Two Questions Along the Way to St. Irenaeus and Bishops

This week, episode 12 for 5 May 2022, I am answering questions.

The first is from my nephew, Billy Jenkins, who has been on my other podcast, Path to the Academy (which you can hear here).

And the second comes from none other than AFR podcaster and cohost of The Areopagaus, Pastor Mike Landsman. I have been the happy guest of Pastor Mike and Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick on a number of occasions, (going backward through time) including here, here, here, here, here, and here. (The last one is on my book, Calvin’s Tormentors.)

Billy writes,

“Have you read the little book called Heavenly Participation by Hans Boersma? Or, are you familiar with his work? Whether you have or not, I wanted to ask you about whether as an Orthodox, your understanding of the Real Presence is a version of Neo-Platonism which can speak of the consecrated elements co-inhering with the ascended Christ in the same way a waterfall is a participation in the Platonic Form of Beauty?”

Pastor Mike writes: “You had mentioned Platonism and I wondered what your thoughts were on the, for lack of a better term, ressourcement of Platonism for the Christian tradition. Theologians like Hans Boersma, Craig Carter, and Matthew Barrett spring to mind.”

As for the books mentioned in this episode, you can find Boersma’s book here, and then Jaroslav Pelikan’s book here.

Happy and blessed reading.