Excerpts from chapter xiv of Arthur Michael Ramsey, The Glory of God and the Transfiguration of
Christ (1949; Eugene: Wipf & Stock reprint):
“The Transfiguration does not belong
to the central core of the Gospel. The apostolic Kerygma did not, so far as we
know, include it; and it would be hard for Christians to claim that the
salvation of mankind could not be wrought without it. But it stands as a
gateway, to the saving events of the Gospel, and is as a mirror in which the
Christian mystery is seen in its unity. Here we perceive that the living and
the dead are one in Christ, that the old covenant and the new are inseparable,
that the Cross and the glory are of one, that the age to come is already here,
that our human nature has a destiny of a glory, that in Christ the final word
is uttered and in Him alone the Father is well pleased. Here the diverse
elements in the theology of the New Testament meet.” (144)
"So great is the impact of theology upon language that the word 'transfigure', drawn from a Biblical story to which scant attention has often been paid, has entered into the practical vocabulary of the Christian life:
1.To The Christian suffering is transfigured...
2.To The Christian knowledge is transfigured...
3.To The Christian the world is transfigured..." (145)
"Analysing the possibilities open to those who are aware that they are live in a 'declining civilization' Dr. Toynbee distinguishes four principles: archaism, futurism, detachment, transfiguration. Archaism is the yearning for a past golden age; futurism is a phantasy of a new age utterly unrelated to that which now exists, and the quest of it is often pursued by violent means; detachment (for which 'escapism' would be a better word, since Christians know detachment in a good sense) is an escape into contemplation; but transfiguration is a faith whereby 'we bring the total situation, as we ourselves participate in it, into a larger context which gives it a new meaning.' Of such a faith, so the contention of this book has been, the Biblical doctrine of the GLORY provides the pattern and the event of the Transfiguration provides the symbol." (146)
"Confronted as he is with a universe more than ever terrible in the
blindness and the destructiveness of its potentialities, mankind must be
led to the Christian faith, not as a panacea of progress nor as an other-worldly
solution unrelated to history, but as a Gospel of Transfiguration. Such a Gospel both transcends the world and speaks directly to the immediate
here-and-now. He who is transfigured is the Son of Man; and, as He discloses on
mount Hermon another world, He reveals that no part of created things, and
no moment of created time lies outside the power of the Spirit, who is Lord, to
change it from glory to glory.” (147)
