Iron in the fire

Theologians have long been fascinated by the way iron takes on the properties of fire, and have used the analogy for all sorts of things. Luther said that the Word confers its qualities to the soul He indwells as the fire confers heat to iron; some church fathers use the iron in the fire as a Christological analogy; it’s been used as a Eucharistic analogy too.

Cyril of Alexandria uses it as a way to explain the passibility of the impassible Word in the incarnation: “It is like iron, or other such material, when it is put in contact with a raging fire. It receives the fire into itself, and when it is in the very heart of the fire, if someone should beat it, then the material itself takes the battering but the nature of the fire is in no way injured by the one who strikes it. This is how you should understand the way in which the Son is said both to suffer in the flesh and not to suffer in the Godhead.”