Patristic Audio

Familiar

What is this part about?

The first pass. What each part covers, the words it keeps using, and what to listen for. Nothing here goes beyond what the text itself says.

The problem

What went wrong, and why could God not simply overlook it?

1 Creation, and the Fall into Corruption Man was made out of nothing and given a share in the Word so that he would not return to nothing; turning away, he began falling back toward the nothing he came from. §§1–514:59 2 The Divine Dilemma, and the Coming of the Word God could neither let His own work be destroyed nor let His word about death prove false, so the Word took a body able to die and spent the law's whole claim in it. §§6–1013:27

The answer

Why did the Word have to become man, and why end at a cross?

3 Why the Word Was Made Man Corruption was only half of it: men had lost the knowledge of God as well, and every route back had been passed by, so the Image Himself came in a body to renew it. §§11–1925:04 4 The Death upon the Cross The debt owed by all is paid in the Lord's body; and the death that pays it had to be one received from others, seen by witnesses, and endured upon the Cross. §§20–2517:37 5 The Resurrection, and the Victory over Death The body was raised on the third day, at an interval chosen to prove it had truly died; and the daily contempt of death among ordinary believers is offered as visible proof that it rose. §§26–3219:49

The defence

If this is true, why do the Jews not accept it, and why do the Greeks laugh?

6 The Unbelief of the Jews Confuted from the Scriptures Athanasius argues from the Jewish scriptures themselves, asking which figure in them was born of a virgin alone, died upon a cross, and came when prophecy ceased — and answering that only Christ was. §§33–4025:29 7 The Scoffing of the Greeks Put to Shame The Greeks are answered twice over: first on reason, that the Word in one body is no odder than the Word in the universe; then from what anyone can see has changed since He came. §§41–5338:18

Coda

How would you know any of this is so?

8 The Word Known by His Works: Conclusion The works of Christ's body are put forward as the test of who He is, and the book ends by handing the reader on to the Scriptures, which ask a certain life of their reader. §§54–5710:00