On the Tree of the Cross

— About the Book —

Thou hast redeemed us from the curse of the Law by Thy precious Blood. By being nailed to the Cross and pierced with the Spear, Thou hast poured immortality on mankind. O our Saviour, glory to Thee.       

                                                                                           — Troparion for Holy Friday

Atonement is a contested but inescapable term in contemporary English-language theological discussion. The doctrine of atonement has received little attention in Orthodox Christian circles since the work of Fr Georges Florovsky, who labored to clarify and promulgate the Orthodox teaching on atonement on the basis of his theological leitmotifs of neo-patristic synthesis and encounter with the West. Florovsky saw the doctrine of the person of Christ as the key to apprehending the pattern and the unity of God’s redemptive work. Hence he always sought to follow the Church Fathers in weaving together the themes of creation and fall, incarnation and atonement, deification and redemption, liturgy and asceticism, in the variegated yet seamless robe of true theology.

The present volume is inspired by Florovsky’s legacy. It is composed of two parts. The first is a collection of papers on atonement by contemporary scholars from a patristic symposium in honor of Florovsky held at  Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University in 2011. The second part is a collection of writings on atonement by Florovsky himself, including previously unpublished manuscripts and other works otherwise hard to access. This book offers incisive and informed neo-patristic voices to any contemporary discussion of atonement, thus responding to the perennial legacy and task to which Fr Georges Florovsky exhorted Orthodox theological reflection.

— Contents —

Preface

Abbreviations

Part I: Proceedings of the First Annual Symposium of the Fr Georges Florovsky Orthodox Theological Society at Princeton

Introduction  Marcus Plested

A Sacrifice for Life: Atonement in the Orthodox Liturgical Tradition  Irenei Steenberg

Irenaeus on “Atonement”  John Behr

Creation and Salvation in St Athanasius of Alexandria  Khaled Anatolios

Theology of Salvation in St Gregory the Theologian  John McGuckin

Atonement in the Ascetic Fathers  Alexis Torrance

In Ligno Crucis: Atonement in the Theology of Fr Georges Florovsky  Matthew Baker

Part II: Georges Florovsky on Atonement, Unpublished and Republished Materials

Introduction  Matthew Baker and Seraphim Danckaert

In Ligno Crucis: Ad Lectorem  Georges Florovsky

In Ligno Crucis (A Summary from Sweden)  Georges Florovsky 

Redemption (Précis of a Planned Book)  Georges Florovsky

The Stumbling-Block  Georges Florovsky

Contributors