{"id":2176,"date":"2019-09-15T21:58:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T02:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2020-05-23T18:17:44","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T23:17:44","slug":"the-foolishness-of-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2019\/09\/15\/the-foolishness-of-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"The Foolishness of the Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 1:18<\/p>\n

Based on St Paul’s text, Geoffrey Babion, a twelfth-century theologian, explained how God chose a seemingly foolish way to redeem sinful human beings.\u00a0 Only the faithful could see something so outwardly shameful as a man dying in a horrific manner on a cross\u00a0 as the power of God.\u00a0 Geoffrey, then, gave a lengthy explanation of humanity’s fall and Christ’s redemption:<\/p>\n

“When he was similar to God, the man had honor.\u00a0 He did not understand, when he sinned.\u00a0 Therefore, he was made similar to a beast of burden, when by sinning he became irrational.\u00a0 Two creatures had sinned, namely, the devil and the man. But one [sinned] by himself, and the other [sinned] through another.\u00a0 Therefore, since the devil [sinned] by himself, he did not deserve to be restored, particularly since he consists of such a subtle and spiritual essence.\u00a0 The man, since he was made from dirt, since he was deceived by such a cunning tempter, did not lose the hope of forgiveness.\u00a0 Therefore, although God and man were such opposites, neither the hope of forgiveness or redemption by such a just judge should be denied.\u00a0 Divine providence looked for the most equitable manner of reconciliation.\u00a0 For reason demanded that whoever wants to join two contrary things together, places such a thing between them that has a connection with both things.” Geoffrey Babion [Falsely attributed to Hildebert], In festo exaltationis sanctae crucis<\/em>, PL 171: 683C-D [My translation] \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Geoffrey demonstrates a great familiarity with the teachings regarding the fall of humanity and redemption in the twelfth-century schools here.\u00a0 His explanation in this sermon reflects Anselm of Canterbury’s basic doctrine of reconciliation of sinful human beings with a just God in his famous dialogue, Why God Became Man<\/em>.\u00a0 Notice how Geoffrey continued in the next section:<\/p>\n

“Moreover, when such from one part was God, the ignoble man was so much from the other part, so that they had to be reconciled, and through such a mediator, who was God and a human being.\u00a0 Therefore, with righteous judgment, God, who wanted to reconcile the human race, became a human being.\u00a0 If He had wanted to redeem angels, He would have taken on the angelic nature, but since He determined that only human beings were worthy for redemption, He took on human nature, a subservient person in a reasonable manner.” Ibid., 683C-684A.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 1:18 Based on St Paul’s text, Geoffrey Babion, a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,101,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-christ","category-cross","category-medieval","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}