Being Our Own Gods

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

For a more thorough, classical explanation, check out the homily on justification here.

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About Fr. Jonathan

Your average traditional crunchy Christ follower with a penchant for pop culture, politics, and puns.
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8 Responses to Being Our Own Gods

  1. Robbie says:
    February 24, 2012 at 12:19 pm

    Hey Father Jonathan,

    As always, very helpful! Many thanks for taking the time to do this.

    Though I do have a question. You say, “our nature starts out not right.” Should I take you to be hinting at a doctrine of Total Depravity here?

    Am I correct in hearing echoes of Total Depravity, and if so, how does this square with the Anglican Reformers? I ask because it seems to me that the Anglican reformers were not as sanguine when it came to Total Depravity, at least as much as the continental reformers. Were they not closer to the Patristic understanding of Original Sin, where sin was not a result of being a creature as such, but as an accident afflicting/corrupting an otherwise Good human nature (Good, by virtue of being created)?

    Or did I miss something?

    Thanks again.

    Robb

    • Fr. Jonathan says:
      February 24, 2012 at 11:25 pm

      Thank you for the question, Robbie. I would say that Anglicanism doesn’t have the same kind of articulation of “total depravity” as one finds in Calvinism or Lutheranism, but Anglicanism isn’t necessarily incompatible with that understanding. What the formularies state plainly and firmly is that we are inheritors of the sin of Adam, that this sin does in fact poison our “nature,” and that we have no power on our own to find God or to do anything pleasing to Him. All of that would resonate with the total depravity hypothesis. Nevertheless, there is less of an emphasis on the absolute deadness of our souls in Anglicanism. It is not spelled out clearly whether we are being rejuvenated or rebuilt from scratch. And, as you say, there is a great deal in the writing of the Reformers and Divines that suggests that salvation is medicine for a sick soul, as the Fathers tended to put it, rather than the assuaging of punishment from a profoundly wrathful God.

      Personally, I think there is some usefulness to total depravity understood in a certain light, but not if by total depravity we mean that there is nothing of the Imago Dei left in the human person after the fall. To be properly biblical, we have to be able to say simultaneously that we are born evil but created good. To deny the former is to underestimate the seriousness of original sin, but to deny the latter is to underestimate God.

  2. Ann says:
    March 5, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Thank you for this! I’m sorry I didn’t reply sooner, but I wanted to ponder on it for a bit and really soak it in before thanking you….and then it slipped my mind. Woops!

    Thank you for the video. It helped immensely. :)

  3. runnymeadeuk says:
    March 10, 2012 at 7:07 am

    Good video, except for introductory rap “music”. Something like this might have been more apropos (tick top link on videosurf page): http://bnafreedom.posterous.com/when-all-thy-mercies-o-my-god-organ-all-saint All the best to you and your good work. Ecce, quam bonum (Psalm 133)

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