Wow, I haven’t posted in over a month…bums yo.  Here’s some theology by John Scottus Eriugena, 9th century man of mystery (mainly just something I find interesting, so don’t expect real analysis also I don’t have the space/time/inclination to explain all the aspects of people’s thought so I apologize for any lack of clarity):

Eriugena’s model of the incarnation really can’t be divorced from his anthropology, so here are some basic points that are necessary in order to understand his thought on this matter:

  • In Eriugena’s thought, an idea has an actual, and more perfect, reality within the mind.
  • All of creation is contained within the mind of God, who creates through a sort of divine self-knowledge or theophany.
  • Humanity, since it is created in God’s image, likewise contains all of creation within itself.
  • The Fall was not an actual historical event; man was never in paradise and the Fall is, in effect, the first stage on the return to God.   Since creation is contained within man, it fell (as in it needs to return to God) as well.

So, what’s the purpose of Christ in this system?  Given his understanding of sin and the Fall, Eriugena obviously doesn’t assert the Thomistic understanding that w/o sin there would have been no need for Christ.  Instead, Eriugena utilizes an eastern conception of the incarnation (drawn from Gregory of Nyssa by way of Maximus, and showing strong Maximusian(?) influence).  From the Periphyseon:

N. Why did He [Christ] descend?

A.  Tell me, I pray.

N. For this reason only, I think: that in His humanity He might save the effects of the Causes which in His Divinity He possesses eternally without change; and that He Might call them back into their Causes that they might be preserved in them by a mystical unification, just as the Causes also are preserved.  By this is meant that if the Wisdom of God did not descend into the effects of the Causes which enjoy everlasting life in it, the priciple of the Causes would perish: for no Cause could survive the destruction of the effects of the Causes, any more than the effects could survive the destruction of their Causes.

So what does that lump of text really mean?  Basically, the Incarnation is understood as a neccessary event required to reincorporate the “effects of the Causes”, namely the world and everything in it, into God.  If Christ didn’t do this then the effects would eventually fade away (as everything on this Earth is understood to be transitory) and the causes themself would therefore cease to exist.  However, since these causes exist in God, they cannot pass away.  Hence, Chirst = neccessary.  All of creation is present in man.  So Christ’s descent (Incarnation = descent in Eriugena.  Interesting but not unique, really) unifies the Divine Causes with their effects (creation).  Christ, therefore, contains all nature, divine and human intertwined in a mirror of the Hypostatic Union (this is clearly reminiscent of Maximus, who was extremely concerened with the Hypostatic Union, especially considering the whole “brutally tortured for espousing beliefs regarding the union” aspect of his career).

Anyway, I think it’s all a neat little package.  After some initial misgivings, I find that I like Eriugena quite a bit, especially his conception of the Fall, which I briefly discussed above, and his idea of the Incarnation.  Actually, his entire soteriological system is pretty cool, although I wouldn’t recommend reading Eriugena for the novice, he’s pretty difficult.  Word.

Life Notes

As you can probably tell from my lack of posting and the post I ended up writing, I’m pretty consumed with school right now.  All that ends in about a month and I’ll be running into finals (which should suck pretty hard) soon.  I’m staying in Chicago and (hopefully) learning German and working this summer.  I may also be trying to brush up on my Latin on my own.  If all goes well I’ll be able to pull of the whole “finish languages” plan by the fall quarter.  Considering that means I will have learned three languages (ok I already sort of knew 2) in a calendar year, I’m pretty impressed with myself (although hopefully not counting my chickens before they’ve hatched).

In more immediate news, I’m headed back to Bowdoin next week for graduation…hopefully I’ll be able to give and after action report of sufficient hillarity.