Saturday, January 15, 2011


And that it may be more clearly understood what the glory of omnipotence is, we shall add the following. God the Father is omnipotent, because He has power over all things, i.e., over heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, and all things in them. And He exercises His power over them by means of His Word, because at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, both of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. And if every knee is bent to Jesus, then, without doubt, it is Jesus to whom all things are subject, and He it is who exercises power over all things, and through whom all things are subject to the Father; for through wisdom, i.e., by word and reason, not by force and necessity, are all things subject. And therefore His glory consists in this very thing, that He possesses all things, and this is the purest and most limpid glory of omnipotence, that by reason and wisdom, not by force and necessity, all things are subject. (Book I, Chapter 2, Part 10)


I have argued that omnipotence - as typically understood - is not what we have seen in the life of Jesus. (additional critique)

Above Origen defines omnipotence in an atypical manner: the application of reason and wisdom, the antithesis of force and necessity.

Logos does not force itself upon us, but logos is the fundamental nature of reality. In the end, reason wins. Over the long-term wisdom has her way.

The Sermon on the Mount has persisted long after the execution of its preacher.

Wisdom is omnipotent.

The image is an early 18th Century icon of Holy Wisdom with Christ.

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