The Mystery of the Incarnation

Maximus the Confessor calls the incarnation "a mystery even more inconceivable that any other. By taking flesh God makes himself understood only by appearing still more incomprehensible."*

It is too much for the imagine to grasp how the Uncontainable can Himself be contained in a body which He created. Still more beyond comprehension how this self-emptying act of becoming human and submitting to a bloody and violent death can lead to our salvation. It seems to me that a proper response to this tenet of the Christian faith would be awe and thanksgiving. (Remind me what Eucharist means?) But many instead decide to come up with some kind of theory to 'explain' this.

Olivier Clément says of Anselm of Canterbury's (rather late to the game) Theory of Satisfaction that "Christ's sacrifice was not in the least demanded by the Father, as the only thing that could satisfy divine justice, appease the wrath of God, and incline him favourably towards the human race. That would be a regression to a non-biblical idea of sacrifice...." The early fathers of the Church understood Christ's sacrifice as "a sacrifice of praise, of sanctification, of restoration, by which he offers the whole of creation to the Father so that the Father may bring it to life in the Holy Spirit."

*all quotes are taken from The Foundations of Christian Mysticism, by Olivier Clément