quote:

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Originally posted by PotOnWheel

"In order that you might have done with the earthbound carnality of your opinions and might learn to be nobler, to ascend with the divinity and not linger on things visible but rise up to spiritual realities, and that you might nowe what is the expression of the nature and what is the expression of the economy"

Gregory of Naziznzus (Oration 29.18--"Third Theological Oration")

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quote:

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Originally posted by quest for truth

PotOnWheel,
Would you mind expanding on the topic?

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See these if you wish:

• http://www.svspress.com/product_info.php?cPath=83&products_id=67

and

• http://www.svspress.com/product_info.php?products_id=69

For all the fathers considered, and examples could be multiplied easily, the Incarnation of the Word is not located in the birth of Jesus from Mary as a distinct event from the Passion and exaltation. In some ways, such a position results from assuming the shorthand formulae as “dogmatic facts,” and then conflating John 1:14, which does not speak of a birth, with the infancy narratives, which do not speak of an incarnation of a heavenly, previously existing being. That Jesus was indeed born from Mary—a specific, temporal, historical event—was indeed assumed as a given. But, it is essential to note, to describe this event as “the Incarnation of the Word” can only be done by reflecting on Christ in the light of the cross through the medium of Scripture. When this is done, when the Passion, the crucifixion, and exaltation, is taken as the central axis of theological reflection, then, as we saw from Origen earlier, this becomes determinative for contemplating the identity of Christ, and everything else is understood through this prism and in this pattern. Thus, the infancy narratives are not an attempt to pre-serve accurate historical information regarding the birth of Christ, but are, as Raymond Brown has so clearly pointed out, a retelling of the basic kerygma in a mode appropriate for the occasion. This point is equally evident from iconography, which depicts the Christ not in a stable, but wrapped in swaddling clothes and lain in a cave, the shape of which mirrors the posture of the virgin, just as he was lain in the virgin cave owned by the other Joseph to emerge as the exalted Lord. The same point is made even more dramati-cally in the hymnography for the pre-feast of the Nativity, which consciously uses the same imagery and phrases as the material for Holy Week, which itself culminates in the Paschal reading of the Prologue of John.

quote:

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When this is done, when the Passion, the crucifixion, and exaltation, is taken as the central axis of theological reflection, then, as we saw from Origen earlier, this becomes determinative for contemplating the identity of Christ, and everything else is understood through this prism and in this pattern.

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quote:

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Originally posted by quest for truth

Thank you for explaining this further. I like it!

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"Many other examples from the tradition of the Church could be brought in to exemplify the point. For instance, one hymn which is particularly interesting when viewed in this perspective is the “Only-begotten Son” attributed to Justinian. Although it is easily heard (especially in English) in the theological perspective outlined earlier, that is, as Trinitarian theology — “Only begotten Son and Word of God”—followed by “Incarnation” and Christology — “who accepted to become flesh for our salvation” — nevertheless, the subject, the addressee, of the whole hymn is in fact “Christ God” (given in the vocative), who is positioned between being crucified and trampling down death by death, culminating in the acknowledgement that he is one of the Trinity and to be glorified with the Father and the Spirit. Rather than being read as a chronological narrative, which would ultimately temporalize God, the whole hymn is a reflection on the crucified and exalted Christ: it is confessional, rather than mythological. The same point is equally evident, though often overlooked, in the creeds and dogmatic definitions of the Councils. For instance, the Chalcedonian definition specifies that it is one and the same Jesus Christ who is both God and man, one hypostasis in two natures, and that it is he who is Lord, God, Son and Logos — in other words, “logos” is a title of Jesus Christ, rather than being the name of the eternal second person of the Trinity who “subsequently” (as if God is subject to time) becomes the man Jesus Christ. It is one and the same Jesus Christ, as St Cyril of Alexandria affirms so emphatically, who is from the Father as the Word of God and from the line of David as man — two births but one and the same subject, Jesus Christ."