Monday, July 22, 2019

To understand Christ: Two keys are required




I just started reading Hilarion Alfeyev’s Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching; Volume 1 The Beginning of the Gospel (St. Vladimir’s Press, 2018; translated from the Russian original). In the forward the author writes:

The Gospel story of Jesus Christ from the perspective of interpretation may be compared to a collection of treasures amassed over two thousand years in a safe with two locks. In order to touch this treasure, we have first of all to open the safe, and in order to open it, two keys are required. One key is the belief that Jesus was fully man with all the attributes of a flesh-and-blood person. However, we need a second key also—belief that Jesus was God incarnate. Without this key the safe will not open, and the treasures will not glisten with their original brilliance: the Gospel image of Christ will not come to the reader in all its resplendent beauty (xiii).

JTR

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