The Incarnation of Jesus Christ was a time in history when God’s word entered into the life of humans. The Incarnation brought with it multiple effects that were meant to rebuild the connection between God and his people. At the time of creation and original sin, there was a link between humans and God that was damaged; Jesus Christ was the patch for this link as he brought with him the knowledge of God and his divine message. Jesus Christ was “the impress of His own Image, a share of the reasonable being of the very Word Himself” meant to guide humans back toward the right path (33). As Athanasius says, “it was our sorry case that caused the Word to come down,” and it was done for our salvation (34). Jesus Christ’s Incarnation was what saved humans from the punishment of death that was received at the time of original sin; Jesus Christ “made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection” (59). I found it interesting to look at the Incarnation as God “uniting” with a body instead of God creating a person in his divine likeness to be our savior; Jesus Christ was the body in which God’s Word lived, and his Incarnation was forever important to our rebuilding a connection with God.
-Tori McAllister
The incarnation of Jesus Christ was important because in this event the "Word" became flesh "out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men." This also proves that there is "no inconsistency between creation and salvation." It also goes on to say "For it became Him, for Whom are all things and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering." Basically this says that the only one who could save these people from "corruption" was himself, the man who created them in the beginning.
ReplyDelete--Nicholas Darin
The incarnation is important because it shows God gaining human attributes. "The word became flesh" is an example of this. Athanasius believes it is important because the incarnation was used to bring back God's lost followers. The incarnation is used to get the non-believers to believe. By God becoming flesh he is becoming "real" to them. The "word" is the only person who could save these men.
ReplyDelete-Lindsey Ritter
The incarnation is important because Finally God's words were being heard which is to connect Gods relationship with his people.(the word became flesh). The incarnation was used for many reasons but one that is most important was because it will bring back Gods people and strengthen their relationship while gathering an bringing more people to follow him.
ReplyDeleteMary Vogt
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is important because it is the Word of God becoming flesh and human. It is important because it was the way God chose to reveal himself to the human race and it was his way of showing his love for us. Through the Incarnation we learn that there is only one God and that all others are false. Athanasius thinks it is important because through the Incarnation the human race is saved from death and able to experience some form of salvation. He believes that because of our transgressions and mistakes that the Word came down into human form so we were able to relate and sense the Word. He believes that God did not want to leave us under corruption so he revealed the Word. I agree with Athanasius because I believe and have been taught to believe that Jesus Christ was sent to down to the human race to save our souls and remind us of what created us and what we are to be worshiping. I believe that the Incarnation was an attempt to awake the human race and give us the answers to our doubts and to reassure us of Gods love for each of us.
ReplyDelete- Nicole Dillon
The Incarnation has a very large significance in theology, for God presented to us, through grace, three methods of knowing Him: contemplation, the prophets, and the law. When these failed to turn us from corruption He sent His son to become man. St. Athanasius says that becoming man was not implying that God to, can become corruptible, but rather it is sanctifying the body. He writes, "His body was for Him not a limitation, but an instrument," for God is not contained in the body, but rather a part of all creation, but at the same time separate from creation. When God became man the act of the incarnation was not the only act the people needed, it was Jesus' teachings and miracles through which men could come to see God. Athanasius writes, "Just as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." With these words Athanasius describes the fulfillment of the covenant made between Abraham and God, and how that covenant will take on a new meaning through Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection.
ReplyDelete~Nicholas Shields
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is important since through it we are saved and able to re-connect our relationship with God. I agree with Athanasius about how it's necessary for the incarnation because, "what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker?"(60) I agree with this argument about how imperative it was for our Maker, the Word, to make a human appearance because if we don't know about our Maker or if there is one, then what's the point of living? This correlates with what we learned in Philosophy this semester about how we live our lives because we have this idea of a Maker/or an afterlife. If we have no notion of an afterlife or a Maker, then what's to keep us from running a complete chaotic life?
ReplyDeleteThe incarnation is so important because it shows that even though we think of our Maker as a sort of distant infinite being, God wanted us to see "Him" so that we may understand.
