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Chapter 7 - Perfection and the Transfiguration

from Part III - Transfiguration and Global Perfection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2024

Robin Gill
Affiliation:
University of Kent, Canterbury
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Summary

Chapter 7 discusses how the Transfiguration is seen within the Synoptic Gospels – and especially in the careful New Testament and Patristic scholarship of Daniel Kirk, Teresa Morgan and Peter Anthony-- as the principal occasion when the moral and spiritual perfection of Jesus received divine affirmation. Alongside the patriarch Moses and the prophet Elijah, Jesus is glimpsed in the Transfiguration narratives, falteringly, as someone immensely special and divinely endorsed, by three of his disciples, who (in Luke and two sixth-century church mosaics) are themselves included within the cloud (perhaps even theösis) that envelops Jesus, Moses and Elijah. This chapter examines both Aquinas’ and recent Eastern Orthodox accounts of the social implications of transfiguration. It also notes that transfiguration has been deeply disfigured by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1945.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Works Cited

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  • Perfection and the Transfiguration
  • Robin Gill, University of Kent, Canterbury
  • Book: Human Perfection, Transfiguration and Christian Ethics
  • Online publication: 09 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476775.011
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  • Perfection and the Transfiguration
  • Robin Gill, University of Kent, Canterbury
  • Book: Human Perfection, Transfiguration and Christian Ethics
  • Online publication: 09 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476775.011
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Perfection and the Transfiguration
  • Robin Gill, University of Kent, Canterbury
  • Book: Human Perfection, Transfiguration and Christian Ethics
  • Online publication: 09 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009476775.011
Available formats
×