Slow and steady - 18 March 2010 |
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These are some of the questions for week 19 of the Guided Reading Course. We’re looking this week at the second half of chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Thomas G. Weinandy’s outstanding Does God Change? The Word’s becoming in the incarnation (Still River: St Bede’s, 1985).
This stuff is hard. But don’t worry. Take it slowly – it’s not a race. And give thanks to God that men like Athanasius trod this path before us.
Chapter 1
1. The Trinitarian question having been addressed (see the first half of chapter 1), what question(s) now faced Arius and the Orthodox (p. 16)?
2. What additional assumption (besides those previously noted) lay behind the Arian doctrine of the incarnation? Why did this present a greater challenge to the Orthodox than those aspects of Arianism discussed previously? (p. 17)
3. What conclusion did the Arians draw from the human experiences of the incarnate Logos (pp. 17-18)?
4. What, according to Weinandy, is “at the heart of the Arian Christology” (p. 18)? What is this “an extreme form of” (p. 19)? Can you explain what this means?
5. Why does the Arian understanding of the union between the Logos and Christ’s human nature entail that “human predicates attributed to the Logos refer to his very nature as God” (p. 19)?
6. Explain Athanasius’ reply to the question, “Does not the very concept of ‘becoming’ imply that the Logos was in some way changed?” (pp. 20-21).
7. What, according to Weinandy, was Athanasius unable to do? Why (pp. 21-22)?
8. According to Kelly, what is “the central problem of [Athanasius’s] Christology” (p. 24)? What problems does this create for Athanasius (pp. 24-25)?
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Guided Reading Course, Minister's Blog