Those leading the assault on “classical theism” in recent decades has charged that the classical doctrine of God in Christian theology has reduced God to an impassive Stoic at best, and impersonal Substance at worst.
Few can lay more direct claim to having founded “classical theism” than Athanasius, and yet Athanasius certainly did not believe the Father and Son were humorless motionless statues. Athanasius takes Proverbs 8:30 as a reference to the joy of the Father, and against the Arians he argues that it would be impious to say that God acquired “a cause of rejoicing from outside himself.”
He adds, “For he did not delight in this way by aquiring delight as an addition to himself, but it was upon seting the works that were made according to his own image, so that the basis of this delight also is God’s own Image.” The Son also rejoices “by seeing Himself in the Father.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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