JESUS CHRIST: FUNDAMENTALS OF CHRISTOLOGY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Roch Kereszty | 530 pages | 01 Sep 2002 | Saint Pauls/Alba House | 9780818909177 | English | New York, NY, United States [PDF] Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology - free download

Incarnation means God became flesh. We will discuss the virgin birth—even addressing it genetically. We will also discuss the biological miracle involved in it. Hopefully all of us will get a good, clear understanding of why the virgin birth is an essential doctrine of the Bible about Jesus Christ. We will look at the humanity of Jesus Christ. The Bible uses that to tell us He identifies with us. He is our merciful and faithful High Priest. He will comfort us. He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities in all points as the Bible says. We will look at the miracles of Jesus Christ. Since John says that the books of the world cannot contain all those miracles, we will not be talking about every one of them. We will be showing you some of the key miracles of Jesus Christ, especially as it relates to different veins of thought. For example, His power over demons, His power over the weather and sickness and illness. We are going to be looking at His mighty power. We will address the death of Jesus Christ. No issue is more crucial to the gospel than understanding the death of Christ. We will be discussing fifteen reasons why He died, and will be greatly blessed. We will also discuss the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If the resurrection did not occur, then we have a dead Savior—we have no Christianity, for we would remain in our sins and our preaching and teaching is a waste of time. He does an amazing job with such a vast topic. I really appreciated its clarity and thoroughness. Susan Windley-Daoust rated it it was amazing Jun 11, James Even rated it it was amazing May 21, Jennifer Henschel rated it really liked it Jul 19, Nick Shelton rated it really liked it Feb 22, Ben Valentine rated it it was amazing Jul 05, Krisi Keley rated it it was amazing Jul 30, John Schneider rated it it was amazing Aug 02, William Kirejczyk rated it it was amazing Feb 21, John Prejean rated it really liked it Jan 23, James Lewis rated it it was amazing Aug 04, Andrew rated it it was amazing Jul 02, Diana Kullman rated it it was amazing Mar 10, Benedict Onakpoma rated it really liked it Mar 26, Clement House rated it it was amazing Dec 11, Bookworm Adventure Girl rated it really liked it Mar 29, Jeff rated it it was amazing Jan 12, Chase Johnson rated it it was amazing Feb 20, Chris rated it it was amazing Aug 08, Michelle rated it really liked it Nov 11, Nick Junker rated it it was amazing Mar 24, Theologus rated it it was amazing Jan 05, Steve Plunkett rated it did not like it Oct 03, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Roch A. Roch A. Books by Roch A. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. You know the saying: There's no time like the present In that case, we can't Read more Wolfhart Pannenberg is regarded by many to have been one of the most prominent systematic theologians in the world. More than six hundred works and a multinational audience attest to this claim. In addition, on the site he says that he grew up in a secular Jewish household in New York and then become serious about religion at the age of 20 in which he dove deeply into the world of Hasidism. He says that he is fascinated by the "complex nexus of Judaism and American counterculture" of his youth and writes about the. Roch A. Kereszty, the author of this book, brings to our attention that Christologies have remained within the limits of orthodoxy which means that it managed to persevere the whole mystery rather than deny or distort some essential aspects. Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology - AbeBooks - Roch A. Kereszty: X

Influenced by those trends in New Testament study, Protestant theology by the middle of the 20th century was engaged in a reinterpretation of the Christology of the early church. Some Protestant churches continued to repeat the formulas of ancient dogma, but even there the critical study of the New Testament documents was beginning to call those formulas into question. The struggles of the evangelical churches in Germany under Adolf Hitler caused some theologians to realize anew the power of the ancient dogma of the person of Christ to sustain faith , and some of them were inclined to treat the dogma with less severity. But even they acknowledged that the formulation of that dogma in static categories of person, essence, and nature was inadequate to the biblical emphasis upon actions and events rather than upon states of being. Karl Barth for the Reformed tradition, Lionel Thornton for the Anglican tradition, and Karl Heim for the Lutheran tradition were instances of theologians trying to reinterpret classical Christology. While yielding nothing of their loyalty to the dogma of the church, Roman Catholic theologians like Karl Adam were also endeavouring to state that dogma in a form that was meaningful to modern men and women. In much of Protestantism , the concentration of the 19th century upon the teachings of Jesus had made it difficult to speak of more than the prophetic office. The priestly office received least attention of all. By the end of the 20th century, theologians such as Rita Nakashima Brock were rejecting the doctrine of the Atonement altogether. Some scholars, such as those of the Jesus Seminar e. In a curious way, therefore, the figure of Jesus Christ has become both a unitive and divisive element in Christendom. All Christians are united in their loyalty to him, even though they express their loyalty in a variety of doctrinal and liturgical ways. But doctrine and liturgy also divide Christian communions from one another. It has not been the official statements about Christ that have differed widely among most communions. What has become a sharp point of division is the amount of historical and critical inquiry that is permitted where the person of Christ is involved. Despite their official statements and confessions, most Protestant denominations had indicated by the second half of the 20th century that they would tolerate such inquiry, differ though they did in prescribing how far it would be permitted to go. On the other hand, the exclusion of modernism by the Roman Catholic Church in —10 drew definite limits beyond which the theological use of the methods of critical inquiry was heretical. Within those limits, however, Roman Catholic biblical scholars were engaging in considerable critical literary study, at the same time that critical Protestant theologians were becoming more sympathetic to traditional Christological formulas. Jesus Article Media Additional Info. Article Contents. Load Previous Page. The debate over Christology in modern Christian thought Few Protestant theologians in the middle of the 20th century were willing to endorse the ancient dogma of the two natures in Christ as unconditionally as the reformers had done, for between the Reformation and modern theology there intervened a debate over Christology that altered the perspective of most Protestant denominations and theologians. The 19th century Although the Enlightenment of the 18th century was the beginning of the break with orthodox teachings about Jesus Christ, it was only in the 19th century that the break attracted wide support among theologians and scholars in many parts of Christendom—even, for a while, among the modernists of the Roman Catholic Church. The 20th century and beyond At the beginning of the 20th century the most-influential authorities on the New Testament were engaged in the quest for the essence of Christianity and for the Jesus of history. It has a constituency of more than two billion believers. The earliest form of Christian mysticism was the Christ-mysticism of Paul and John. Although Christian mysticism in its traditional expression has centred on the desire for union with God, Christ-mysticism has always been present in the church. The Eastern Church emphasized the divine Light…. The Eastern Orthodox Church is formally committed to the Christology doctrine of Christ that was defined by the councils of the first eight centuries. Together with the Latin church of the West, it rejected Arianism a belief in