-Katie Lamb
I agree with what others have said about how the Incarnation happened to re-new and re-create humanity in the Image of the Creator. I found it particularly interesting that St. Athanasius mentions that if God the Father had just let man continue to sin and creation to fall into non-existence, it would mean that there would be no purpose for creation in the first place. This could not happen "because it would be unfitting and unworthy of Himself [God the Father]." (56)God would be allowing non-existence to flourish if he did not send His son in the Incarnation; this would be against his character and essence as a perfect God. So, in a sense, the Incarnation is not only important for the re-creation of mankind in relation to knowledge and union with the Creator, but it is also necessary for God in order for Him to fulfill His plan of salvation.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was interesting that the Incarnation was God's way of coming down to the level of understanding that man possessed at the time, the level of the senses(65). God always finds a way to reach us!
-Sophia Pileggi
The Incarnation is important because in this mystery Christ comes out of love to redeem us. In order to redeem all mankind the Son of God comes down upon the earth in human form. It is by taking upon himself the nature of man that he is capable of suffering and death. He becomes what we are, except for sin, so that we can become more like him and obtain salvation. We celebrate the Incarnation because the Divine and Human natures are united; He was born as a man, but is the Beloved Son (Mathew 3: 13-17). In Mark He is revealed as having human emotions yet He performs miracles. He humbled himself by take on the nature of man; this demonstrates his unending love for us. We cannot be separated from the love of god.
ReplyDelete-Carolyn Spero
The incarnation is the most important part of Christinity because it is the turning point in our religion, and in the history of the world. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ was God's word becomming flesh, the advent of the Messaih, and the cornerstone of the Christian faith. If God had not sent Jesus to earth, then Christianity would have not exist. The advent of Christianity has changed the history of the world because it shaped cultures and polotical boundries. Without the Incarnation, the world would be a completely different place.
ReplyDeleteThe Incarnation of Jesus Christ is important, because it is through the Incarnation that humans may gain salvation. As we discussed in class, the Fall caused the relationship between God and humankind to become disordered. Therefore, someone had to restore order to make the relationship right again. As Saint Athanasius explains, only Jesus Christ could restore order "for He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father" (The Incarnate Word II.7.). Through the Incarnation Jesus made His divinity known through miracles, through His death He conquered sin and death, and through His resurrection He opened the gates of Heaven that we might spend eternity in His presence.
ReplyDeleteThe incarnation of Jesus Christ is an incredibly important of the Christian faith, if not the cornerstone of the religion. The idea that Jesus was born and died for our sins establishes our idea of the Messiah and makes God's word into flesh and very real. The incarnation created the Christian faith and without it, the Christian faith would have been nonexistent and would have just been more Judaism (nothing against that). The incarnation is incredibly important in the history of the Western world and the Christian faith.
ReplyDelete-Tara Costello
Although the readings spoke some of the creation of man it emphasized the importance of the Word, Jesus, becoming man. God allowed the death of Jesus to illustrate his love for mankind through taking the human body of Jesus Christ to further stop that of corruption; "Through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, all men were clothed with incorruption in the promise of the resurrection". It proved much for the Christian faith, in that the existence of Jesus and his actions on earth illustrated to mankind God's power and love for those who live by him. If jesus had not been ressurrected, the religion of Christianity and much of its views and knowledge of God and His relationship to us would have not existed or been dramatically altered. Such as the view of death as stated, "It put an end to the law of death which barred our way, by giving us the hope of resurrection". Jesus's death and resurrection prompted a new idea of life after death in the kingdom of God, a hope and promise of resurrection in the life thereafter.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Smedley
I think chapter 1 of Athanasius' "The Incarnate World" is plagued with unsubstantiated claims and haughty word choice that detract from the message of the humanity of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThe claim, "For if all things had come into being in this automatic fashion instead of being the outcome of Mind though they existed, they would be uniform and without distinction," is not necessarily true. It does happen that order can automatically stem from chaos. Additionally, most of the universe is composed of stars of uniform material; earth could simply be a random exception. Either way, it is hard to produce logical or empirical evidence to substantiate Athanasius' claim. As such, we see that Athanasius does a rather poor job criticizing the Epicureans.
To explain the humanity of Jesus, the authority of the Bible must be employed and justly interpreted. Rather than propounding some unsubstantiated bit about the nature of infinity and God, it would be more convincing to presume that the Bible's chronicle of Jesus' life must be fairly accurate, as it spawned such a great religion.
