Reading Old Books: Athanasius, “On the Incarnation”

In this episode, Glenn walks us through a work by the early church father Athanasius about the reasons for the Incarnation. The introduction to the book by C. S. Lewis explains that we need to read old books to get around the blind spots of our own era, and Athanasius certainly helps reframe how we think about the incarnation. Tom points out that he starts with Creation, which is the foundation for the rest of his argument. He goes from there to the Fall and what that meant for Creation, and the Incarnation as the only way to restore Creation. Athanasius’s focus is primarily on God and his purposes. He doesn’t ignore our need and God’s love for us, but he takes a much bigger perspective beyond personal salvation. He also talks about why Christ had to die by crucifixion, the impact of the resurrection on the world, and a host of other topics. As usual each Pugcaster brought in his own angle on the issues Athanasius raised. Since we could do little more than give an introduction to the piece and hit a few of the places where it gives us a different perspective on the Incarnation than we usually see, we encourage you to read it for yourself.

It’s available as a downloadable PDF with Lewis’s introduction here: http://www.onthewing.org/user/Athanasius%20-%20On%20the%20Incarnation.pdf