The Radical Truth: Christ Reveals Man to Himself, by John M. Grondelski

This year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first of the seven ecumenical councils, accepted by Catholics and Orthodox alike.  The Council met from May to June 325. Pope Francis wanted to go to Turkey (within which Nicaea now sits) for the occasion.  His extended illness and death made that trip impossible, though it remains likely that Pope Leo XIV will go to Turkey this Fall, his first international pilgrimage.

The early Councils were dominated by Christological and Trinitarian controversies: how Jesus’s human and divine natures fit together and how the three Persons of the Trinity were related.  Modern people, unaccustomed to thinking in terms of “natures” and “persons” (in a technical theological sense), perhaps imagine those Councils were preoccupied with much ado about nothing.  However, contemporary cultural and political debates about what a human being is and gender ideology reveal that the “nature/person” question is alive and well, even if we have forgotten the terminology that could help clarify things. …

Continue reading >>>>>>>>>