Orthodox Position of the Person of Christ
Jesus Christ is at the center of the Christian doctrine as every theological thought in Christianity revolves around his personality as one of the Holy Trinity. Christ's divine and human nature on one side and his mission of savior of the world, on the other, have provided endless sources for discussion and debates over the decades. Theologians, historians and philosophers have tried to reconcile their thesis when it came to Jesus, but in spite of the apparent similarities, they often reached very different conclusions. During the early Christian centuries, there were various theories that promoted the image of Christ. They covered a large specter of positions starting from him being considered a prophet (Ebionitism) or, at the other end of the spectrum, him being completely divine (Docetism) (McGrath, 2011). These theological theories were soon to be dismissed, although the latter bore more influence on some level.
In spite of the fact that Jesus never called himself God, the New Testament has numerous testimonies of those who witnessed his work appointing him as God. In the fourth Gospel, John 1:14 Jesus is confirmed as of the same source as God: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us"(Bible Gateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1 ). McGrath points out that a possible starting point in identifying the source of the person of Jesus as coming from God, in light of with his Resurrection, is among the first forms of Christian confession: "9 If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved"(Romans, 10:9)
From the orthodox position, the person of Christ is of dual nature. Jesus's distinct, unblended and unity forming human and divine natures are explicit throughout the four Gospels of the New Testament. The orthodox position considers his human nature as complete, with body and soul and his divine nature, complete as well, as being of the same source as God. McGrath underlies the fact that, in the Jewish doctrine, the Old Testament presented God and only God as the only possible source for humanity's salvation. The author of "Christian Theology: An Introduction" places a huge importance on this very fact to sustain the doctrine of Jesus's dual nature. The first Christians, Jesus' followers were coming from the Judaic tradition therefore acknowledging Jesus as Savior testified for their belief that he was God.
The apologist Justin Martyr was among the first who attempted to reconcile Greek philosophy with the Old Testament in the light of the historical person of Jesus. Justin Martyr places the whole importance of the religious doctrine on the "Logos." According to such theories, before the Christian era, various thinkers have come to embrace the potential of "Logos" without actually coming to fruition since, according to Justin, only the person of Jesus came to represent the "Logos" in its entirety.
Another current in considering the nature of Jesus Christ came to light in Alexandria, during the fourth century, the priest Arius. Arius' theories saw Christ as both Creator, like God, as well as God "created." Thus, he considered God and Christ of different essences (McGrath,2011).
In considering how the theories concerned with the nature of Christ evolved along the centuries, McGrath comes to the Alexandrian school as a turning point in coming to terms with the final orthodox position in Christology. The Alexandrian school acknowledges the incarnation as the testimony of the unity between the divine God and the human form of existence, thus revealing God to Humanity for the sole purpose of saving humanity. Considering the incarnation as the source of salvation, the Alexandrian school places the emphasis in the two-way relationship God - Humanity. In order for humanity to know God, God needed to fully assume human identity, in order for God to save humanity, he needed to become human.
By means of the Incarnation, the Alexandrian school sees the two natures (divine and human) as intermixed, losing one into the other. It is thus differing from the orthodox view of Christ as having two entirely separate, complete natures, human and divine, the human one being different only thorough its lack of sin.
During the first centuries of Christianity, known as the Patristic Period, Christianity evolved and spread around the Mediterranean basin. It gave way to theological debates and schools of thought which, as above mentioned, mainly revolved around the nature of Jesus Christ as well as the significance of the Incarnation. Alister E. McGrath considers this period as "one of the most exciting and creative periods in the history of the Christian thought" (Mcgrath, 2011).
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