The Mystery Of God By Paul Evdokimov - 834 Words

Today’s world is filled with evidence of the Fall of creation. One only has to turn on the news to hear horrific travesties of the day. Murder, terrorists attacks, rape, slander, etc., humanity was not made to participate in acts of violence and abuse but to be divine and deify the created order. How does humanity reorient to its true purpose and true nature – worship and praise God? Paul Evdokimov, an Eastern Christian theology, writes in his book, The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty, Beauty redeems humanity and deifies it bringing it back to its original state of worship, peace and harmony. â€Å"Beauty is the splendor of truth† (Chapter 1, Part I). It is God. The mystery of God is revealed as humanity encounters Beauty and transcends one’s earthly state. Natural beauty in the created order shines of the light of God but does not bare God’s identity. For the beautiful to be God, one â€Å"must nourish and enlighten man’s spirit† (Chapter 7, Part I). â€Å"The beautiful, then, is a shining forth, an epiphany, of the mysterious depths of being, of that interiority that is a witness to the intimate relation between the body and the spirit. ‘Ordered’ and ‘defied’ nature allows us to see God’s Beauty through the human face of Christ† (Chapter 3, Part I). Humanity was created out of God and for God. Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve were perfect in image and likeness of God. Their dominion over the created order was one of appropriate and dignifying use to offer it back to GodShow MoreRelated Is Veneration of Icons Idolatry? Essay3451 Words   |  14 Pagesof God was inconceivable in view of Gods ineffable and unknowable qualities. Claim that icons were a sacred art was, iconoclasts argued, simply to clothe them in superstition and even heresy since they denied any presence of the person represented, the prototype, in his iconographic image. They could not see that the icon portrayed the visible of the invisible and the invisible in the visible (Evdokimov, 1972:193-194). Calvin, in arguing against the use of icons, said the majesty of God isRead MoreByzantine Sacred Arts Bearing The Mystic Ideal Of Human Deification As Ontological Therapy1213 Words   |  5 Pagesto Orthodoxy, is the perfect (re)union with God. The Orthodox term for the mystery of divine-human (theandric) reconciliation is â€Å"deification† or â€Å"theosis† (ÃŽ ¸ÃŽ ­Ãâ€°ÃÆ'ÃŽ ¹Ãâ€š). There are three main theological sources that feed this crucial theologeme. In his Gospel, John says: â€Å"ÃŽÅ¡ÃŽ ±Ã¡ ½ ¶ á ½  ΛÏÅ'ÃŽ ³ÃŽ ¿Ãâ€š ÏÆ'ÃŽ ¬Ã ÃŽ ¾ á ¼ ÃŽ ³ÃŽ ­ÃŽ ½ÃŽ µÃâ€žÃŽ ¿ ÃŽ ºÃŽ ±Ã¡ ½ ¶ á ¼ ÃÆ'ÃŽ ºÃŽ ®ÃŽ ½Ãâ€°ÃÆ'ÃŽ µÃŽ ½ á ¼ ÃŽ ½ á ¼ ¡ÃŽ ¼Ã¡ ¿â€"ÃŽ ½,† that is â€Å"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.† Human deification is made possible by the incarnation of the Logos of God. Later, Paul, as a testimony of this eschat ological experience