Athanasius' haughtiness arises when he says, "But the impiety of their foolish talk plainly declared by the divine teaching of the Christian faith." As Christianity is a new faith, one mustn't assume that others' edifications are unscrupulous, or even that one's source of authority is correct.
One goal of evangelization is the promotion of salvation. It is presumptuous to think Christianity is the only means to that end. What of all those before the common era?
Through the reading of Athanasius, I can understand that Jesus Christ's Incarnation is important because through it, humans gain knowledge of God, and are saved through Christ.
ReplyDeleteAthanasius talks about how humans are dying through sin because they are not worshipping God. He claims that through the Incarnation, Christ comes to turn the corruptible back to incorruptible.
Another reason Athanasius gives is that Jesus offers salvation of all through his bodily death. "Since the Word of God was above all, when he offered his own temple and bodily instrument as a substitute for the life of all, He fulfilled in death all that was required." (Pg 58) Because of Jesus' Incarnation, he was able to conquer death, thus promising salvation for all humankind.
Athanasius also explains that the Incarnation is so important because it brought knowledge to the human race. I really like his explanation; it gives a more personal account on the relationship between man and God. "How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word, and Reason of the Father, through Whom they had received their being?" (Pg 61) Additionally, through the Incarnation, we are better able to understand Christ's works, because He is doing them in the form of a human. This shows that not only should we learn more about Christ and God through Jesus' incarnation, but He also wants to know us better.
-Elisabeth O'Toole
The incarnation of Jesus Christ is important to Christianity as well as humanity in general because it marks the reuniting of God and man. Athanasius states that after the fall of man, "the human race was in process of destruction" (Athanasius 56). Man was no longer connected to its creator. God used "His own power" and "He restored the whole nature of man" by sending Jesus Christ into the human world so that God and man could have renewed bond between them (Athanasius 59). Through Christ, man has the renewed ability to have a relationship with God as well as eternal life with Him.
ReplyDelete-Jay Garrick
I think that the Incarnation is a defining point in religious history because it marked the turning point of God redeeming mankind. Although God had not, at the time of the Incarnation, actually redeemed us yet, it marked the beginning of that process. From what I gathered, Athanasius thinks the Incarnation is important for much the same reasons, because it manifests God's love and allows Him to bring humanity back to Him and away from their fallen natures.
ReplyDeleteChelsey Sterling
The incarnation is very important because it was the turning point in history. The Word becoming flesh helped to get God's message to everyone on Earth. It allowed us to be redeemed. We were able to go back to God because of the incarnation.
ReplyDeleteAthanasius seems to believe the same thing. He believes the incarnation allowed us to be close to God again, and redeem ourselves.
Tom May
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is important to the Christian faith because it is a turning point in Christianity. The Incarnation begins a time when God and man seemingly become one. The Incarnation also seemingly redeemed us and Athanasius made it known that God will always be with us.
ReplyDelete-Elise Ariens
I believe the Incarnation is important because it showed that God wanted to be able to show us how much He loved us that he sent His only Son. Also, the greatest matter of importance is that Jesus came down like one of us as a human. He endured all the sufferings and trials that we do plus the additional sacrifices. If Jesus had come down as God, I don't believe he would have been able to touch and save so many people, since the people would complain that Jesus couldn't relate because He couldn't feel pain like they did.
ReplyDelete~Caitlin Gorecki
The incarnation of Jesus Christ is very important because it is filling in the link that was missing between God and his people. Now that God has become man he is more relatable and his message is easier to spread and to teach. As Athanasius says, "God knew the limitation of mankind, you see; and though the grace of being made in His image was sufficient to give them the knowledge of the Word and through Him of the Father, as a safeguard against their neglect of this grace, He provided the works of creation also as means by which the Maker might be known." It's God's final big attempt to get His people to return to Him and His ways.
ReplyDeleteEmma Leary
The Incarnation is important to both humanity and Christianity because it marks the union of God and human beings. Jesus came down from heaven and died to save us from sin. This is the establishment of the Catholic faith. We believe that Jesus is the Messiah who came down to save us from sins. He is the incarnation and the Messiah in which we base our faith off of. I agree with Athanasius that it is necessary for the incarnation and the people to believe that God is three in one and will save us. This is extremely important to the Catholic faith and Christianity and a main part of our faith that we practice.
ReplyDelete-Katelyn Bockin
Saint Athanasius's "The Incarnate Word" maintains truths revealed to humanity in the prologue to John's Gospel. As John claims"He was the world, and the world came to be through him," so also does Athanasius find that "it is through Him that the Father gives order to creation...through Him that they [creation] received their being" (John 1:1, Athanasius 51). Athanasius makes a clear distinction between Jesus' divinity and his humanly body. He ascertains that "no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are...now He entered the world in a new way" (Athanasius 57). Jesus was required to stoop down to human form in order to reverse the corruptions made by man. Though his body was human, he still held a control over all creation. The incarnation gave humanity what it desperately needed; a human form to direct them towards salvation. The Word becoming flesh is thus the most consequential occurrence within human history.
ReplyDeleteAs previously discussing in class, the Incarnation of the Word is important for a variety of reasons. John mentions in his Gospel that the Word was God and was with God. When the Word becomes flesh in the form of the Incarnation of Jesus, God was essentially came into the world in the form of Jesus. This was the human connection back to God, and was an effect to rebuild the broken connection between humans and God. Jesus’ purpose was to be that connection, and to be the leader for the people to come back to God. According to Athanasius, Jesus came down to earth because humans had become too disconnected with God. It was his Incarnation that bridged the gap between humans and God. What was interesting to me was that God chose to send the Word down in the form of a human being, instead of how in the Old Testament he sent messengers and other signs. Maybe the fact that Jesus had to be Incarnated really speaks to the disconnect that had occurred between God and the people on earth.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me to be a given that Christ's coming was the monumental event that brought us once again into union with our Creator. But a pertinent question might still be, "If God is all powerful, how come he didn't just snap His almighty fingers and fix everything just like that?" Athanasius also addresses this, and the answer is that mystery of the Incarnation was that it did so much more than just pay off God so he wouldn't damn us to Hell. Christ's coming and dwelling among us redeemed Creation because he took on Creation by becoming one of us. His condescension to become flesh brought beauty back into all of creation. Further, since he stooped to our level and lived our life, he showed us how it should be done. No more can we complain that our God is just bossing us around and has no idea what it's like to be a little ant down here on earth. God became a little ant just like us and showed us what truly miraculous things we can achieve and the sort of perfection we should strive for. He sweat, he bled, and he even died. This was not only a divine action, but a very human and tangible action. It was done down in the trenches with us and showed us how to fight it out to be in union with Him again in Heaven.
ReplyDeleteIn Saint Athanasius's "The Incarnation of the Word of God", he speaks about Jesus Christ ascending from heaven and that he "has been made [God's] manifest in bodily form," for the salvation of the world. This is probably the most significant event in Christian history as God had sent down a human manifestation of Himself. He gave the world a chance for salvation by sending down Jesus Christ. St. Athanasius thinks that the incarnation was important because of our new chance at salvation. I agree with Athanasius in that it was a new opportunity for human salvation.
ReplyDeleteThe incarnation is described as a huge turning point in the Christian faith by Athanasius. Because He has become flesh, it gives more a reason for people to believe in Him, and believe He is truly the messiah and savior.
ReplyDelete-Kate Shannon
The incarnation is important because unlike in the past God now is portrayed with human attributes. Athanasius believes the incarnation was a very important thing because it helped to bring in those whom had lost touch with God. By God gaining these characteristics of humaness in a sense he becomes "real" to them. The "word" is the only person who could save us.
ReplyDeleteThe incarnation is important because for so many decades the people of God had been waiting for a tangible representation of God. For years and years they had simply the messages and prophets sent by God to deliver the word. When Jesus came to be, and the Word finally became Flesh, the whole world had something to look at and grasp on to when they are speaking of their faith. There was now a human representation of their belief.
ReplyDeleteAt the time of the Fall, human flesh was associated with sin. When God Himself entered a human body born of a human woman, Christ the Incarnation redeemed us. God as man is the living Word--a walking manual for how we should live. That God became man is so important, because through this, God spoke our language in a sense, demonstrating with a human body what we should do with our human body. He taught us how to live without sin--a concept not grasped before the coming of Jesus.
ReplyDelete