the subordination of the Son to…. History at your fingertips. Sign up here to see what happened On This Day , every day in your inbox! Email address. The Trinitarian view emphasizes that God has a will and that God the Son has two wills, divine and human, though these are never in conflict see Hypostatic union. However, this point is disputed by Oriental Orthodox Christians, who hold that God the Son has only one will of unified divinity and humanity see Miaphysitism. To the ancients, personhood "was in some sense individual, but always in community as well. Since the beginning of the 3rd century [33] the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God exists in three Persons and one substance , Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Trinitarianism, belief in the Trinity, is a mark of Catholicism , Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy as well as other prominent Christian sects arising from the Protestant Reformation , such as Anglicanism , Methodism , Lutheranism , Baptist , and Presbyterianism. A small minority of Christians hold non-trinitarian views, largely coming under the heading of Unitarianism. Most, if not all, Christians believe that God is spirit, [John ] an uncreated, omnipotent , and eternal being, the creator and sustainer of all things, who works the redemption of the world through his Son, Jesus Christ. With this background, belief in the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit is expressed as the doctrine of the Trinity , [35] which describes the single divine ousia substance existing as three distinct and inseparable hypostases persons : the Father , the Son Jesus Christ the Logos , and the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian doctrine is considered by most Christians to be a core tenet of their faith. Nontrinitarians typically hold that God, the Father, is supreme; that Jesus, although still divine Lord and Savior, is the Son of God ; and that the Holy Spirit is a phenomenon akin to God's will on Earth. The holy three are separate, yet the Son and the Holy Spirit are still seen as originating from God the Father. The New Testament does not have the term "Trinity" and nowhere discusses the Trinity as such. Some emphasize, however, that the New Testament does repeatedly speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to "compel a trinitarian understanding of God. In many monotheist religions, God is addressed as the father, in part because of his active interest in human affairs, in the way that a father would take an interest in his children who are dependent on him and as a father, he will respond to humanity, his children, acting in their best interests. In Christianity, God the Father's relationship with humanity is as a father to children—in a previously unheard-of sense—and not just as the creator and nurturer of creation, and the provider for his children, his people. Thus, humans, in general, are sometimes called children of God. To Christians, God the Father's relationship with humanity is that of Creator and created beings, and in that respect he is the father of all. The New Testament says, in this sense, that the very idea of family, wherever it appears, derives its name from God the Father, [Eph ] and thus God himself is the model of the family. However, there is a deeper "legal" sense in which Christians believe that they are made participants in the special relationship of Father and Son, through Jesus Christ as his spiritual bride. Christians call themselves adopted children of God. In the New Testament, God the Father has a special role in his relationship with the person of the Son, where Jesus is believed to be his Son and his heir. According to the Nicene Creed , the Son Jesus Christ is "eternally begotten of the Father", indicating that their divine Father-Son relationship is not tied to an event within time or human history. See Christology. In Eastern Orthodox theology, God the Father is the "principium" beginning , the "source" or "origin" of both the Son and the Holy Spirit, which gives intuitive emphasis to the threeness of persons; by comparison, Western theology explains the "origin" of all three hypostases or persons as being in the divine nature, which gives intuitive emphasis to the oneness of God's being. Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature, person, and works of Jesus Christ , held by Christians to be the Son of God. Primary considerations include the Incarnation , the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature and person of God, and the salvific work of Jesus. As such, Christology is generally less concerned with the details of Jesus' life what he did or teaching than with who or what he is. There have been and are various perspectives by those who claim to be his followers since the church began after his ascension. The controversies ultimately focused on whether and how a human nature and a divine nature can co-exist in one person. The study of the inter-relationship of these two natures is one of the preoccupations of the majority tradition. Teachings about Jesus and testimonies about what he accomplished during his three-year public ministry are found throughout the New Testament. Core biblical teachings about the person of Jesus Christ may be summarized that Jesus Christ was and forever is fully God divine and fully human in one sinless person at the same time, [39] and that through the death and resurrection of Jesus , sinful humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life via his New Covenant. While there have been theological disputes over the nature of Jesus, Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate and " true God and true man " or both fully divine and fully human. Jesus, having become fully human in all respects, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, yet he did not sin. As fully God, he defeated death and rose to life again. Scripture asserts that Jesus was conceived, by the Holy Spirit, and born of his virgin mother Mary without a human father. The apostle Peter, in what has become a famous proclamation of faith among Christians since the 1st century, said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. The word is often misunderstood to be the surname of Jesus due to the numerous mentions of Jesus Christ in the Christian Bible. The word is in fact used as a title , hence its common reciprocal use Christ Jesus , meaning Jesus the Anointed One or Jesus the Messiah. Followers of Jesus became known as Christians because they believed that Jesus was the Christ, or Messiah, prophesied about in the Old Testament , or Tanakh. The Christological controversies came to a head over the persons of the Godhead and their relationship with one another. Christology was a fundamental concern from the First Council of Nicaea until the Third Council of Constantinople In this time period, the Christological views of various groups within the broader Christian community led to accusations of heresy , and, infrequently, subsequent religious persecution. In some cases, a sect's unique Christology is its chief distinctive feature, in these cases it is common for the sect to be known by the name given to its Christology. The decisions made at First Council of Nicaea and re-ratified at the First Council of Constantinople , after several decades of ongoing controversy during which the work of Athanasius and the Cappadocian Fathers were influential. The language used was that the one God exists in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; in particular it was affirmed that the Son was homoousios of one substance with the Father. The Creed of the Nicene Council made statements about the full divinity and full humanity of Jesus, thus preparing the way for discussion about how exactly the divine and human come together in the person of Christ Christology. Nicaea insisted that Jesus was fully divine and also human. What it did not do was make clear how one person could be both divine and human, and how the divine and human were related within that one person. This led to the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries of the Christian era. The Chalcedonian Creed did not put an end to all Christological debate, but it did clarify the terms used and became a point of reference for all other Christologies. He is considered by Trinitarians to be coequal