In the latest installment in our series, “Getting to know the RTS Orlando Faculty,” we have the opportunity to hear from Dr. Jonatán Simons, noted patristics scholar and RTS Fellow in Early Christianity. Coming from Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia (FUSBC), Dr. Simons is serving as fellow on the RTS Orlando campus from July 2024 to January 2025. During his time with us, he will bring his expertise to a number of RTS classes, both in Orlando for residential and hybrid students, and online.
(You can find all previous faculty interviews here, or read the introduction to this series here.)
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born in the sweltering heat on the banks of the river Magdalena, and I grew up in the small coffee growing town of Samaniego, both in Colombia, South America (not South Carolina), but I finished high school near the NASCAR track of Homestead, Florida. My mother is from Colombia and my father is from the USA, so as a missionary kid, I don’t know where I am from. I went to college in Palm Beach Atlantic University, where the Great Books honors program introduced me to primary texts of history and philosophy, but more importantly, it introduced me to the young woman who would become my wife, Teresa (or T-Roe, as they called her). A semester abroad at Oxford University and a tutorial on Augustine was formative to how I viewed theology. A year after we finished college, Teresa and I were married, and we both attended RTS Charlotte and served in the local church of Clover, ARP, where our three children, Norah, Caedmon, and Lina, were baptized. Both seminary and church provided wonderful community during those early stages of ministry. I always felt called to theological education in the majority world, so I went to Wheaton College for a second Masters in History, and after a failed first round of PhD applications (with insufficient scholarships) we moved to Colombia, where I taught for a year at FUSBC until a scholarship opportunity arose under the supervision of the incredible Lewis Ayres, at Australian Catholic University (ACU). After finishing in 2021, we returned to Colombia, where I have been teaching ever since.
2. Your dissertation Divine Simplicity in the Theology of Irenaeus was recently published by Brill. What led you to this topic?
I think one of the greatest strengths of Reformed Theology is starting from Theology Proper, exemplified in WSC 3, where the first part of the answer affirms “Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God.” In much of modern Latin America, theologians tend to start from anthropology from which flows everything else, and often, this leads to a conception of God made in man’s image. I wanted to take time to think carefully about theology proper.
In the introduction of G.K. Chesterton’s biography of Aquinas, he tells the story of a lady who “picked up a book on selections from St. Thomas, with a commentary; and began hopefully to read a section with the innocent heading, ‘The Simplicity of God.’ She then laid down the book with a sigh and said, ‘Well, if that’s His simplicity, I wonder what His complexity is like’” (Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas: “The Dumb Ox“). I had a similar experience when I attended a conference on this topic at Wheaton College, where there was a symposium on divine simplicity, and I witnessed discussions between people like Dr. Lewis Ayres, Dr. Matthew Levering, Fr. John Behr, and Fr. Brian Daley. The lively debate (really, more of a verbal wrestling match) round the table spurred ideas, questions, and produced scribbled pages that showed me how little I knew, and convinced me that this was an idea worth pursuing. The historical focus on Irenaeus in studies of divine simplicity had never been explored at a monograph level, and email correspondence with each of those four men encouraged me to explore further. Dr. Lewis Ayres took a chance on me, for which I am eternally grateful, and I was privileged to study this topic with him, Matthew Crawford and Michael Champion, and with the members of the IRCI (Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry) at ACU.
3. How has your research influenced your Christian life?
I think my research stems from nagging questions that were planted in class, cultivated in discussion during a class break, and watered in the reading of Scripture. So, in part, I think my research has taught me to pay attention to those nagging questions and seek to be a little less wrong. Also, part of research is to work on something small and focused, and I think there is virtue in exploring something for its own sake, even if it is hard to verbalize the “so what?” right away, but it is often when I am with church members that the answer to this question is solidified in my mind. Lastly, for me, an idea changes from its inception to its publication, and sometimes we change our mind after it is in print. I have learned to try to be humble in research, and differentiate between ideas that I am exploring, and have not yet hammered down, and things that I know to be true. I feel that, in ministry and teaching, my job is to emphasize what Scripture emphasizes, the whole counsel of God. So, I would flip this question, and say that ministry, in the classroom, the pulpit, and in the pew has influenced my research. Ministry in the church while researching has been so good for my soul, reminding me the things that have eternal significance and teaching me to see God’s hand even in the little things that do not matter to most people. Sometimes just a phrase in the liturgy of a service teaches me why my little corner of research is worth doing.
4. How has your work as an Assistant Professor of Theology at FUSBC influenced your teaching, both inside and outside the classroom?
One way is very personal. Our family left Colombia when I was 16 years old, during a time when there was a spike in violence. This meant that our departure happened quickly, and many of my final memories were not great. I did not want to go back. However, God has brought healing to some previously unresolved pain by returning, both through a professional counselor and through working alongside students. In particular, I was able to think theologically about the transformation of the Incarnation in daily life, things like displacement by violence. Athanasius says that God became a man and suffered displacement (fuga 12 reading Matthew 2), and it is beautiful to see that God restores us into his family, and promises us a place, “that where I am there you may also be” (Jn 14:3). This is a promise that I hadn’t really thought through previously.
There is also a cultural resistance to teaching History of Christianity, especially Patristics, in an evangelical institution in Colombia because the evangelical church tends to fear anything that smells Roman Catholic. However, after just one semester, at FUSBC we started something similar to the Paideia Institute of RTS. I began a reading group with 15-20 students. We developed a community of students who desired to better understand their lineage of faith. It taught me to encourage life-long learning, where the habit of reading texts of historical theology became a key tool to aid the pastor-theologians to better know God, to “be increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin and rise unto newness of life” (WSC 75), and “to promote the unity, peace, purity, and prosperity of the Church” (ARP Form of Government 8.17.7). It was beautiful to see, after just a few years, the excitement of the students and a growing love for great texts.
5. What projects are you currently working on?
The first project is trying to remember how to teach in English. That sounds silly, but for the last four years, all my teaching has been in Spanish. I am trying to relearn how to talk about things such as the difference between potentiality and actuality without using words in Spanish.
Beyond that, I have been working on two translation projects from Greek into Spanish. The first, which is almost complete, is two Apologies, On Flight and To Constantius, written by Athanasius of Alexandria. Athanasius shows Scriptural mandates that permit Christians to flee in times of persecution. The modern link between exile and displacement makes these texts very relevant to the more than 6 million persons displaced by violence in Colombia. I have presented on the topic twice and am now trying to put the pieces together to publish an article in English and Spanish.
But, most urgent of all, I am working on two book chapters: one on “trinity” in pre-Nicaea, and the other on Augustine’s view of the Trinity. This is a book, written in Spanish, which explores the concept of the Trinity in Scripture and history, and should be published early next year.
6. What are you most looking forward to during your time at RTS Orlando?
There is so much. It is great to have access to a really good library. It has already been incredible to meet students with shared interests in patristics. I have felt so welcomed by the faculty and staff at RTSO, I am really looking forward to getting to know them and dream about research ideas for the future. I am thrilled that my kids get to go to American school, and as a family, we still feel overwhelmed with the number of great churches that are within driving distance. I am excited to be in a place with like-minded people, and we are so very blessed here in Orlando. I am also excited for the spontaneous conversations in the hallway, or around a water cooler/Keurig machine with students, staff, and faculty, where ideas and questions are hatched, verbalized, or debated. I have really missed the ability to have deep and Reformed theological conversations. For me, these opportunities have not come often in a lifetime, and to be honest, several of my heroes work here at RTSO. I am really looking forward to this semester.
