How do we understand the
incarnation of Christ? Modern society dictates that we understand this annual
event as a shopping spree, as a gift-giving moment in the year where we try and
make each other happy with goods. However, what is the theology behind the
Incarnation? Why do we wish to celebrate this annually? How important is the
incarnation of Christ for the Church? Below we find how the Orthodox Church
understands this mystery by reading the words of an Anglican priest and
theologian, Donald Allchin, who was very much interested in Orthodoxy, being in
many ways Orthodox but in an Anglican form. He explains:
‘And surely the Orthodox Church
is right when it sees the incarnation of the Word, not as an isolated, single
event, but as a revelation of God’s love which wills to redeem and transfigure
the whole created universe. The person of Jesus of Nazareth in whom all the
fullness the godhead dwells is to be the focal point from which the divine
presence is to radiate out into the world, and bring the Church into being. The
presence of God is to be found throughout the life of the Church.’[1]
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