Christology: Encyclopedia - Christology

Christology

• New Testament view
• Miracles
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• Religious views
• Background
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Christology is that part of Christian theology that studies and defines who Jesus the Christ was and is. It is generally less concerned with the minor details of his life; rather it deals with who he was, the incarnation, and the major events of his life (his birth, death, and resurrection).

Important issues in Christology include:

• His human nature
• His divine nature
• The interrelationship between these two natures; how they interacted and affected each other

Christology may also cover questions concerning the nature of God like the Trinity, Unitarianism or Binitarianism, and what, if anything, Christ accomplished for the rest of humanity. There are almost as many Christological views as there are variants of Christianity. The different Christological views of various Christian sects have led to accusations of heresy, and subsequent religious persecution. In many cases, a sect's unique christology is its chief distinctive feature; in these cases it is common for the sect to be known by the name given to its christology.

Christology - Some Christological viewpoints

Some important controversies have included the controversy with Arians over Christ's divinity and relationship with the Father, which led to the adoption of the Nicene-Constantinople Creed; the controversy over Nestorianism, and that over Monophysitism (and its derivates Monothelitism and Monoenergism) which led to the first Seven Ecumenical Councils and their many decrees, canons and professions of faith. The adoption of the Chalcedonian view of Christology was, as Karl Rahner would say, key to the beginning of Christological Discussion. Other controversies in Chrstology included the Docetists and the Adoptionists.

We can describe most of these in terms of whether they believed Christ had a divine nature, human nature or both; and if both, in terms of how the two natures coexisted or interacted. All of these views will be presented in simplified form; see the related articles for more complete treatment.

Perhaps the earliest dispute within Christianity centered on whether Jesus was God. A number of early Christians believed that Jesus was not divine, but was simply a human Moshiach prophet promised in the Old Testament, see Deuteronomy 18. This heresy, that believed that Jesus was simply a prophet as promised in the Old Testament, and not truly One with the Father, as the Second Person of the Trinity, True God and True Man, was known as the Ebonite heresy, and was the first Heresy. It originated in the Judeo-Christian community in Nazareth. The inclusion of the genealogies of Jesus Christ at Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 are used to explain the belief that Jesus is the Christ from the line of David. An alternative explanation is that Christ's natures were in opposition to each other; this is known as the Gnostic anti-Christian doctrines - hence considered a heresy - that Jesus Christ only had the illusion of a human body and, thus, no human ancestry at all. The belief that Jesus was only human was opposed by church leaders such as Paul and eventually came to be held only by heretical sects, which were soon subsumed by orthodox churches anyway, therefore these heretical beliefs went out of fashion due to the acceptance of true teaching and scholarly exegesis.

A position that is held by many who believe in Binitarianism is that Jesus was the Word, and thus God (John 1), before His birth, that He was not fully God while on Earth in the sense that He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19,30;8:28), and that Jesus became fully God after the resurrection with all authority (Matthew 28:18) and power of God as He had prior to His incarnation is also considered by most Orthodox Christian scholars as a modern day heresy.

The Chalcedonian view is summarized by the creed of Nicea-Constantinople which was ecumenically accepted at the Council of Chalcedon. This view is that Christ "possesses two natures," divine and human, which are united in the one person of Jesus Christ without either nature losing any of its properties nor uniqueness but without any separability. This creed was adapted at the Council of Chalcedon, and was greatly influenced by the Tome of Leo which Pope Leo I sent to be read at that council. It is the dogma of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and is also the view of the Anglican church, and many Protestant churches. One of the doctrines relating in depth to the nature of Jesus while on earth is kenosis.

Some other views lessen the extent to which Jesus was divine, one of which is the Arian view that Christ is not fully divine, but was created by God for the purpose of accomplishing salvation.

Yet other views made the claim that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human. The strict Monophysite view is that the human nature of Christ was dissolved or consumed by the Divine, whereas the Miaphysite view is that Christ exists as a hybrid nature, simultaneously human and Divine, unique in the universe. The Docetist view is that Christ was never fully human, but only appeared to be human. Semi-docetism only partially denies humanity, usually by asserting that Christ was not subject to temptation nor to any of the normal human frailties of hunger, fatigue, or fear of death.

Other views support the idea of Jesus as a man, for example, the Nestorian view is that the divine, and the man, shared the same body but retained two separate personhoods. The Adoptionist view is that Jesus was born a man only, but became God's son by adoption when he was baptized in the Jordan, whereas Psilanthropism is the view that Jesus is literally "only man", and not in any way divine.

Christology - Print resources

• Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to New Testament Christology. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. ISBN 0809135167
• Chemnitz, Martin. The Two Natures in Christ. J. A. O. Preus, trans. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1970. ISBN 0570032105
• Karkkainen, Veli-Matti. Christology: A Global Introduction. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003. ISBN 0801026210
• Matera, Frank J. New Testament Christology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999. ISBN 0664256945
• Norris, Richard A. and William G. Rusch. The Christological Controversy. Sources of Early Christian Thought Series. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1980. ISBN 0800614119
• O'Collins, Gerald. Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus Christ. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0198755023
• Outler, Albert C. Christology. Bristol House, 1996. ISBN 1885224087
• Ratzinger, Cardinal Joseph. Introduction to Christianity. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1969. ISBN I-58617-029-5
• Marchesi S.J., Giovanni. Gesu di Nazaret:Chi Sei? Lineamenti di cristologia. San Paolo Edizioni. 2004. ISBN: 8821552187

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Christology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki