Christology: Encyclopedia II - Christology - Some Christological viewpoints

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.

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