Thomas Wood (1952): to be a living sacrifice requires the transformation of our entire character. #catholicanglicanism St Pauls injunction [to be a living sacrifice] involves far more than the right solution of isolated moral problems; it requires nothing less than the re-creation of our whole nature, the transformation of our entire character. That transformation is not the work of any human agency; it can be effected only by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the advice of wise men can do much to quicken our response to the Spirits influence, and it was here that our casuists [i.e., Anglican moral theologians] recognized their hardest duty and their supreme privilege to lie. They tried to give men a vision of the love and holiness of God, that they might grow more sensitive to the enormity of human sin; to incite them to a clearer discernment of their own sins, and a heartier detestation of them; to lead men on to that godly sorrow which is true contrition, and to build them up in the grace of the Lord Jesus by the cultivation of pious habits [e.g., regula, recollection, confession, etc.]; so that their consciences might be only be examined but illuminated, their motives and intentions not only scrutinized but purified. In a word, to ensure not only that their actions might be lawful, but that their lives might be holy. (Thomas Wood, English Casuistical Divinity During the Seventeenth Century, p. xii)
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 10:13:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015