Christology
The Nature and Person of Christ
Christology is a field within the larger project of Christian theology that has as its central focus the continuing examination of the nature and person of Jesus Christ, Scholars in this field focus on the letters of the New Testament as well as the canonical gospels to help them determine the complexities of the relationship between Christ's person and his nature and how these connect with as well as differ from the nature and person of God the Father. Christology looks for evidence about the nature of God the Son by concentrating on every detail of both Christ's earthly life and the teachings that he shared with his followers. All of these different foci converge to help scholars -- and indeed all Christians -- to derive a clearer and more complete picture of who Christ was, what his teachings meant, and how Christ is involved in the salvation of individuals' souls.
The central questions of Christology have shifted from one generation and one century to the next, reflecting the changes in church doctrine as well changes in the larger society. During the Apostolic Age, Christology tended to focus on the writings of Saint Paul and Paul's advocacy for the idea of the pre-existence of Christ, an issue that is no longer central to Christian theology or scholarship.
However, at the time, the idea of Christ's pre-existence was one of the major touchstones of the Trinitarian doctrines of Christianity. The pre-existence of Christ was the literal belief that Christ had an ontological or fully realized personal existence of Christ before he was conceived in the body of Mary. Christologists (as well as other Christians who took the Trinitarian perspective) took as evidence of this pre-existence of Christ passages such as John 1:1-18. In these verses, Trinitarians argue Christ is clearly identified with the pre-existing hypostasis of the Word or the Logos:
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Nicene Christology The Councils The Council of Nicaea convened in 325. The Council of Constantinople followed in 381. The Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon were convened in 431 and 451 respectively. At all of these councils, the main issues were around the nature and personhood of Christ. His relationship to the Father, the relationship of the Holy Spirit to both, the meaning of the Trinity, the humanity and divinity of Christ—all of
Christology: The Identity of Jesus as Both God and Man In the Bible, Jesus identifies himself as both God and man most explicitly in the book of John. In the first book of John, the Apostle John famously writes: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
Scholars like Borg, Crossan, Meier, and Sanders reach into Torah or into Gnostic and other extracanonical traditions such as Greek novels to draw comparisons and contrasts. The range is comprehensive, from Greco-Roman sources to Jewish and other Mediterranean sources. Often the picture of Jesus that emerges is a construction based on social-scientific and literary trends. There have been some important findings. For one, Jesus is understood more politically, proclaiming the
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
Christology Book Review Christ and the creation of Christology How can so many people look into a portrait of a man, written by 4 different scholar and commoners who portray the man in very similar fashion, and come away with such diametrically opposing viewpoints that the man is rendered almost meaningless? When the man is Jesus Christ and those looking at his portrait are scholars and theologians who do not believe that
Soteriology and Christology Soteriology is the study of salvation and Christology is the study of the person and work of Jesus. It is through Jesus Christ that humankind receives salvation; therefore, it is through Jesus Christ that the understanding of salvation must come. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Anointed One, or a dozen other titles he claims or has been given; what can we know
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