RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
OhrlBtmas Ohristoloe:^
I. The Biblical Christology.
1. The Old Testament Christology.
2. The New Testament Christology . Christ the Ideal Man (§ 1). Yet also God (§ 2).
II. The Ante-Nicene Christology.
1. The Early Simple Faith. Heresies (§1). The Church Doctrine (§ 2). The Divinity of Christ Consistently
Held (§ 3).
2. Theological Speculations. Justin Martyr (§1). Clement of Alexandria (§2). Origen (§3). Irenaeus (§ 4). TertuUian (§ 5). Dionysius of Rome (I 6).
III. The Nicene Christology.
IV. The Chalcedonian Christology. An Answer to Heresies (§1).
_The Chalcedonian Statement (§ 2). V. The Post-CEalcedonian Christology. Monophysitism (§ 1). Monothelitism (§ 2). Adoptionism (§ 3).
Christology is a word derived from the Greek after the analogy of "theology" (q.v.). It embraces the doctrine of Christ's person; while soteriology is the doctrine of Christ's work (the doctrine of salvation). The word was used by the English theologians in the seventeenth century,* and during the nineteenth was reintroduced from Germany. ^_^hristology is based upon the life and testimony of Christ, as represented historically in the Gospels, and as reflected doctrinally and experimentally in the Acts and Epistles. It treats of the mystery of the incarnation as a problem of personality, viz., (1) the humanity, (2) the divinity of our Lord, and (3) their relation to each other in his one person. This divine-human personality forms the basis of his work, which is the redemption, reconciliation, and reunion of man with God. It is the central doctrine of Christianity, was the one article of St. Peter's creed (Matt. xvi. 16), and forms the heart of the Apostles' Creed. The leading evangelical theologians of Europe and America have come to agree more and more in this estimate of its importance; and the ever-increasing number of lives of Christ and works on his incarnation and work strengthens the christocentric character of modern theology. Yet care must be taken not to emphasize the incarnation at the expense of the equally important doctrines of atonement by Christ's death, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit (see Atonement; Regeneration).
*Dr. Thomas Jackson (1595-1640) defined it correctly as "that part of divinity which displays the great mystery of godliness — God manifested in the human flesh." John Owen used the term in his XpiCTToAoyia, or a Declaration 0/ the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ, God and ■If an (London, 1679), and Kobert Fleming, jun., a Scotch divine (d. 1716), wrote a Christology (3 vols., London, 1705- J^'^^)- Some French writers also use it. Lichtenberger (Encydopeiie, iii. 129) defines it correctly: "On comprend Boua ce nc m" [Christologie] " I'ensemble des doctrines touchant la rsonne de J^sus-Christ dans ses rapports avec Dieu et avec I'numanit^, telles qu'elles sont contenues dans le Nouveau Testament et telles qu'elles ont ^t^ d^veloppdes dans le o,ours des sifecles, au sein de I'^lglise chrdtienne." III.— 4
UUmann (§ 2). Rothe (§ 3). Horace Bushnell (§ 4).
4. The Modern Kenotic Theory. General Outline (§ 1). Gess (§ 2). Martensen (§ 3). Kahnis and Lange (§ 4). Julius Miiller (§5). Goodwin and Crosby (§ 6). Criticism (§ 7).
5. The Ritsohhan Theory. The Theory Stated (§1). Its Merit and Limitation (§ 2).
6. The Theory of a Gradual or Progressive Incarnation.
The Theory (§ 1). Its Merits (§ 2).
7. Conclusion. Elements of Truth in All Theories
(§ 1).
The Mystery of Christ (§ 2). Limiis of This Article (§ 3). XI. Additional Note. Preexistence (§1). Incarnation (§ 2).
I. The Biblical Christology: This embraces (1) the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament; and (2) the christology of the New Testament, which includes (a) the testimony of Christ in the Gospels; and (b) the christology of the apostles — James, Peter, Paul (including the christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews), and John (including the Apocalypse). Christ is the heart of the Scriptures and the key to their spiritual understanding.
1. The Old Testament Christology: The Old Testament is the preparation for the New. The soul of the Old Testament is the promise of the Messiah, which began in Paradise with the protevangelium of the serpent-bruiser, and culminated in the testimony of John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus of Nazareth as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. See Messiah, Messianism.
2. The New Testament Christolog'y : It is the
unanimous teaching of the New Testament writings that Christ combines in a most real though mysterious way the double character of a unique divine sonship and a xmique sinless manhood in one harmonious personality; and that by this very constitution of his person he is qualified to be the Lord and Savior of the human race, and the only Mediator between God and man. He represents at once the nearest approach which God can make to man, and the nearest approach which man can make to God. The orthodox christology, handed down from the early Church, is an attempt to formulate this " mystery of godliness" in definite statements and to guard it against error; but every age must grapple anew with this problem of problems, and make it alive and fruitful for its own intellectual and spiritual benefit.
Christ strongly asserts his humanity, and calls himself about eighty times in the Gospels "the Son of Man" (q.v.); not a son of man among other descendants of Adam, but the Son of Man emphatically as the representative of the whole race." He is thus interpreted by the apostles to be the second Adam, descended from heaven (cf. Rom. v. and