Yesterday, I turned in my first paper for my History of Doctrine class. The PhD students in the class have to write five preceptorial papers and one major research paper. The readings for the paper were Athanasius’ On the Incarnation and Gregory of Nyssa’s An Address on Religious Instruction. In my paper I focused on Athanasius and Gregory’s discussion of the resurrection and how Christ’s resurrection impacts the meaning and significance of death for Christians. During my time as a local pastor, I was often frustrated by the discrepancy between what I believe Scripture says about life after death and what many people in my congregation believed about life after death. This was one of the main areas where I tried to graciously communicate the good news of the gospel, in hopes that we would allow the gospel to transform our understanding of life, death, and life after death. In any case, the paper itself follows if you are interested in reading it… Continue reading →