Origen on God as the great farmer

-
"By a new reformation, then, God always wants to make good that which is wrong. Even though everything had been arranged by Him at the creation of the universe to be very beautiful and very steadfast, yet nevertheless He has had to apply some medical treatment to people sick with sin and to all the world as it were defiled by it. In fact, nothing has been or will be neglected by God, who at each season makes what He should be making in a world of alteration and change. And just as at different seasons of the year a farmer does different agricultural jobs upon the earth and its crops, so God cares for whole ages as if they were years, so to speak. In each one of them He does what is in itself reasonable for the universe, which is most clearly understood and accomplished by God alone since the truth is know to Him." (Con. Cel. IV,69)

Populære opslag fra denne blog

Nein!(?) A negative "point of contact" in the Epistle to Diognetus?

-
Billede
Still working on The Epistle to Diognetus , which keeps making associations to modern theology pop up. This time it's Karl Barth's debate with Emil Brunner. Consider the epistle's claim that, “[...]being convicted in the past time by our own deeds as unworthy of life, we might now be made deserving by the goodness of God, and having made clear our inability to enter into the kingdom of God of ourselves, might be enabled by the ability of God.” (9.1, Lightfoot) and “Having then in the former time demonstrated the inability of our nature to obtain life, and having now revealed a Saviour able to save even creatures which have no ability, He willed that for both reasons we should believe in His goodness[...]” (9.6, Lightfoot) If by 'dialectical theology' we mean that God's 'yes' and 'no' are inseparable (Tillich), this is certainly a specimen of such. The two elements, negative and positive, come together in faith (in an Aufhebung! ), or? A
Read more »