Orthodox Forge

Christian Dogma

What do the Alexandrians seek from divine providence?

Q281 · Divine Providence

The Alexandrian Fathers — who sought the knowledge of the truth, and who realized that our Savior is the Truth and the true Teacher of Truth, and the Way and the Door that leads to Truth — aspired to declare Truth or to divine knowledge or “gnosis” as one of the greatest gifts of divine providence. The human being does not relate to God as a slave to a master or as a lifeless tool in the hand of a craftsman; but as a child who knows his father with true knowledge and trust; or as a bride going in to a bridal chamber together with her bridegroom, united together in mind and heart as they become one in body. The scholar Origen says, “For that which sees God is not the eye of the body; it is the mind which is made in the image of the Creator, and which God has in His providence rendered capable of that knowledge.”532