CONTRA FATUM

The Harrowing of Hell Notes based on a sermon in ‘Morgencaféen GRACE’ (a café for homeless immigrants in Copenhagen), 21/5-2013 . The words were written after the sermon was delivered, hence not representing the full contents, though giving a broad outline. “ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (Ps 139:7-12) Prayer: Heavenly Father, we pray that you will anoint us with your Spirit, that we will gain just a small spark of understanding of how deep and unfailing your love is. Yesterday we came back from Athens....

We are currently doing a seminar on the classical idea(s) of the atonement, among which is the 'ransom theory'. The following passages from the early Church illustrate the idea (this page will be updated as we find more examples). First some important passages from the New Testament: ”For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for.” (Mark 10:45) “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:25-28) "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) From The E...

"Custom is indeed in everything hard to resist. It possesses an enormous power of attracting and seducing the soul. In the cases where a man has got into a fixed state of sentiment, a certain imagination of the good is created in him by this habit; and nothing is so naturally vile but it may come to be thought both desirable and laudable, once it has got into the fashion." (De Vir. IX)

"if the presence of a good man, through the respect and reverence which he inspires, always improves him with whom he associates, with much more reason does not he who always holds uninterrupted converse with God by knowledge, life, and thanksgiving, grow at every step superior to himself in all respects—in conduct, in words, in disposition? Such an one is persuaded that God is ever beside him, and does not suppose that He is confined in certain limited places; so that under the idea that at times he is without Him, he may indulge in excesses night and day. Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded that God is altogether on every side present, we cultivate our fields, praising; we sail the sea, hymning; in all the rest of our conversation we conduct ourselves according to rule. The Gnostic, then, is very closely allied to God, being at once grave and cheerful in all things,—grave on account of the bent of his soul towards the Divinity, and cheerful on account of his con...

[...]we rightly do not sacrifice to God, who, needing nothing, supplies all men with all things; but we glorify Him who gave Himself in sacrifice for us, we also sacrificing ourselves; from that which needs nothing to that which needs nothing, and to that which is impassible from that which is impassible. For in our salvation alone God delights. (Str. 7.3)

"true dialectic is the science which analyses the objects of thought, and shows abstractly and by itself the individual substratum of existences, or the power of dividing things into genera, which descends to their most special properties, and presents each individual object to be contemplated simply such as it is. Wherefore it alone conducts to the true wisdom, which is the divine power which deals with the knowledge of entities as entities, which grasps what is perfect, and is freed from all passion; not without the Saviour, who withdraws, by the divine word, the gloom of ignorance arising from evil training, which had overspread the eye of the soul, and bestows the best of gifts,— “That we might well know or God or man.” It is He who truly shows how we are to know ourselves. It is He who reveals the Father of the universe to whom He wills, and as far as human nature can comprehend. “For no man knoweth the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son sh...

“According to the Gospel, God is not confined to the sanctuaries of the Church. He is not enshrined in any altar. The reason Christians gather now and then in their sanctuaries is not because God is there but rather to celebrate and proclaim God’s presence and action outside the sanctuaries in the common life of the world. Worship which has integrity in the Gospel is always an intercession by God’s people for the cares and needs of the world, and always a thanksgiving - a eucharist - for God’s love for the world. Worship at the altar is thus authenticated by the constant involvment of the people of the Church in the world’s life and by the public witness of the Church in the world.” (William Stringfellow) It might seem strange to want to base an ecumenical argument upon the views of ‘sectarians’. But by formulating an ecumenical view on the eucharist with reference to anabaptists such as Menno Simons, this is, to some degree, what the following proposes. There can be no dou...