Christology


Christology is a branch of Christian theology that concerns Jesus. Different denominations have different opinions on questions such as whether Jesus was human, divine, or both, and as a messiah what his role would be in the freeing of the Jewish people from foreign rulers or in the prophesied Kingdom of God, and in the salvation from what would otherwise be the consequences of sin.
The earliest Christian writings gave several titles to Jesus, such as Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, and, which were all derived from Hebrew scripture. These terms centered around two opposing themes, namely "Jesus as a preexistent figure who becomes human and then returns to God", versus adoptionism—the idea that Jesus was a human who was "adopted" by God at his baptism, crucifixion, or resurrection. Prior to 2007, the scholarly consensus was that the divinity of Christ was a later development, though most scholars now argue that a high Christology existed prior to Paul.
From the second to the fifth centuries, the relation of the human and divine nature of Christ was a major focus of debates in the early church and at the first seven ecumenical councils. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 issued a formulation of the hypostatic union of the two natures of Christ, one human and one divine, "united with neither confusion nor division", affirmed by most of the major branches of Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy, and rejected by the Oriental Orthodox Churches which subscribe to Miaphysitism as articulated by Second Council of Ephesus, where it affirmed the first Council of Ephesus's doctrine of one composite divine-human nature after the union.

Definition and approaches

Christology, literally 'the understanding of Christ', is the study of the nature and work of Jesus Christ.
It studies Jesus Christ's humanity and divinity, and the relationship between these two aspects; as well as the role he plays in salvation.
Ontological Christology analyzes the nature or being
of Jesus Christ. Functional Christology analyzes the works of Jesus Christ, while soteriological Christology analyzes the "salvific" standpoints of Christology.
Theologians may take several different approaches to Christology. For example:
  • Christology from above or high Christology emphasizes approaches that include aspects of divinity and the idea of the pre-existence of Christ as the Logos, These approaches interpret the works of Christ in terms of his divinity. According to Pannenberg, Christology from above "was far more common in the ancient Church, beginning with Ignatius of Antioch and the second century Apologists".
  • Christology from below or low Christology takes as its starting point the human aspects and the ministry of Jesus and moves towards his divinity and the mystery of incarnation.

    Person of Christ

A fundamental Christological teaching describes Jesus Christ as possessing two natures: human and divine; debates have emerged regarding the unity of these natures. According to post-Chalcedonian definitions, the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ apparently form a duality, as they coexist within one person. In the Oriental Orthodox paradigm, these two natures unite to create one composite nature that is fully human and fully divine. There are no direct discussions in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of Christ as both divine and human, and since the early days of Christianity, theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures, at times resulting in ecumenical councils, and in schisms.
Some historical christological doctrines gained broad support:
Influential Christologies broadly condemned as heretical
include:
  • Docetism claimed the human form of Jesus was mere semblance without any true reality.
  • Arianism viewed the divine nature of Jesus, the Son of God, as distinct and inferior to God the Father, e.g., by having a beginning in time.
  • Nestorianism considers the two natures of Jesus Christ to subsist separately.
  • Monothelitism, considered Christ to have only one will.
As councils were convened, some theological positions were rejected as heresies, yet the acceptance of these councils remains partial. Notably, certain Christological views reemerged in later centuries, such as the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, which reflect elements of Arianism.

Salvation

In Christian theology, atonement is the method by which human beings can be reconciled to God through Christ's sacrificial suffering and death. Atonement is the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general and original sin in particular through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus,
enabling the reconciliation between God and his creation. Due to the influence of Gustaf Aulén, whose book Christus Victor came out in English translation in 1931, the various theories or of atonement are often grouped under the headings of the "classical paradigm", the "objective paradigm", and the "subjective paradigm":
  • Classical paradigm:
  • * Ransom theory of atonement, which teaches that the death of Christ was a ransom sacrifice, usually said to have been paid to Satan or to death itself, in some views paid to God the Father, in satisfaction for the bondage and debt on the souls of humanity as a result of inherited sin. Gustaf Aulén reinterpreted the ransom theory, calling it the Christus Victor doctrine, arguing that Christ's death was not a payment to the Devil, but defeated the powers of evil, which had held humankind in their dominion.;
  • * Recapitulation theory, which says that Christ succeeded where Adam failed. Theosis is a "corollary" of the recapitulation.
  • Objective paradigm:
  • * Satisfaction theory of atonement, developed by Anselm of Canterbury, which teaches that Jesus Christ suffered crucifixion as a substitute for human sin, satisfying God's just wrath against humankind's transgression due to Christ's infinite merit.
  • * Penal substitution, also called "forensic theory" and "vicarious punishment", which was a development by the Reformers of Anselm's satisfaction theory. Instead of considering sin as an affront to God's honour, it sees sin as the breaking of God's moral law. Penal substitution sees sinful man as being subject to God's wrath, with the essence of Jesus' saving work being his substitution in the sinner's place, bearing the curse in the place of man.
  • * Governmental theory of atonement, "which views God as both the loving creator and moral Governor of the universe."
  • Subjective paradigm:
  • *Moral influence theory of atonement, developed, or most notably propagated, by Abelard, who argued that "Jesus died as the demonstration of God's love", a demonstration which can change the hearts and minds of the sinners, turning back to God.
  • * Moral example theory, developed by Faustus Socinus in his work De Jesu Christo servatore, who rejected the idea of "vicarious satisfaction". According to Socinus, Jesus' death offers humanity a perfect example of self-sacrificial dedication to God.
Other theories are the "embracement theory" and the "shared atonement" theory.

Early Christologies (1st century)

Early notions of Christ

The earliest christological reflections were shaped by both the Jewish background of the earliest Christians, and by the Greek world of the eastern Mediterranean in which they operated. The earliest Christian writings give several titles to Jesus, such as Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, and Kyrios, which were all derived from Hebrew scripture. According to Matt Stefon and Hans J. Hillerbrand:
Historically in the Alexandrian school of thought, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos who already possesses unity with the Father before the act of Incarnation. In contrast, the Antiochian school viewed Christ as a single, unified human person apart from his relationship to the divine.

Pre-existence

The notion of pre-existence is deeply rooted in Jewish thought, and can be found in apocalyptic thought and among the rabbis of Paul's time, but Paul was most influenced by Jewish-Hellenistic wisdom literature, where Wisdom' is extolled as something existing before the world and already working in creation. According to Witherington, Paul "subscribed to the christological notion that Christ existed prior to taking on human flesh founding the story of Christ on the story of divine Wisdom".

''Kyrios''

The title Kyrios for Jesus is central to the development of New Testament Christology. In the Septuagint it translates the Tetragrammaton, the holy Name of God. As such, it closely links Jesus with God – in the same way a verse such as Matthew 28:19, "The Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit".
Kyrios is also conjectured to be the Greek translation of Aramaic, which in everyday Aramaic usage was a very respectful form of polite address, which means more than just 'teacher' and was somewhat similar to 'rabbi'. While the term expressed the relationship between Jesus and his disciples during his life, the Greek Kyrios came to represent his lordship over the world.
The early Christians placed Kyrios at the center of their understanding, and from that center attempted to understand the other issues related to the Christian mysteries. The question of the deity of Christ in the New Testament is inherently related to the Kyrios title of Jesus used in the early Christian writings and its implications for the absolute lordship of Jesus. In early Christian belief, the concept of Kyrios included the pre-existence of Christ, for they believed if Christ is one with God, he must have been united with God from the very beginning.