Hans Boersma: Reading Up or Reading Down? – Hospitable Readings in the Early Church

How should we respond when God comes knocking at our door? The story of the three visitors to Abraham at Mamre (Genesis 18) provides us with answers. The short answer is simply: “hospitality.” The longer answer makes clear that when God appears—at Mamre, in the Incarnation, and in the Christian Scriptures—we don’t all react the same way. In this lecture, we look at how Origen (from Alexandria) and John Chrysostom (from Antioch) preached on God’s appearance (theophany) to Abraham. Both church fathers extolled the practice of hospitality, but they certainly didn’t understand it in identical ways.  

This lecture is part of our Summer Lectures 2016 series.

Hans Boersma is the J.I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College. His research interests include Catholic thought, the church fathers, and spiritual interpretation of Scripture. His recent publications include Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach. 

Dr. Boersma will be teaching the course “History of Christian Doctrine” and the course “Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers” from July 18-29 as part of our 2016 Summer Programs. Learn more at rgnt.net/summer.

http://www.regent-college.edu/about-us/events/event-details?event_id=495