An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II

Book II

• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.1 — Concerning æon or age. He created the ages Who Himself was before the ages, Whom the divine David thus addresses, From age to age Thou art. The divine apostle also says, Through Whom He created the ages. It must then…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.2 — Concerning the creation. Since, then, God, Who is good and more than good, did not find satisfaction in self-contemplation, but in His exceeding goodness wished certain things to come into existence which would enjoy…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.3 — Concerning angels. He is Himself the Maker and Creator of the angels: for He brought them out of nothing into being and created them after His own image, an incorporeal race, a sort of spirit or immaterial fire: in…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.4 — Concerning the devil and demons. He who from among these angelic powers was set over the earthly realm, and into whose hands God committed the guardianship of the earth, was not made wicked in nature but was good,…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.5 — Concerning the visible creation. Our God Himself, Whom we glorify as Three in One, created the heaven and the earth and all that they contain, and brought all things out of nothing into being: some He made out of no…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.6 — Concerning the Heaven. The heaven is the circumference of things created, both visible and invisible. For within its boundary are included and marked off both the mental faculties of the angels and all the world of…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.7 — Concerning light, fire, the luminaries, sun, moon and stars. Fire is one of the four elements, light and with a greater tendency to ascend than the others. It has the power of burning and also of giving light, and it…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.8 — Concerning air and winds. Air is the most subtle element, and is moist and warm: heavier, indeed, than fire: but lighter than earth and water: it is the cause of respiration and voice: it is colourless, that is, it…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.9 — Concerning the waters. Water also is one of the four elements, the most beautiful of God’s creations. It is both wet and cold, heavy, and with a tendency to descend, and flows with great readiness. It is this the…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.10 — Concerning earth and its products. The earth is one of the four elements, dry, cold, heavy, motionless, brought into being by God, out of nothing on the first day. For in the beginning, he said, God created the…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.11 — Concerning Paradise. Now when God was about to fashion man out of the visible and invisible creation in His own image and likeness to reign as king and ruler over all the earth and all that it contains, He first made…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.12 — Concerning Man. In this way, then, God brought into existence mental essence, by which I mean, angels and all the heavenly orders. For these clearly have a mental and incorporeal nature: “incorporeal” I mean in…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.13 — Concerning Pleasures. There are pleasures of the soul and pleasures of the body. The pleasures of the soul are those which are the exclusive possession of the soul, such as the pleasures of learning and…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.14 — Concerning Pain. There are four varieties of pain, viz., anguish, grief, envy, pity. Anguish is pain without utterance: grief is pain that is heavy to bear like a burden: envy is pain over the good fortune of others:…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.15 — Concerning Fear. Fear is divided into six varieties: viz., shrinking, shame, disgrace, consternation, panic, anxiety. Shrinking is fear of some act about to take place. Shame is fear arising from the anticipation of…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.16 — Concerning Anger. Anger is the ebullition of the heart’s blood produced by bilious exhalation or turbidity. Hence it is that the words χολή and χόλος are both used in the sense of anger. Anger is sometimes lust for…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.17 — Concerning Imagination. Imagination is a faculty of the unreasoning part of the soul. It is through the organs of sense that it is brought into action, and it is spoken of as sensation. And further, what is imagined…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.18 — Concerning Sensation. Sensation is that faculty of the soul whereby material objects can be apprehended or discriminated. And the sensoria are the organs or members through which sensations are conveyed. And the…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.19 — Concerning Thought. The faculty of thought deals with judgments and assents, and impulse to action and disinclinations, and escapes from action: and more especially with thoughts connected with what is thinkable, and…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.20 — Concerning Memory. The faculty of memory is the cause and storehouse of remembrance and recollection. For memory is a fantasy that is left behind of some sensation and thought manifesting itself in action; or the…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.21 — Concerning Conception and Articulation. Again the reasoning part of the soul is divided into conception and articulation. Conception is an activity of the soul originating in the reason without resulting in…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.22 — Concerning Passion and Energy. Passion is a word with various meanings. It is used in regard to the body, and refers to diseases and wounds, and again, it is used in reference to the soul, and means desire and anger.…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.23 — Concerning Energy. All the faculties we have already discussed, both those of knowledge and those of life, both the natural and the artificial, are, it is to be noted, called energies. For energy is the natural force…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.24 — Concerning what is Voluntary and what is Involuntary. The voluntary implies a certain definite action, and so-called involuntariness also implies a certain definite action. Further, many attribute true…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.25 — Concerning what is in our own power, that is, concerning Free-will. The first enquiry involved in the consideration of free-will, that is, of what is in our own power, is whether anything is in our power: for there…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.26 — Concerning Events. Of events, some are in our hands, others are not. Those then are in our hands which we are free to do or not to do at our will, that is all actions that are done voluntarily (for those actions are…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.27 — Concerning the reason of our endowment with Free-will. We hold, therefore, that free-will comes on the scene at the same moment as reason, and that change and alteration are congenital to all that is produced. For…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.28 — Concerning what is not in our hands. Of things that are not in our hands some have their beginning or cause in those that are in our power, that is to say, the recompenses of our actions both in the present and in…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.29 — Concerning Providence. Providence, then, is the care that God takes over existing things. And again: Providence is the will of God through which all existing things receive their fitting issue. But if Providence is…vatican.va
• An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith II.30 — Concerning Prescience and Predestination. We ought to understand that while God knows all things beforehand, yet He does not predetermine all things. For He knows beforehand those things that are in our power, but He…vatican.va