with the Father and Holy Spirit. He is all God and all human : the Son of God as to his divine nature, while as to his human nature he is from the lineage of David. His mission on earth proved to be that of enabling people to know God as their Father, which Christians believe is the essence of eternal life. God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus of Nazareth as God the Son, united in essence but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit the first and third persons of the Trinity. So Jesus was always "God the Son", though not revealed as such until he also became the "Son of God" through incarnation. So, in Christian theology, Jesus was always God the Son, [43] though not revealed as such until he also became the Son of God through incarnation. The exact phrase "God the Son" is not in the New Testament. Later theological use of this expression reflects what came to be standard interpretation of New Testament references, understood to imply Jesus' divinity, but the distinction of his person from that of the one God he called his Father. As such, the title is associated more with the development of the doctrine of the Trinity than with the Christological debates. There are over 40 places in the New Testament where Jesus is given the title "the Son of God", but scholars don't consider this to be an equivalent expression. Matthew cites Jesus as saying, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God The book of the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the New Testament, however, record the early teaching of the first Christians— those who believed Jesus to be both the Son of God, the Messiah, a man appointed by God, as well as God himself. This is evident in many places, however, the early part of the book of Hebrews addresses the issue in a deliberate, sustained argument, citing the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible as authorities. For example, the author quotes Psalm as addressed by the God of Israel to Jesus. The author of Hebrews' description of Jesus as the exact representation of the divine Father has parallels in a passage in Colossians. John's gospel quotes Jesus at length regarding his relationship with his heavenly Father. It also contains two famous attributions of divinity to Jesus. The biblical basis for later trinitarian statements in creeds is the early baptism formula found in Matthew Docetism from the Greek verb to seem taught that Jesus was fully divine, and his human body was only illusory. At a very early stage, various Docetic groups arose; in particular, the gnostic sects which flourished in the 2nd century AD tended to have Docetic theologies. Docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch early 2nd century , and appear to be targeted in the canonical Epistles of John dates are disputed, but range from the late 1st century among traditionalist scholars to the late 2nd century among critical scholars. The Council of Nicaea rejected theologies that entirely ruled out any humanity in Christ, affirming in the Nicene Creed the doctrine of the Incarnation as a part of the doctrine of the Trinity. That is, that the second person of the Trinity became incarnate in the person Jesus and was fully human. The early centuries of Christian history also had groups at the other end of the spectrum, arguing that Jesus was an ordinary mortal. The Adoptionists taught that Jesus was born fully human, and was adopted as God's Son when John the Baptist baptised him [44] because of the life he lived. Another group, known as the Ebionites , taught that Jesus was not God, but the human Moshiach messiah, anointed prophet promised in the Hebrew Bible. Some of these views could be described as Unitarianism although that is a modern term in their insistence on the oneness of God. These views, which directly affected how one understood the Godhead, were declared heresies by the Council of Nicaea. Throughout much of the rest of the ancient history of Christianity, Christologies that denied Christ's divinity ceased to have a major impact on the life of the church. Arianism affirmed that Jesus was divine, but taught that he was nevertheless a created being there was [a time] when he was not [in existence] , and was therefore less divine than God the Father. The matter boiled down to one iota; Arianism taught Homo i ousia —the belief that Jesus's divinity is similar to that of God the Father—as opposed to Homoousia —the belief that Jesus's divinity is the same as that of God the Father. Arius ' opponents additionally included in the term Arianism the belief that Jesus' divinity is different from that of God the Father Heteroousia. Arianism was condemned by the Council of Nicea, but remained popular in the northern and western provinces of the empire, and continued to be the majority view of western Europe well into the 6th century. Indeed, even the Christian legend of Constantine's death-bed baptism involves a bishop who, in recorded history, was an Arian. In the modern era, a number of denominations have rejected the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity, including the Christadelphians and the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Christological debates following the Council of Nicaea sought to make sense of the interplay of the human and divine in the person of Christ while upholding the doctrine of the Trinity. Apollinaris of Laodicea — taught that in Jesus, the divine component took the place of the human nous thinking — not to be confused with thelis , meaning intent. This however was seen as a denial of Jesus' true humanity, and the view was condemned at the First Council of Constantinople. Subsequently, Nestorius of Constantinople — initiated a view that effectively separated Jesus into two persons—one divine and one human; the mechanism of this combination is known as hypostas e s , and contrasts with hypostas i s —the view that there is no separation. Nestorius' theology was deemed heretical at the First Council of Ephesus Though, as seen by the writings of Babai the Great , the Christology of the Church of the East is highly similar to that of Chalcedon, many orthodox Christians particularly in the West consider this group to be the perpetuation of Nestorianism ; the modern Assyrian Church of the East has at times shunned this term, as it implies acceptance of the entire theology of Nestorius. Various forms of Monophysitism taught that Christ only had one nature: that the divine had either dissolved Eutychianism , or that the divine joined with the human as one nature in the person of Christ Miaphysitism. A notable monophysite theologian was Eutyches c. Monophysitism was rejected as heresy at the Council of Chalcedon in , which affirmed that Jesus Christ had two natures divine and human joined in one person, in hypostatic union see Chalcedonian creed. While Eutychianism was suppressed into oblivion by the Chalcedonians and Miaphysites, the Miaphysite groups who dissented from the Chalcedonian formula have persisted as the Oriental Orthodox Church. As theologians continued to search for a compromise between the Chalcedonian definition and the Monophysites , other Christologies developed that partially rejected the full humanity of Christ. Monothelitism taught that in the one person of Jesus there were two natures, but only a divine will. Closely related to this is Monoenergism , which held to the same doctrine as the Monothelites, but with different terminology. The Incarnation is the belief in Christianity that the second person in the Christian Godhead , also known as God the Son or the Logos Word , "became flesh" when he was miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The incarnation is a fundamental theological teaching of orthodox Nicene Christianity , based on its understanding of the New Testament. The incarnation represents the belief that Jesus, who is the non-created second hypostasis of the triune God , took on a human body and nature and became both man and God. In the Bible its clearest teaching is in John : "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. In the Incarnation, as traditionally defined, the divine nature of the Son was joined but not mixed with human nature [47] in one divine Person, Jesus Christ, who was both "truly God and truly man". The Incarnation is commemorated and celebrated each year at Christmas , and also reference can be made to the Feast of the Annunciation ; "different aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation" are celebrated at Christmas and the Annunciation. This is central to the traditional faith held by most Christians. Alternative views on the subject See Ebionites and the Gospel according to the Hebrews have been proposed throughout the centuries see below , but all were rejected by mainstream Christian bodies. In recent decades, an alternative doctrine known as " Oneness " has been espoused among various Pentecostal groups see below , but has been rejected by the remainder of Christendom. In the early Christian era , there was considerable disagreement amongst Christians regarding the nature of Christ's Incarnation. While all Christians believed that Jesus was indeed the Son of God , the exact nature of his Sonship was contested, together with the precise relationship of the " Father ," "Son" and " Holy Ghost " referred to in the New Testament. Though Jesus was clearly the "Son," what exactly did this mean? Debate on this subject raged most especially during the first four centuries of Christianity, involving Jewish Christians , Gnostics , followers of the Presbyter Arius of Alexandra, and adherents of St. Athanasius the Great , among others. Eventually, the Christian Church accepted the teaching of St. Athanasius and his allies, that Christ was the incarnation of the eternal second person of the Trinity , who was fully God and fully a man simultaneously. All divergent beliefs were defined as heresies. This included Docetism , which said that Jesus was a divine being that took on human appearance but not flesh; Arianism , which held that Christ was a created being; and Nestorianism , which maintained that the Son of God and the man, Jesus, shared the same body but retained two separate natures. The Oneness belief held by certain modern Pentecostal churches is also seen as heretical by most mainstream Christian bodies. The most widely accepted the early Christian Church made definitions of the Incarnation and the nature of Jesus at the First Council of Nicaea in , the Council of Ephesus in , and the Council of Chalcedon in These councils declared that Jesus was both fully God: begotten from, but not created by the Father; and fully man: taking his flesh and human nature from the Virgin Mary. These two natures, human and divine, were hypostatically united into the one personhood of Jesus Christ. The link between the Incarnation and the Atonement within systematic theological thought is complex. Within traditional models of the Atonement, such as Substitution , Satisfaction or Christus Victor , Christ must be Divine in order for the Sacrifice of the Cross to be efficacious, for human sins to be "removed" or "conquered". In his work The Trinity and the Kingdom of God , Jurgen Moltmann differentiated between what he called a "fortuitous" and a "necessary" Incarnation. The latter gives a soteriological emphasis to the Incarnation: the Son of God became a man so that he could save us from our sins. The former, on the other hand, speaks of the Incarnation as a fulfilment of the Love of God , of his desire to be present and living amidst humanity, to "walk in the garden" with us. Moltmann favours "fortuitous" incarnation primarily because he feels that to speak of an incarnation of "necessity" is to do an injustice to the life of Christ. Moltmann's work, alongside other systematic theologians, opens up avenues of liberation Christology. In short, this doctrine states that two natures, one human and one divine, are united in the one person of Christ. The Council further taught that each of these natures, the human and the divine, was distinct and complete. This view is sometimes called Dyophysite meaning two natures by those who rejected it. Hypostatic union from the Greek for substance is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of two natures, humanity and divinity, in Jesus Christ. A brief definition of the doctrine of two natures can be given as: "Jesus Christ, who is identical with the Son, is one person and one hypostasis in two natures: a human and a divine. The First Council of Ephesus recognised this doctrine and affirmed its importance, stating that the humanity and divinity of Christ are made one according to nature and hypostasis in the Logos. The First Council of Nicaea declared that the Father and the Son are of the same substance and are co-eternal. This belief was expressed in the Nicene Creed. Apollinaris of Laodicea was the first to use the term hypostasis in trying to understand the Incarnation. The Nestorian Theodore of Mopsuestia went in the other direction, arguing that in Christ there were two natures dyophysite human and divine and two hypostases in the sense of "essence" or "person" that co-existed. The Chalcedonian Creed agreed with Theodore that there were two natures in the Incarnation. However, the Council of Chalcedon also insisted that hypostasis be used as it was in the Trinitarian definition: to indicate the person and not the nature as with Apollinarius. Thus, the Council declared that in Christ there are two natures; each retaining its own properties, and together united in one subsistence and in one single person. As the precise nature of this union is held to defy finite human comprehension, the hypostatic union is also referred to by the alternative term "mystical union. The Oriental Orthodox Churches , having rejected the Chalcedonian Creed, were known as Monophysites because they would only accept a definition that characterized the incarnate Son as having one nature. The Chalcedonian "in two natures" formula was seen as derived from and akin to a Nestorian Christology. However, the Oriental Orthodox have in modern ecumenical dialogue specified that they have never believed in the doctrines of Eutyches, that they have always affirmed that Christ's humanity is consubstantial with our own, and they thus prefer the term "Miaphysite" to refer to themselves a reference to Cyrillian Christology, which used the phrase "mia physis tou theou logou sesarkomene". In recent times, leaders from the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches have signed joint statements in an attempt to work towards reunification. Although Christian orthodoxy holds that Jesus was fully human, the Epistle to the Hebrews , for example, states that Christ was 'holy and without evil' The question concerning the sinlessness of Jesus Christ focuses on this seeming paradox. Does being fully human require that one participate in the "fall" of Adam , or could Jesus exist in an "unfallen" status as Adam and Eve did before the "fall," according to Genesis 2—3? Evangelical writer Donald Macleod suggests that the sinless nature of Jesus Christ involves two elements. The assertion is that Jesus did not commit sin, nor could he be proven guilty of sin; he had no vices. In fact, he is quoted as asking, "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? The temptation of Christ shown in the gospels affirms that he was tempted. Indeed, the temptations were genuine and of a greater intensity than normally experienced by human beings. Jesus was tempted through hunger and thirst, pain and the love of his friends. Thus, the human weaknesses could engender temptation. The temptations Christ faced focused upon his person and identity as the incarnate Son of God. MacLeod writes, "Christ could be tempted through his sonship. I must forget all else and all others and all further service until that is clear. The communion of attributes Communicatio idiomatum of Christ's divine and human natures is understood according to Chalcedonian theology to mean that they exist together with neither overriding the other. That is, both are preserved and coexist in one person. Christ had all the properties of God and humanity. God did not stop being God and become man. Christ was not half-God and half-human. The two natures did not mix into a new third kind of nature. Although independent, they acted in complete accord; when one nature acted, so did the other. The natures did not commingle, merge, infuse each other, or replace each other. One was not converted into the other. They remained distinct yet acted with one accord. Some now disregard or even argue against this "doctrine" to which most denominations of Christianity ascribe. This