A few years ago I participated in the Third International Conference on Clement of Alexandria in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. In April 2025, the papers from the conference was released in a book on Brill. I had a chapter on Clement’s view of ownership and sharing in Paedagogus II 12, 120, 3–6 ...

In the profound interaction between incarnation and atonement in Jesus, the blessed exchange it involved between the divine-human life of Jesus and mankind has the effect of finalising and sealing the ontological relations between every man and Jesus Christ. Thus 'our resurrection', as Athanasius once expressed it, 'is stored up in the Cross.' ...

When communicating with those who are unfamiliar with the scriptural support for the true victorious gospel, it can be beneficial to have a starting point from which to branch out as appropriate ...

To this end He takes to Himself a body capable of death, that it, by partaking of the Word Who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all, and might, because of the Word which had come to dwell in it, remain incorruptible, and that thenceforth corruption might be stayed from all by the Grace of the Resurrection. Whence, by offering unto death the body He Himself had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from any stain, straightway He put away death from all His peers by the offering of an equivalent ...

The race, in its collective unity, died, as He died, to sin, and should live, as He lives, to God. Each member of the race is then only in a true and normal state when he ceases to live for himself and actually lives for Christ. That is the mystic ideal which St. Paul placed before himself and others, and every advance in holiness is, in its measure, an approximation to it ...

If I should have to give up hope for any person, any country, any world, or any situation, then Jesus would not be the one who holds the universe together. There would still remain the burden of death, of travail, a load of night and darkness. Then Jesus would not be the light of the world, and his would not be a cosmic cross that brings everything back together. He would not be victorious. For what else could Jesus’ resurrection mean but eternal hope for all he holds together? ...

Thus our tribulation, without ceasing to be tribulation or to be felt to be tribulation, is transformed. We must suffer, as we suffered before. But our suffering is no longer a passive, dangerous, poisonous, destructive tribulation and perplexity, such as invade the souls of those who hate the Judge (ii. 9), but is transformed into a tribulation and perplexity which are creative, fruitful, powerful, promising, by which men are dissolved, cast to the ground, pressed into a corner, and imprisoned, by God ...

Nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ is the means of our salvation. There are means that are necessary to the revealing and enjoying the comfort of it, as the Holy Spirit and ministers to reveal it and faith to receive it; also, there be fruits and effects of the love of God, as faith, love, and obedience to Christ…yet these are no means of our salvation ...

It cannot be that cruelty dwells in God, who is love, and whose goodness is unsearchable, past finding out, far above all we can ask or think. There is such a confused noise among men, of the grace and love of God, so many voices that we are in confusion, and know not what to make of it. Look above, and hearken to the sweet voice in the region of love. What are the voices in heaven? They agree in one: no voices comes from heaven, but love, peace, and good will to man ...

William Paul Young and Brad Jersak discuss some heavy questions in church and theology based on their novel The Pastor: A Crisis. Well worth a listening too! ...