Reflection on Athanasius in Light (?) of Wittgenstein and Hauerwas
Version 2.0
Let's try this again.
Athanasius' On the Incarnation narrates salvation as the redemption and enlightenment of the world through the coming of God in Jesus Christ. This work was aimed at a variety of common errors in Athanasius' day that seemed to make the incarnation unintelligible or distort it, most notably Arianism. He combatted Arianism by telling the story of Jesus in a way that trains audiences to see him as the incarnate Word of the Father.
Does that sound more like the way modernity approaches misunderstandings, or more like the way Wittgenstein and especially Hauerwas work to correct misunderstandings? (Nudge nudge.)
Our own churches misunderstand Jesus in a variety of ways. You are probably familiar with modernity's fundamentalist and liberal prescriptions for addressing misunderstandings. This exercise aims to give you practice in pre- and post-modern approaches by leading you back into Athanasius and Kallenberg for guidance on how we might approach misunderstandings of Jesus Christ in our own circles.
Brad Kallenberg has been weaving a picture of how we know with the warp of Wittgenstein's account of knowing through ordinary language in life and the woof of Hauerwas' account of the church-centered character of Christian knowledge. This fabric has been aimed at showing how Wittgenstein's corrections to a potentially infinite variety of 'grammatical errors' informs Hauerwas' correction of errors specific to the Christian faith in modern context.
Your assignment is:
Identify two (or one if you prefer) common errors in interpretation of incarnation in a community such as your church, your circle of friends, your family, or your college. Show how Kallenberg's treatment of learning, knowing, and teaching (embodied perhaps in Athanasius' On the Incarnation) can help diagnose and treat them.
Note that you will need to process Kallenberg to make this project work!
Please keep your paper 3-4 pages, double-spaced, and follow the directions in my handout for writing papers.
Remember, I want to see proper style, clear writing, a thorough answer to the question, and explicit citations of course materials.