section looks at the Christological issues surrounding belief or disbelief in the virgin birth. A non-virgin birth would seem to require some form of adoptionism. This is because a human conception and birth would seem to yield a fully human Jesus, with some other mechanism required to make Jesus divine as well. A non-virgin birth would seem to support the full humanity of Jesus. William Barclay: states, "The supreme problem of the virgin birth is that it does quite undeniably differentiate Jesus from all men; it does leave us with an incomplete incarnation. Barth speaks of the virgin birth as the divine sign "which accompanies and indicates the mystery of the incarnation of the Son. Donald MacLeod [61] gives several Christological implications of a virgin birth:. The discussion of whether the three distinct persons in the Godhead of the Trinity were of greater, equal, or lesser by comparison was also, like many other areas of early Christology, a subject of debate. In Athenagoras of Athens c. On the other end of the spectrum were tritheism as well as some radically subordinationist views, the latter of which emphasized the primacy of the Father of Creation to the deity of Christ and Jesus's authority over the Holy Spirit. During the Council of Nicea, the modalist bishops of Rome and Alexandria aligned politically with Athanasius; whereas the bishops of Constantinople Nicomedia , Antioch, and Jerusalem sided with the subordinationists as middle ground between Arius and Athanasius. Theologians like Jurgen Moltmann and Walter Kasper have characterized Christologies as anthropological or cosmological. These are also termed 'Christology from below' and 'Christology from above' respectively. An anthropological Christology starts with the human person of Jesus and works from his life and ministry toward what it means for him to be divine; whereas, a cosmological Christology works in the opposite direction. Starting from the eternal Logos, a cosmological Christology works toward his humanity. Theologians typically begin on one side or the other and their choice inevitably colors their resultant Christology. As a starting point these options represent "diverse yet complementary" approaches; each poses its own difficulties. Both Christologies 'from above' and 'from below' must come to terms with the two natures of Christ: human and divine. Just as light can be perceived as a wave or as a particle, so Jesus must be thought in terms of both his divinity and humanity. You cannot talk about "either or" but must talk about "both and". Christologies from above start with the Logos, the second Person of the Trinity, establish his eternality, his agency in creation, and his economic Sonship. Jesus' unity with God is established by the Incarnation as the divine Logos assumes a human nature. This approach was common in the early church—e. Paul and St. John in the Gospels. The attribution of full humanity to Jesus is resolved by stating that the two natures mutually share their properties a concept termed communicatio idiomatum. Christologies from below start with the human being Jesus as the representative of the new humanity, not with the pre-existent Logos. Jesus lives an exemplary life, one to which we aspire in religious experience. This form of Christology lends itself to mysticism, and some of its roots go back to emergence of Christ mysticism in the 6th century East, but in the West it flourished between the 11th and 14th centuries. A recent theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg contends that the resurrected Jesus is the "eschatological fulfillment of human destiny to live in nearness to God. The Christian faith is inherently political because allegiance to Jesus as risen Lord relativises all earthly rule and authority. Jesus is called "Lord" over times in Paul's epistles alone, and is thus the principal confession of faith in the Pauline epistles. Further, N. Wright argues that this Pauline confession is the core of the gospel of salvation. The Achilles' heel of this approach is the loss of eschatological tension between this present age and the future divine rule that is yet to come. This can happen when the state co-opts Christ's authority as was often the case in imperial Christology. Modern political Christologies seek to overcome imperialist ideologies. The resurrection is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity hinges on this point of Christology, both as a response to a particular history and as a confessional response. After Jesus had died, and was buried, the New Testament states that he appeared to others in bodily form. Some skeptics say his appearances were only perceived by his followers in mind or spirit. After seeing Jesus they boldly proclaimed the message of Jesus Christ despite tremendous risk. Eusebius of the early church worked out this threefold classification, which during the Reformation played a substantial role in scholastic Lutheran Christology and in John Calvin 's [69] and John Wesley 's Christology. Pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit. In Christian theology pneumatology refers to the study of the Holy Spirit. Within mainstream Trinitarian Christian beliefs he is the third person of the Trinity. The Christian theology of the Holy Spirit was the last piece of Trinitarian theology to be fully developed. Within mainstream Trinitarian Christianity the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Trinity who make up the single substance of God. Pneumatology would normally include study of the person of the Holy Spirit, and the works of the Holy Spirit. This latter category would normally include Christian teachings on new birth , spiritual gifts charismata , Spirit-baptism , sanctification , the inspiration of prophets , and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity which in itself covers many different aspects. Different Christian denominations have different theological approaches. Christians believe that the Holy Spirit leads people to faith in Jesus and gives them the ability to live a Christian lifestyle. The Holy Spirit dwells inside every Christian, each one's body being his temple. The word is variously translated as Comforter, Counselor, Teacher, Advocate, [77] guiding people in the way of the truth. The Holy Spirit's action in one's life is believed to produce positive results, known as the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables Christians, who still experience the effects of sin, to do things they never could do on their own. These spiritual gifts are not innate abilities "unlocked" by the Holy Spirit, but entirely new abilities, such as the ability to cast out demons or simply bold speech. Through the influence of the Holy Spirit a person sees more clearly the world around him or her and can use his or her mind and body in ways that exceed his or her previous capacity. A list of gifts that may be bestowed include the charismatic gifts of prophecy , tongues , healing, and knowledge. Christians holding a view known as cessationism believe these gifts were given only in New Testament times. Christians almost universally agree that certain " spiritual gifts " are still in effect today, including the gifts of ministry, teaching, giving, leadership, and mercy. After his resurrection , Christ told his disciples that they would be " baptized with the Holy Spirit" and would receive power from this event, [Ac — 8] a promise that was fulfilled in the events recounted in the second chapter of Acts. On the first Pentecost , Jesus' disciples were gathered in Jerusalem when a mighty wind was heard and tongues of fire appeared over their heads. A multilingual crowd heard the disciples speaking, and each of them heard them speaking in his or her native language. The Holy Spirit is believed to perform specific divine functions in the life of the Christian or the church. These include:. The Holy Spirit is also believed to be active especially in the life of Jesus Christ , enabling him to fulfil his work on earth. Particular actions of the Holy Spirit include:. Christians believe the " Fruit of the Spirit " consists of virtuous characteristics engendered in the Christian by the action of the Holy Spirit. They are those listed in Galatians —23 : "But the fruit of the Spirit is love , joy , peace , patience , kindness , goodness , faithfulness , gentleness , and