Maybe you’re wondering: why do a book review during the holidays? 1. I’m out of songs, and a fellow Christian inspired me to write a book review. 2. Someone (little sis) recommended this book (https://ccel.org/ccel/a/athanasius/incarnation/cache/incarnation.txt) and I can’t stop marveling at how boldly sassy this writer from the 4th century is while battling heresy! 3. This is a fundamental work that proclaims that JESUS IS GOD, which is why any of the Christians you (should) know get excited about God being born as a baby (usually around this time of the year, some of us- all year :D). 4. Major points made in this work have truly upended many heresies back then, and to my surprise, some from today! 5. The work is a true cornerstone in church history for affirming the Christian faith and its tenets. Below are a few notes I made over the last week while reading this on the train- just to pique the interest of those who mistakenly assume they would not come ten feet of ever reading this book.
Hello Christmas!
Now I have a new way to describe certain people…
Great idea to categorize the activity of evil spirits as fraudulent, since they twist and misrepresent the truth of God.
Bodily resurrection on the third day and its key implications.
Would love to know the Greek words he used for this part…
Ouch
Evolution: 😭
Rowling: 😭
Extremely candid thoughts and cartoons on serious church literature: a common side-effect of allowing scientist laypeople, such as the author of this post, into elite theological reading circles.
Beyond these, one can find many more points in the book that profoundly shape today’s Christian faith, as summarized in this article: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/on-the-incarnation.
As a final point, Athanasius’ eloquent imagery helps the reader picture the love that a Christian has for Jesus, and the unshakeable faith that He truly IS God and not a created being. The following YouTube channel has several shorts that highlight some powerful excerpts, including one from Chapter 2 that describes the reason why God became human:
YouTube short from the Biblical frameworks channel (https://www.youtube.com/@biblicalframeworks/featured, Official website: https://biblicalframeworks.com/)
Well, now you have two options: go back to your ultra-boring whatever get-together as you sit next to someone using up all the oxygen in your vicinity talking about blah blah blah OR you cozy up in a corner and truly get to know WHY Jesus being born as a baby made all the difference for all of humanity by reading On the Incarnation of the Word by Athanasius from Alexandria (some browsers have narrate functions that can turn this into an audio book with a lovely robot voice, or one can choose this audio narration of the text). Feel free to share your own screenshots, notes or comments below! Happy rest of the year and a wonderful new one ahead :)!
Some more videos on Athanasius to jump start your morning:
