David Bentley Hart on the Nicene understanding of God

Original: • David Bentley Hart - N...

[@fdg2438]

It's like sitting in the living room of the highest heaven and listening to a sermon of one of the great apostles of the Lord.

[@fdg2438]

Teacher to teachers. Apostle to apostles. Doctor to doctors.

[@willrobinson1229]

Therefore, when Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, it is God Himself revealing His own heart.

[@thomassimmons1950]

DB is the Orson Wells of Christianity...and I mean that as a compliment!

[@glenclary3231]

Was this talk published? It's very good. I'd love to read it.

[@tookie36]

The gospel according to DBH ❤❤❤

[@the300XM8]

This was really high-level theology

[@Ver-oni-ca]

💕

[@johnstewart7025]

Crucifixion no more paradoxical than the Beatitudes.

[@peterandjoycevanbreemen600]

Cool.

[@dubbelkastrull]

3:25 Basil of Ceasarea 12:34 bookmark

[@motorhead48067]

I have to say much of this just sounds like eloquently-put nonsense to me. Around 2:30 he says (paraphrase, but a very close one) “God has a proportionate convertibility with his own manifestation of himself and this mirroring is an act that is none other than God’s expression of his own self-love and self-knowledge.” I really do believe I fully understand what is being said here insofar as it actually makes enough sense to be understood. People like Hart leave the impression that there’s a more sophisticated and intellectually respectable version of theology on offer but when you start really parsing the words you find it makes no more sense than popular theology, and rather often, even less sense. God’s manifestation of himself is an act of his own self-love and self-knowledge? What is really being claimed here metaphysically? That there is an un-manifest God? That the un-manifest God is separate from the manifest God but also “proportional” to him (lol)? This is just a silly word game in speculative philosophy that doesn’t survive the littlest scrutiny. If you want to play these word games just head for Buddhism. It expresses similar ideas but in a way that is actually philosophically defensible and doesn’t inject any bonkers metaphysics. I do very much appreciate this for what it is though. Very eloquent. I’d rather hear good bad theology than bad bad theology.

[@travisa2455]

"God's manifestation of himself is an act of his own self-love and self-knowledge? What is really being claimed here metaphysically? That there is an un-manifest God?" Say what? Hart's whole point about the Nicene dogma is that God the Father ("the Absolute") eternally begets and recognizes Himself in the Logos by the life of the Spirit. Even considered "apart" from creation, the Father fully manifests Himself to Himself, just as within creation He manifests Himself in Christ, Who is the Logos incarnate. God is never "un-manifest".

[@chosenskeptic5319]

Special pleading 🥺 tons of claims and assertions 😮

[@abhbible]

Lol shut up

[@TheProdigalMeowMeowMeowReturns]

LOL either a troll or a silly kind of skeptic

[@chosenskeptic5319]

@@TheProdigalMeowMeowMeowReturns 🤔 trolls in the dungeons

[@mooners544]

@@chosenskeptic5319 the world is a dungeon