self-control. Christians believe that the Holy Spirit gives 'gifts' to Christians. These gifts consist of specific abilities granted to the individual Christian. The New Testament provides three different lists of such gifts which range from the supernatural healing, prophecy, tongues through those associated with specific callings teaching to those expected of all Christians in some degree faith. Most consider these lists not to be exhaustive, and other have compiled their own lists. Spirit of Wisdom; 2. Spirit of Understanding; 3. Spirit of Counsel; 4. Spirit of Strength; 5. Spirit of Knowledge; 6. Spirit of Godliness; 7. Spirit of Holy Fear. It is over the nature and occurrence of these gifts, particularly the supernatural gifts sometimes called charismatic gifts , that the greatest disagreement between Christians with regard to the Holy Spirit exists. One view is that the supernatural gifts were a special dispensation for the apostolic ages, bestowed because of the unique conditions of the church at that time, and are extremely rarely bestowed in the present time. The alternate view, espoused mainly by Pentecostal denominations and the charismatic movement, is that the absence of the supernatural gifts was due to the neglect of the Holy Spirit and his work by the church. Although some small groups, such as the Montanists , practiced the supernatural gifts they were rare until the growth of the Pentecostal movement in the late 19th century. Believers in the relevance of the supernatural gifts sometimes speak of a Baptism of the Holy Spirit or Filling of the Holy Spirit which the Christian needs to experience in order to receive those gifts. Many churches hold that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is identical with conversion, and that all Christians are by definition baptized in the Holy Spirit. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1: 3—5. The various authors of the Old and New Testament provide glimpses of their insight regarding cosmology. The cosmos was created by God by divine command, in the best-known and most complete account in the Bible, that of Genesis 1. Within this broad understanding, however, there are a number of views regarding exactly how this doctrine ought to be interpreted. It is a tenet of Christian faith Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant that God is the creator of all things from nothing , and has made human beings in the Image of God , who by direct inference is also the source of the human soul. In Chalcedonian Christology , Jesus is the Word of God , which was in the beginning and, thus, is uncreated, and hence is God , and consequently identical with the Creator of the world ex nihilo. Roman Catholicism uses the phrase special creation to refer to the doctrine of immediate or special creation of each human soul. In , the International Theological Commission, then under the presidency of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger , published a paper in which it accepts the current scientific accounts of the history of the universe commencing in the Big Bang about 15 billion years ago and of the evolution of all life on earth including humans from the micro organisms commencing about 4 billion years ago. In him. Christian anthropology is the study of humanity , especially as it relates to the divine. This theological anthropology refers to the study of the human "anthropology" as it relates to God. It differs from the social science of anthropology , which primarily deals with the comparative study of the physical and social characteristics of humanity across times and places. One aspect studies the innate nature or constitution of the human, known as the nature of mankind. It is concerned with the relationship between notions such as body , soul and spirit which together form a person, based on their descriptions in the Bible. There are three traditional views of the human constitution— trichotomism , dichotomism and monism in the sense of anthropology. The semantic domain of Biblical soul is based on the Hebrew word nepes , which presumably means "breath" or "breathing being". The New Testament follows the terminology of the Septuagint , and thus uses the word psyche with the Hebrew semantic domain and not the Greek, [97] that is an invisible power or ever more, for Platonists , immortal and immaterial that gives life and motion to the body and is responsible for its attributes. In Patristic thought, towards the end of the 2nd century psyche was understood in more a Greek than a Hebrew way, and it was contrasted with the body. In the 3rd century, with the influence of Origen , there was the establishing of the doctrine of the inherent immortality of the soul and its divine nature. Inherent immortality of the soul was accepted among western and eastern theologians throughout the middle ages , and after the Reformation, as evidenced by the Westminster Confession. It is often used interchangeably with "soul", psyche , although trichotomists believe that the spirit is distinct from the soul. Christians have traditionally believed that the body will be resurrected at the end of the age. The apostle Paul contrasts flesh and spirit in Romans 7 —8. The Bible teaches in the book of Genesis the humans were created by God. Some Christians believe that this must have involved a miraculous creative act, while others are comfortable with the idea that God worked through the evolutionary process. The book of Genesis also teaches that human beings, male and female, were created in the image of God. The exact meaning of this has been debated throughout church history. Christian anthropology has implications for beliefs about death and the afterlife. The Christian church has traditionally taught that the soul of each individual separates from the body at death, to be reunited at the resurrection. This is closely related to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The question then arises: where exactly does the disembodied soul "go" at death? Theologians refer to this subject as the intermediate state. The Old Testament speaks of a place called sheol where the spirits of the dead reside. In the New Testament , hades , the classical Greek realm of the dead, takes the place of sheol. In particular, Jesus teaches in Luke —31 Lazarus and Dives that hades consists of two separate "sections", one for the righteous and one for the unrighteous. His teaching is consistent with intertestamental Jewish thought on the subject. Fully developed Christian theology goes a step further; on the basis of such texts as Luke and Philippians , it has traditionally been taught that the souls of the dead are received immediately either into heaven or hell, where they will experience a foretaste of their eternal destiny prior to the resurrection. Roman Catholicism teaches a third possible location, Purgatory , though this is denied by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox. Some Christian groups which stress a monistic anthropology deny that the soul can exist consciously apart from the body. For example, the Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches that the intermediate state is an unconscious sleep; this teaching is informally known as " soul sleep ". In Christian belief, both the righteous and the unrighteous will be resurrected at the last judgment. The righteous will receive incorruptible, immortal bodies 1 Corinthians 15 , while the unrighteous will be sent to hell. Traditionally, Christians have believed that hell will be a place of eternal physical and psychological punishment. In the last two centuries, annihilationism has become popular. The study of the Blessed Virgin Mary , doctrines about her, and how she relates to the Church, Christ, and the individual Christian is called Mariology. Catholic Mariology is the Marian study specifically in the context of the Catholic Church. Most descriptions of angels in the Bible describe them in military terms. For example, in terms such as encampment Gen. Its specific hierarchy differs slightly from the Hierarchy of Angels as it surrounds more military services, whereas the Hierarchy of angels is a division of angels into non-military services to God. Cherubim are depicted as accompanying God's chariot-throne Ps. Exodus —22 refers to two Cherub statues placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant, the two cherubim