Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:41:59.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Grace (part one)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Kathryn Tanner
Kathryn Tanner
Affiliation:
University of Chicago Divinity School
Get access

Summary

With an eye to Christ, who is both the model for and means to our becoming the image of God, we saw in the last chapter that humans primarily image God by attachment to the divine image itself, an attachment that forms human life according to its pattern. Through the power of the Holy Spirit within them, humans are molded by the very impression of the divine image to become human versions of it. This Christ-centered treatment of the way humans image God contained implicitly an account of grace. We become images in the strongest fashion in being bound in Christ to what we are not, the second person of the trinity, and by having what we are not, the Holy Spirit, within us as the power for new life according to that divine image. The strong sense here in which we participate or share in what we are not could simply be called grace.

In this chapter (and the next) I make this account of grace explicit by developing the way it accords quite well with Protestant sensibilities while bridging the usual theological divides between Protestants and Catholics. Despite the fact that early church sources formed the underpinning for the treatment of the way humans image God in the last chapter, the Protestant resonances of what that treatment implies about grace are nevertheless very strong.

Type
Chapter
Information
Christ the Key , pp. 58 - 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

,Augustine, Confessions, trans. Pine-Coffin, R. S. (Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin, 1976), p. 313.Google Scholar
,Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, trans. Pusey, P. E.(Oxford: James Parker, 1874), Book 11, chapter 12, pp. 554–5 (John 17:22–30).Google Scholar
Boulnois, Marie-Odile, “L'eucharistie mystère d'union chez Cyrille d'Alexandrie,” Revue des Sciences Religieuses 74/2 (2000), p. 165Google Scholar
Calvin, John, Calvin's Commentaries: The Gospel according to St. John 1–10, trans. Parker, T. H. L. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1993), pp. 66–7 (John 3:6).Google Scholar
Gregory of Nyssa, , “On Infants' Early Deaths,” trans. Moore, William and Wilson, Henry Austin, in Schaff, Philip and Wace, Henry (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. v, Second Series (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994), pp. 375–6.Google Scholar
Augustine, , Tractates on the Gospel of John 11–27, trans. Rettig, John W., (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1988)Google Scholar
,Gregory of Nyssa, “Against Eunomius,” trans. Ogle, H. C., Moore, William, and Wilson, Henry Austin, in Schaff, Philip and Wace, Henry (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. v, Second Series (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994)Google Scholar
Balás, David, METOYΣIA ΘEOY: Man's Participation in God's Perfections according to Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Rome: Herder, 1966), pp. 147–9.Google Scholar
,Gregory of Nyssa, “On the Soul and the Resurrection,” trans. Moore, William and Wilson, Henry Austin, in Schaff, Philip and Wace, Henry (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. v, Second Series (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994), p. 440Google Scholar
Augustine, , City of God, trans. Bettenson, Henry (New York: Penguin, 1977)Google Scholar
,Gregory of Nyssa's “Life of Moses ” and “Fourth Beatitude” by Harrison, Verna, Grace and Freedom according to St. Gregory of Nyssa (Lewiston, New York: Mellon, 1992), pp. 185–7.Google Scholar
,Athanasius, “Four Discourses against the Arians,” trans. Newman, John Henry and Robertson, Archibald, in Schaff, Philip and Wace, Henry (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. iv, Second Series (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1957)Google Scholar
McGuckin, John,Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2004), pp. 207–16;Google Scholar
McKinnon, Steven A, Words, Imagery and the Mystery of Christ: A Reconstruction of Cyril of Alexandria's Christology(Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 59–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Hilary of Poitiers, “On the Trinity,” trans. Watson, E. W. and Pullan, L., in Schaff, Philip and Wace, Henry (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. ix, Second Series (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994)Google Scholar
Lubac, Henri, Augustinianism and Modern Theology, trans. Sheppard, Lancelot (New York: Crossroad Herder, 2000), p. 91.Google Scholar
Gilson, Etienne, The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, trans. Downes, A. H. C (University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), chapter 7.Google Scholar
Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica [Theologicae], trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 5 vols. (Westminster, Maryland: Christian Classics, 1948)Google Scholar
Augustine, , Tractates on the Gospel of John 1–10, trans. Rettig, John W (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1988), Tractate 3, section 10, paragraph 1, p. 84Google Scholar
“On Grace and Free Will,” trans. Holmes, Peter, Wallis, Robert Ernest, and Warfield, Benjamin, in Schaff, Philip (ed.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. v (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1980)
Enchiridion,” trans. , J. F.Shaw, in , Philip Schaff (ed.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. iii (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1956), chapter 107, p. 272.
Summa Contra Gentiles, trans. Bourke, Vernon J. (University of Notre Dame Press, 1975)
“On the Spirit and the Letter,” trans. Holmes, Peter, Wallis, Robert Ernest, and Warfield, Benjamin, in Schaff, Philip (ed.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. v (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1980)
Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Faith, trans. Battles, Lewis, ed. McNeill, John T (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book 3, chapter 12, section 8, p. 762.Google Scholar
Luther, Martin, “Lectures on Galatians” (1535), in Pelikan, Jaroslav and Hansen, William (eds.), Luther's Works, vol. xxvi (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia, 1963), p. 378 (Gal 4:6).Google Scholar
Newman, John Henry, Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1914), pp. 170–8.Google Scholar
Augustine, , Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–111, trans. Rettig, John W (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1994), Tractate 81, section 1, paragraph 1, p. 120 (John 15:4–7).Google Scholar
Calvin, , Calvin's Commentaries: The Gospel according to St. John 11–21 and First Epistle of John, trans. Parker, T. H. L (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1961), p. 84 (John 14:20).Google Scholar
Luther, , Bondage of the Will, trans. Packer, J. I and Johnston, O. R (Fleming H. Revell, 1957).Google Scholar
Calvin, , Commentary on Hebrews 9:12 (Oliver and Boyd: Edinburgh, 1963)Google Scholar
Hart, Trevor, “Humankind in Christ and Christ in Humankind: Salvation as Participation in our Substitute in the Theology of John Calvin,” Scottish Journal of Theology 42 (1989), p. 71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Ronald S, Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1961), p. 16.Google Scholar
Oberman, Heiko A, The Dawn of the Reformation: Essays in Late Medieval and Early Reformation Thought(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1992), pp. 121–2.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×