Monthly Archives: June 2021

The Incredibility of Free Will Defenses of Hell: A Response to Hart’s Fourth Meditation

Posted on 28 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Keith DeRose, Ph.D. In certain Christian circles, free will accounts are the go-to defenses of hell—and here I mean defenses of hell on which many humans are forever excluded from heaven. I blame C. S. Lewis, and particularly the … Continue reading →

Posted in David B. Hart, Eschatology, Philosophical Theology | 88 Comments

The Lives of the Saints

Posted on 26 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by St Justin Popovich Until the coming of the Lord Christ into our terrestrial world, we men really knew only about death and death knew about us. Everything human was penetrated, captured, and conquered by death. Death was closer to … Continue reading →

Posted in Citations | Comments Off on The Lives of the Saints

St Gregory the Theologian: Purifying the Theologians into the Holy Trinity

Posted on 24 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

On 9 August 378 the Eastern Roman Emperor and earnest supporter of Arianism, Valens, was killed by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople. Emperor Gratian subsequently appoint­ed one of his ablest generals as co-emperor and Augustus of the East—Theodosius … Continue reading →

Posted in Gregory Nazianzen | Comments Off on St Gregory the Theologian: Purifying the Theologians into the Holy Trinity

St Gregory the Theologian: How to Purify Pagans into the Holy Trinity

Posted on 21 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Oration 39 was most likely delivered by St Gregory the Theologian at the evening vigil of the Feast of the Epi­phany (A.D. 381). His audience would have included the cate­chu­mens who were expecting to be baptized on the next day. … Continue reading →

Posted in Gregory Nazianzen | Comments Off on St Gregory the Theologian: How to Purify Pagans into the Holy Trinity

“All those whose minds are on the heavens become partakers of the Holy Spirit, transposing their lives from the earth to heaven and living in the upper room of the celestial state”

Posted on 19 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

David always gives the most joyful meaning to feasts, tuning his dulcet harp to the require­ments of the festival. So let this same prophet delight us on the great feast of Pentecost, too, picking out the melody of wisdom on … Continue reading →

Posted in Gregory of Nyssa | 11 Comments

St Gregory the Theologian: Incomprehensible Deity and the Glory of Theosis

Posted on 16 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

In the winter of A.D. 380-381, St Gregory the Theologian, recently appointed Archbishop of Constantinople, delivered his famous Epiphany Homilies (Orations 38, 39, and 40) to the congregation of the Church of the Holy Apostles.1 Scholars debate whether the churches … Continue reading →

Posted in Gregory Nazianzen | 3 Comments

The Kenotic Image: St Sophrony and Austin Farrer on the Imagination

Posted on 14 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Rex Bradshaw 1948 saw the publication of two books that I would like to put in dialogue. One was the Bampton Lectures for that year, delivered by Oxford fellow and chaplain Father Austin Farrer, under the title The Glass … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophical Theology | 13 Comments

“But the Word is said to be and is alone from the Father because he is not a creature; and the Son’s being ‘from the essence of the Father’ is indicative of this sense, which does not pertain to anything that has come into being”

Posted on 13 June 2021 by Fr Aidan Kimel

The council [of Nicaea] wished to banish the impious phrases of the Arians and to inscribe the words confessed by the Scriptures: that the Son is not from non-being but from God; that he is Word and Wisdom, neither creature … Continue reading →

Posted in Athanasius, Citations | 2 Comments