Charles “Austin” Rivera

Huet in 1668 on not treating Origen’s catena fragments: way too much work to track them down and decide what’s genuine.

“Bono susceptum laborem consilio, meliore etiam abjeci” “I began the task with a good intention and laid it aside with a better one.” Relatable!

Growing up my mother told me we always went to doctors who were women or non-white bc of the “Jackie Robinson rule” (they had to be twice as good as a white dude). As a kid I thought she was exaggerating, but as an adult I came to realize it was just a mundane concrete fact about the professions.

On Twitter @andrewtucker.bsky.social suggested Isho’yahb IV’s questions on Eucharist 46, which addresses what to do when there’s no wine available, but makes no reference to inner Asia

Syriac hive mind: I recall st about East Syrians in inner Asia asking about a replacement for wine (which wasn’t available) in the Eucharist. Answer had to do with putting grapes in water. Anyone know the reference? Timothy’s letters? Later canonical collection? Did I imagine it?

The situation with the Greeks in the Achaemenid period seems pretty closely parallel

Grace and Merit in Origen of Alexandria and St Ephrem the Syrian by Charles Austin Rivera, Ph.D. For many Christians, “grace” is a word often heard and rarely defined. It greets us in the opening of Paul’s epistles (“grace and peace to you...”) and in the...

I’ve posted a blog-lengthy summary of my work on grace in Origen and Ephrem at the blog of @eorthodoxy.bsky.social. Check it out!

Yes, and his move to the sacrificial is mainly prompted by Paul’s mention of blood, if I recall. He does connect Romans 3:25 with 1 John 2:2 here and in other passages.

Ah, I see. Yes he definitely spends more time on the Christological reading of the Ark.

…this claim has come to be seen as an obvious and natural reading of these texts is a classic example of the common phenomenon of academic biblical exegesis forgetting the theological basis of its inherited positions and thus reading its texts poorly and carelessly. 2/2

Someday I’d like to write something about how the claim that John portrays Jesus as divine and the Synoptics portray him as human first appears in Origen and this is not incidental: it arises from his strongly dualistic Christology. The fact that over the last few centuries… 1/

Which passage are you looking at? His exegesis of Rom 3:24-25 in the Commentary on Romans is very much connected with sacrifice and atonement even though he interprets the hilasterion itself more strictly Christologically

How I Give Oral Finals — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW “I want to resist the impulse to see my students as numerical marks to be ranked against each other. Instead, I encourage their individuality, unique ways of seeing the world, and habits of though...

Krista Dalton shares her process for giving oral finals and the benefits of personalized examination.
www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2023/8/...

I played with splitting it up in earlier iterations, but the argument resists it. Definitely something I’ll return to though.

Should’ve thought of Adamantius! Surely they would be willing to offer refuge to this Origenian monster if no one else will…

Not based on the length—in fact, most of the reviewer’s comments would require adding to the length!

Early Christianity scholars: do you have suggestions for where to submit a long article (19k words) on an aspect of Origen’s theology? I had submitted to Journal of Theological Studies but just received a rejection. What other journals will publish articles of this length?

I have not read it closely and am not enough of an expert on Gregory to judge. It seems to be well regarded though

Thanks—I’d love to. I haven’t written any version of it for popular consumption yet.

This is one of my major points in the work I’m doing on grace in Origen and Ephrem: they don’t just offer alternate answers to the classic “western” questions, but offer different definitions of terms and different sets of questions.

As Andy says in his comments, this is a very “western” framing of the question. The term “grace” itself is also a bit slippery even in western theology. Trying to make “Eastern Fathers” answer this makes it appear the categories and questions are universal when they aren’t.

I’d also add that “Augustine vs the East” is not as helpful an opposition as people think. What they often actually mean is “a few select streams of Latin Scholasticism vs a few select streams of Byzantine monasticism”

The account of Augustine also seems to do the thing where it reduces grace to simply the divine concursus that applies to all creaturely action. Lots of contemporary folks seem to miss that the point of classic accounts of saving grace is that it’s something beyond that.

I’m not sure I understand the analogy. Is the idea that the eastern bike can operate without grace but operates way better with the extra engine? If so, I think it’s not particularly helpful. In fact, it’d be closer to some western views (e.g. Scotus).

What’s been missing from the discourse is the fact that “Life it never die” and “Sex I’m wanting more” are excellent illustrations of the Syriac topic-comment sentence.

I’d echo Lewis in this respect: Barth is very Calvinist. The less sympathetic I’ve become to classic Calvinism, the less sympathetic I’ve become to Barth.

My all-time junk food. Fond memories of plowing through bag after bag of these in Div School.

My all time favorite snack food

I had the same thought. If we could just get the more irenic theologians…