are usually interpreted as guarding the throne of God. Other guard-like duties include being posted in locations such as the gates of Eden Gen. Cherubim were mythological winged bulls or other beasts that were part of ancient Near Eastern traditions. This angelic designation might be given to angels of various ranks. An example would be Raphael who is ranked variously as a Seraph, Cherub, and Archangel. It is not known how many angels there are but one figure given in Revelation for the number of "many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders" was "ten thousand times ten thousand", which would be million. In most of Christianity , a fallen angel is an angel who has been exiled or banished from Heaven. Often such banishment is a punishment for disobeying or rebelling against God see War in Heaven. The best-known fallen angel is Lucifer. Lucifer is a name frequently given to Satan in Christian belief. This usage stems from a particular interpretation, as a reference to a fallen angel, of a passage in the Bible Isaiah —20 that speaks of someone who is given the name of "Day Star" or "Morning Star" in Latin , Lucifer as fallen from heaven. Allegedly, fallen angels are those which have committed one of the seven deadly sins. Therefore, are banished from heaven and suffer in hell for all eternity. Demons from hell would punish the fallen angel by ripping out their wings as a sign of insignificance and low rank. Christianity has taught Heaven as a place of eternal life , in that it is a shared plane to be attained by all the elect rather than an abstract experience related to individual concepts of the ideal. The Christian Church has been divided over how people gain this eternal life. From the 16th to the late 19th century, Christendom was divided between the Roman Catholic view, the Orthodox view, the Coptic view, the Jacobite view, the Abyssinian view and Protestant views. See also Christian denominations. Heaven is the English name for a transcendental realm wherein human beings who have transcended human living live in an afterlife. Christianity maintains that entry into Heaven awaits such time as, "When the form of this world has passed away. I Thess — Two related and often confused concepts of heaven in Christianity are better described as the "resurrection of the body" , which is exclusively of biblical origin, as contrasted with the " immortality of the soul ", which is also evident in the Greek tradition. In the first concept, the soul does not enter heaven until the last judgement or the "end of time" when it along with the body is resurrected and judged. In the second concept, the soul goes to a heaven on another plane such as the intermediate state immediately after death. These two concepts are generally combined in the doctrine of the double judgement where the soul is judged once at death and goes to a temporary heaven, while awaiting a second and final physical judgement at the end of the world. One popular medieval view of Heaven was that it existed as a physical place above the clouds and that God and the Angels were physically above, watching over man. Heaven as a physical place survived in the concept that it was located far out into space, and that the stars were "lights shining through from heaven". Many of today's biblical scholars, such as N. Wright , in tracing the concept of Heaven back to its Jewish roots, see Earth and Heaven as overlapping or interlocking. Heaven is known as God's space, his dimension, and is not a place that can be reached by human technology. This belief states that Heaven is where God lives and reigns whilst being active and working alongside people on Earth. Religions that teach about heaven differ on how and if one gets into it, typically in the afterlife. In most, entrance to Heaven is conditional on having lived a "good life" within the terms of the spiritual system. A notable exception to this is the ' sola fide ' belief of many mainstream Protestants, which teaches that one does not have to live a perfectly "good life," but that one must accept Jesus Christ as one's saviour, and then Jesus Christ will assume the guilt of one's sins ; believers are believed to be forgiven regardless of any good or bad "works" one has participated in. Many religions state that those who do not go to heaven will go to a place "without the presence of God", Hell , which is eternal see annihilationism. Some religions believe that other afterlives exist in addition to Heaven and Hell, such as Purgatory. One belief, universalism , believes that everyone will go to Heaven eventually, no matter what they have done or believed on earth. Some forms of Christianity believe Hell to be the termination of the soul. Various saints have had visions of heaven 2 Corinthians —4. The Orthodox concept of life in heaven is described in one of the prayers for the dead : " The Church bases its belief in Heaven on some main biblical passages in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures Old and New Testaments and collected church wisdom. Heaven is the Realm of the Blessed Trinity , the angels [] and the saints. The essential joy of heaven is called the beatific vision , which is derived from the vision of God's essence. The soul rests perfectly in God, and does not, or cannot desire anything else than God. After the Last Judgment , when the soul is reunited with its body, the body participates in the happiness of the soul. It becomes incorruptible, glorious and perfect. Any physical defects the body may have laboured under are erased. Heaven is also known as paradise in some cases. The Great Gulf separates heaven from hell. Upon dying, each soul goes to what is called "the particular judgement " where its own afterlife is decided i. Heaven after Purgatory, straight to Heaven, or Hell. This is different from "the general judgement" also known as "the Last judgement " which will occur when Christ returns to judge all the living and the dead. The term Heaven which differs from "The Kingdom of Heaven " see note below is applied by the biblical authors to the realm in which God currently resides. Eternal life, by contrast, occurs in a renewed, unspoilt and perfect creation, which can be termed Heaven since God will choose to dwell there permanently with his people, as seen in Revelation There will no longer be any separation between God and man. The believers themselves will exist in incorruptible, resurrected and new bodies; there will be no sickness, no death and no tears. Some teach that death itself is not a natural part of life, but was allowed to happen after Adam and Eve disobeyed God see original sin so that mankind would not live forever in a state of sin and thus a state of separation from God. Many evangelicals understand this future life to be divided into two distinct periods: first, the Millennial Reign of Christ the one thousand years on this earth, referred to in Revelation —10 ; secondly, the New Heavens and New Earth , referred to in Revelation 21 and This millennialism or chiliasm is a revival of a strong tradition in the Early Church that was dismissed by Augustine of Hippo and the Roman Catholic Church after him. Not only will the believers spend eternity with God, they will also spend it with each other. John's vision recorded in Revelation describes a New Jerusalem which comes from Heaven to the New Earth, which is seen to be a symbolic reference to the people of God living in community with one another. See also World to Come. Purgatory is the condition or temporary punishment [29] in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. This is a theological idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the poetic conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the creation of medieval Christian piety and imagination. