."
Chapter 54

I found this little treatise referenced in "The Orthodox Church" by Timothy Ware, and found the quote so startling that I decided to buy the treatise. But no luck in searching in local bookstores, so I had to buy sight unseen on Amazon.com, which is not as risky as you might think, since they have a great returns policy, although I have never had to use it.

This book is really a stapled pamphlet of 92 pages, and has a light gray cover. It seems to be something like a Gideon's Bible, where you get just the Bible with no study helps or background materials. It is published by "Eastern Orthodox Books" in Willits, CA (By Ft Bragg and Ukiah in North CA), so it seems to be a quick religious publication designed for the faithful or as a devotional book as opposed to a scholarly work for the musty theologian. Or the eager truth seeker.

Consequently, there are no introductory essays or biographical notes, which would be helpful for the greenhorn like myself. C. S. Lewis wrote a somewhat helpful introductory essay to this treatise that can be found in the book "God in the Dock," called "On the Reading of Old Books." However, a real brass-knuckles overview such as you would find in a Penguin, Oxford, or Cambridge Classics is absent.

The translation (no translator is mentioned) is a trifle thick and follows the King James-Authorized style of verbiage. My denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used the KJV, and, since I am such a fan of Shakespeare and Milton, this style of English did not faze me. However, having read J. B. Phillips New Testament and Seamus Heaney's "Beowulf," I am quite open to better translations of the text.

There are also no notes on scriptures cited. We can guess at the biblical references, but the references to Apocryphal books, or the pseudipigraphical "Pastor of Hermas" may be confusing to some. The division into chapters and verses is always, always, always helpful, since it makes reading easier, and it facilitates referencing and cross-referencing ideas.

I found the title "On the Incarnation" not misleading, but an understatement. This treatise covers not only the incarnation, but also the Resurrection, and has some sections with apologetics. I was surprised to see similar arguments that I have found in "The Case for Christ." Nihil Novi Sub Sola!

This treatise has influenced C. S. Lewis, especially his book "Mere Christianity," and his speech "Weight of Glory." We have this statement from the beginning that man was created in God's image (Genesis 1:26), as opposed to plant and animal life, and later on in the Bible it says that we are gods (Psalms 82:6) and that we have been made a little lower than Eloheim (Psalms 8:5-most translations render this as angels, but this is a mistranslation!) John Taylor, third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that we are "a spark of Deity struck from the fire of his eternal blaze." (Gospel Kingdom, 1) There is something here that modern, contemporary Christianity has lost, or at best ignored. A doctrine not taught is a doctrine denied. I am glad to have read this treatise-it gives me a reason to look up and see something else besides smog.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Important, neglected doctrine from St. Athanasius
Review: Athanasius plays such a prominent role in the church's history, being the prime defender when the church was slidiing into Arianism.

This elegant and sophisticated presentation of God coming in the flesh will provoke the profoundest of meditation on this miracle of miracles. The reason and subsequent blessings are put forward with Scripture backing up each step of the way.

Monumental work, arguing from Creation to Re-creation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Feeds the mind and the brain
Review: St. Athanasius brilliantly defines the exact effects of the incarnation of the Word as Christ. His work satisfies the needs of those who are intellectual and desire theology, but also provides down-to-earth inspiration for those to whom theology does not appeal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Feeds the mind and the brain
Review: St. Athanasius brilliantly defines the exact effects of the incarnation of the Word as Christ. His work satisfies the needs of those who are intellectual and desire theology, but also provides down-to-earth inspiration for those to whom theology does not appeal.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Book is Wonderful, but It's Packaging isn't
Review: The historical worth of this work goes without saying, but this edition has been poorly published as a pamphlet with only stapled binding. This work deserves more--at least an intelligent, scholarly introduction should accompany it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Book is Wonderful, but It's Packaging isn't
Review: The historical worth of this work goes without saying, but this edition has been poorly published as a pamphlet with only stapled binding. This work deserves more--at least an intelligent, scholarly introduction should accompany it.


<< 1 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates