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Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215) was the head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria (c. 190), and the teacher of Origen. Concerned that Christianity is not seen as an unsophisticated religion, Clement sought to reconcile his faith with the best of Greek philosophy, specifically in the usefulness of Middle Platonism.[1] He believed that the kernels of truth found in Plato and Greek Philosophy were preparatory for the Gentiles in leading them to Christ, just as the Law was a guide or guardian for the Hebrews. Clement’s esoteric exegesis and speculative theology emphasized a higher knowledge, but this knowledge was obtained only through the Logos.

St. John (c. 652–c. 750) was born and raised in Damascus. He began a career of civil service, but then joined his brother as a monk at the St Saba monastery near Jerusalem, where he was ordained as a priest. He dedicated the rest of his life to writing books and church hymns. His greatest contribution was his De Fide Orthodoxa , ( Exposition of the Orthodox Faith ) [1] is considered the most robust theological effort of Eastern scholasticism, as is Aquinas’ Summa in the West. De fide is a dogmatic work, divided into four books. The first book considers the essence and attributes of the Holy Trinity; book two covers creation, anthropology, and providence; the third book is an excursus on Christology; and the fourth covers various aspects: the church, sin/salvation/sanctification, scripture, eschatology, images, and other controversial topics. This post will be a brief exposition of some key themes St. John’s doctrine of Christ, specifically his understanding of the incarnation, u...

  This last October, I preached on the Aseity of God . And in covering this attribute, I spent time discussing the inner life of God—God in himself. After all, Aseity (or autotheos in the Greek), means that God is God from himself. Nothing created him; he merely is . I am sure many pew-sitters have never heard a sermon on divine Aseity. I know my congregation was baffled when seeing the sermon title posted on the projector screen before I got into the pulpit— A-se-what? Furthermore, preaching on Aseity meant I would teach on God’s divine acts or more technically his inseparable operations . It is a fascinating subject to talk about yet, so neglected, but so important for a consistent monotheistic doctrine of the Trinity. Because of its importance, I wanted to share the excerpt from my sermon where I explained inseparable operations of God from the text . It is a very technical subject. I worked hard to present it in layman’s terms (well, as layman as I could pr...

  Cyril of Alexandria (AD 370–444) was a towering figure of his time. As the patriarch of Alexandria (in 412), the tradition of leaders before him elevated the Alexandrian see to a position of great influence, rivaled only by Rome, Constantinople, and Antioch. Cyril is most famous for his Christological works, formulating a doctrine of the hypostatic union grounded in Nicene theology that articulates two natures in Christ, a human and divine, which are hypostatically united in the one person [1]. The text of exposition is his work On the Unity of Christ [2]. The treatise is a dialogue whereby Cyril, with theological and philosophical rigor, develops his hypostatic union doctrine. His main opponent is Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople (c. 345), who entered the spotlight for his rejection of the term theotokos (“God bearer”) for the Virgin Mary. He rejected it because he thought no human woman could bear the eternal God. That debate will not be examined here. But it has relevance...

In the “Introduction” to a standard English translation of Boethius’ Theological Tractates and the Consolation of Philosophy , it is stated that “Boethius was the last of the Roman philosophers, and the first of the scholastic theologians” (X).  Philosophy is aimed at explaining the nature of the world ( the natural ). Theology’s aim is to understand and explain doctrines delivered by divine revelation ( the supernatural ). Boethius was the seminal figure in preparing the way for the synthesis of these two disciplines, with philosophy serving the task of theology (i.e., the handmaiden to the King of sciences) .

Does 1 Timothy 2:12 prohibit women from leading and preaching over men in the church? I recently posted an article examining an approach to this question, specifically evaluating interpretive consistency. In the article, I looked at two passages that appealed to the Old Testament to support the claim being made in the text. The point of the blog post was to shed light on an inconsistency of interpretation by looking at one common argument from the Bible in favor of women in the pastorate and another biblical argument supporting the view of monogamous marriage, between one man and one woman. My general observation is that many Christians who advance this particular argument, allowing for women in the pastorate, also affirm the particular argument for the biblical view of marriage. They both have the same methodological starting point; however, both arrive at their conclusions in completely different ways, demonstrating interpretive inconsistency, which I conclude ste...