CHRIST0L06Y
277
CHRISTOLOGT
vml was alwajs celebrated on December 25th is a sub- ject of dispute. It was not till the sixth century that the whole Christian world concurred in celebrating the nativity on the same day. As to the question of the date of Christ's birth, see Natiyitt.
Christmas day is observed by neariy all churches in the world except the Dissenters of tiie British Isl- ands, and the American churches that have sprung fh>m them. In the Boman Church three masses are performed : one at midnight, one at daybreak, and one in the morning. Sometimes, however, the three masses are said directly one after the other. Both in the Greek and Roman churches, the manger, the holy fismily, etc., are sometimes represented at large. In tile Church of England, and in the Protestant Ei^sco- pal Church, divine service is held always on Christ- mas day. In the formei^, the Athanasian Creed is re- quired to be said or sung. If Christmas fall on a Fri- day, it is not to be a fast. In the Wesleyan Method- bt Church in England the day is always observed, and generatty in the Methodist Episcopal Church in tiie large cities. — ^Bingham, Orig, Ecdes. bk. xx, ch. iv ; Coleman, Christian ArUiquUieBy ch. xxi, § 4 ; Dor- ner, Penon of Christy i, 178 ; Neander, Ltfe of Chry- tottcm (Lond. 1845, 8vo), p. 840 (gives Ctirysostom's Ckrittmcu ffonulp) ; Thompson, Chrisimai and the Sat- tamalia {Bibliotheca SacrOy xii, 144) ; North BriOA Be- view, viii, 202 (Christmas Literature) ; Siegel, Chritt- lich4»rchl{che AUerthumer, ii, 189 ; Cassel, Wethnach- ien-UrtprOnffe, BrdMche, und Aherglauben (Bert 1861) ; Marbach, Die heUige Weihnacht»-zeit (Frankfort, 1865).
Cluistology, a word of comparatively recent ori- gin in theological science, now used to denote the doc- trine of or concerning Christ. Trench (Study of Wordt) finds it in use in one or two cases among tilie English divines of the 17th century. Owen gave the title l.MOTo\oyla to his treatise on the Person of Christ (Owen's Worht^ Russell's ed. 1826, vol. xi). Fleming's Chrigtciogy (Lond. 1705-8, 3 vols. 8vo), contains (1) general view of Christology ; (2) concerning Christ as the Logos ; (3) concerning Christ as he is Logos made man. The word has only been common in English theology within the last twenty years ; and both the common use of the term and the special treatment of the subject are due to German theologians within the present century.
As to the scope of Christology, and its proper place in systematic theology, some writers include under it all that relates to Uie history, the person, and the work of Christ. Hase {Evangel -protest, Ihgmatik) makes Christolegy the second chief division of Dog- matics, and includes under it not only the person and work of Christ as commonly defined, but also Christ in the Church, the sacraments, etc. Coquerel (Christ- dogie, Paris, 1858, 2 vols. 12mo) gives the following definition : ^* Une Christologie est une ^de de la per- sonne ou de la nature de J4bus Christ, de ses rapports avec Dieu et avec Thumanit^, ainsi que de son oeuvre en oe monde" (p. 1). Christology and Soteriology are closely related to each other. Some writers (e. g. Pelt) include the former under the latter. Kling in- cludes under Christology both the person and the work of Christ; it Is impossible, he sa3rs, to separate them, because Christ is the Saviour of men in virtue of what he is in his divine human person, and this person is necessary to the accomplishment of the work (Herzog, Jteal'EncyUijpddie, ii, 683). The latest tendency ap- pears to be to confine the word Christology more strict- ly to the doctrine of the person of Christ, leaving his work to be treated separately, though in close and vital connection with his person. (So Hagenbach, History of Doctrines ; Shedd, History of Doctrines ; Beck, Dogmengeschichtey etc.) In this article we con- fine ourselves to this narrower use of the term. The work of Christ (Ipyov^ John iv, 84 ; xvii, 4, rendered in the Latin Church munus, qfficium) is treated under the heads Chbist, Offices of; Atokememt; In-
TEBCESaiOH ; JUSTIFIGATIOV ; RSDEMPTION ; SA- VIOUR.
The doctrine of the person of Christ is the central doctrine of Christianity. Our view of the whole char- acter and issues of his redemption, and consequently our whole system of thought, both theological and eth- ical, depends upon our view of the person of Christ. The Church has always, with a sure instinct, under- stood the fundamental importance of this doctrine; but after ^tlle settlement of the eariy disputes by the Coundl of Chalcedon (see belowX ^^ discussion of other topics (e. g. sin, grace, and predestination), es- pecially in the Western Church, became necessary, and Christology was apparently thrown into the back- ground. So, at a later period, the discussions coup ceming the atoning work of Christ, and of the merits of his death, took precedence of that of his person. But all classes ,of orthodox theologians, m all com- munions, have held to the fundamental importance of Christology ; and with the subsidence of what may be called minor discussions, Christology has of late as- sumed new prominence. The Puritan theology, no less than the so-called sacramental theology, Isolds that Christ is the centre of the Christian system. So Flavel : '^ The knowledge of Christ is the very mar- row and kernel of all the Scriptures, the scope and centre of all divine revelations ; both Testaments meet in Christ. The right knowledge of Christ, like a dew, leads you through the whole lab3rrinth of the Scriptures" (Fomitain of Life opened tip, Serm. 1). Uebner, a modem Gotnan divine, expresses the same thought in more scientific fbrm (Christologie, G^ttin- gen, 1849): **The question, What do you think of Christ: whose son is he ? has become again, in its fhll force, the cardinal question of theology ; theologians become pre-eminently Christologians ; the stone which the (theologrical) builders had rejected has again, in re- ality, beoome the comer. And there arises again for our age, with peculiar adaptedness for apologetical purposes, that grand and majestic train of Christolog- ical truths, from the centre of which all is seen in trae evangelical fulness, and in the proper evangelical or- der, up to the doctrine concerning the Triune and only true God, and down to every question connected with Christian ethics. And what here comes to light is, to say it in a few words, the system of all systems. The ancient Church has in sanctified and gigantic specula- tions laid the foundation ; the Church of every suc- ceeding period, when alive to her calling, has con- tinued her efiforts in the same direction, and its com- pletion will require the efforts of the Church to the end of days. It is the system of the eternal divine thoughts that are laid down in the ikcts of revelation, and have been actualized most distinctly in Christ, the only-begotten Son, and which are reproduced by the beltover, who by a living fSuth has received these fjacts within himself. We shall grow in the knowl- edge of Jesus Christ as the truth, in whom all riches of wisdom and knowledge are hid, and shall learn to un- derstand and show more cleariy that only those views of God, of creation, of the world, of men, of sin and grace, that have their root in the Christological truths, are tenable and victorious ; in short, that Christianity embodies all trae philosophy as well as all spbritual life.'' So, with reference to the theological confiicts of the age, especially in Germany, Doraer remarks : " It is gratifying to see how, in the long confiict be- tween Christianity and reason, the point, on the han- dlmg of which the decision of the controversy turns, has become ever more and more distinct to the con- sciousness. The energies of all parties engaged in this confiict are gathered ever more and more around the person of Christ, as the central point at- which the matter must be determined. The advantage of this is obvious as respects the settlement of this great strife ; as in other things, so here, with the righj state- ment of the question, the answer is already half found.