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a doctrine, though often without using the name "Purgatory" ; Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief. John Wesley , the founder of Methodism , believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there. Hell in Christian beliefs, is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved will suffer the consequences of sin. The Christian doctrine of Hell derives from the teaching of the New Testament , where Hell is typically described using the Greek words Gehenna or Tartarus. Unlike Hades , Sheol , or Purgatory it is eternal, and those damned to Hell are without hope. In the New Testament , it is described as the place or state of punishment after death or last judgment for those who have rejected Jesus. Hell is generally defined as the eternal fate of unrepentant sinners after this life. Only in the King James Version of the bible is the word "Hell" used to translate certain words, such as sheol Hebrew and both hades and Gehenna Greek. All other translations reserve Hell only for use when Gehenna is mentioned. It is generally agreed that both sheol and hades do not typically refer to the place of eternal punishment, but to the underworld or temporary abode of the dead. Traditionally, the majority of Protestants have held that Hell will be a place of unending conscious torment, both physical and spiritual, [] although some recent writers such as C. Lewis [] and J. Moreland [] have cast Hell in terms of "eternal separation" from God. Certain biblical texts have led some theologians to the conclusion that punishment in Hell, though eternal and irrevocable, will be proportional to the deeds of each soul e. Matthew , Luke — Another area of debate is the fate of the unevangelized i. Some Protestants agree with Augustine that people in these categories will be damned to Hell for original sin , while others believe that God will make an exception in these cases. A "significant minority" believe in the doctrine of conditional immortality , [] which teaches that those sent to Hell will not experience eternal conscious punishment, but instead will be extinguished or annihilated after a period of "limited conscious punishment". Some Protestants such as George MacDonald , Karl Randall , Keith DeRose and Thomas Talbott , also, however, in a minority, believe that after serving their sentence in Gehenna , all souls are reconciled to God and admitted to heaven, or ways are found at the time of death of drawing all souls to repentance so that no "hellish" suffering is experienced. This view is often called Christian universalism —its conservative branch is more specifically called 'Biblical or Trinitarian Universalism '—and is not to be confused with Unitarian Universalism. See universal reconciliation , apocatastasis and the problem of Hell. Theodicy can be said to be defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. Specifically, Theodicy is a specific branch of theology and philosophy which attempts to reconcile belief in God with the perceived existence of evil. Responses to the problem of evil have sometimes been classified as defenses or theodicies. However, authors disagree on the exact definitions. A defense need not argue that this is a probable or plausible explanation, only that the defense is logically possible. A defense attempts to answer the logical problem of evil. A theodicy, on the other hand, is a more ambitious attempt to provide a plausible justification for the existence of evil. A theodicy attempts to answer the evidential problem of evil. As an example, some authors see arguments including demons or the fall of man as not logically impossible but not very plausible considering our knowledge about the world. Thus they are seen as defenses but not good theodicies. Lewis writes in his book The Problem of Pain :. We can, perhaps, conceive of a world in which God corrected the results of this abuse of free will by His creatures at every moment: so that a wooden beam became soft as grass when it was used as a weapon, and the air refused to obey me if I attempted to set up in it the sound waves that carry lies or insults. But such a world would be one in which wrong actions were impossible, and in which, therefore, freedom of the will would be void; nay, if the principle were carried out to its logical conclusion, evil thoughts would be impossible, for the cerebral matter which we use in thinking would refuse its task when we attempted to frame them. Another possible answer is that the world is corrupted due to the sin of mankind. Some answer that because of sin, the world has fallen from the grace of God, and is not perfect. Therefore, evils and imperfections persist because the world is fallen. Dembski argues that the effects of Adam's sin recorded in the Book of Genesis were 'back-dated' by God, and hence applied to the earlier history of the universe. Evil is sometimes seen as a test or trial for humans. Irenaeus of Lyons and more recently John Hick have argued that evil and suffering are necessary for spiritual growth. This is often combined with the free will argument by arguing that such spiritual growth requires free will decisions. A problem with this is that many evils do not seem to cause any kind of spiritual growth, or even permit it, as when a child is abused from birth and becomes, seemingly inevitably, a brutal adult. The problem of evil is often phrased in the form: Why do bad things happen to good people? Christianity teach that all people are inherently sinful due to the fall of man and original sin ; for example, Calvinist theology follows a doctrine called federal headship , which argues that the first man, Adam , was the legal representative of the entire human race. Themes Of Systematic Christology - Words | Bartleby

Roch Kereszty. Roch Andrew Kereszty, O. B ; S. God Seekers for a New Age. Peter and Paul in the Church of Rome. The Ecumenical Potential of a Forgotten Perspective. Co-authored with Dr. Outler, , Paulist Press. Jesus Christ. Fundamentals of Christology, Alba House, , reprinted in Expanded and updated new edition with Supplement, Roch Kereszty Mawah: Paulist Press, Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Christianity Among Other Religions. Hungarian translation of 10 and 11 are in the process of being completed. The needs to read? Doctrine of the person of christ pdf download Doctrine Of The Person Of Christ Doctrine of christ: the person of christ flashcards quizlet, b since christ has ascended, the church is an eschatological community. Where did all the christian denominations come from? This is the root organization from which all of the denominations, listed below, had emerged. The earliest Christian church was established by Jesus Christ and richly. 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Learn how to overcome the top 3 hurdles and keep your practice Challenging your preconceptions thinking critically about we will end the conflict now victory over pornography from the perspective of a recovered addict and his wife We Will End The Conflict Now Victory Over Jesus van nasaret - wikipedia Jesus van Nasaret 8—2 v. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Add to Wishlist. Temporarily Out of Stock Online Please check back later for updated availability. Overview This revised and expanded second edition of Father Kereszty's widely used Christology text is equipped with recommended readings, study questions and updated bibliography. In dialogue with contemporary concerns and controversies, it presents a penetrating and integral approach to the mystery of Christ, with broad appeal to Roman Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Christians alike. In it they will find an articulation of their common faith in Jesus, the Christ, true God and true man. Though written as a Christology text on the graduate level, the book should interest any educated reader who seeks to know Jesus. Product Details Table of Contents. Reflections on the Method of Historiography in General 15 3. A Theological History of Jesus 19 4. The Historical Foundations of Faith in Jesus 22 a. The criterion of double dissimilarity 25 b. The criterion of embarrassment 26 c. The personal style of Jesus 27 d. Multiple attestation 28 e. The Crucifixion of Jesus 33 B. The Resurrection 34 1. Sources 34 a. The earliest kerygma of the resurrection in Paul's interpretation 1 Cor 34 b. The resurrection narratives in the Gospels and Acts 42 1 The appearance narratives 42 2 The empty tomb narratives 46 2. Hypotheses Denying Any Form of Resurrection 50 4. Various Interpretations of the Resurrection of Jesus 54 5. The Resurrection in Fundamental Theology 65 a. The epistemological question regarding the appearances 65 b. The Virginal Conception of Jesus 72 2. The Holy Family 81 4. Is Jesus "the Son of David"? The twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple 87 6. The baptism of Jesus by John 93 2. The temptations of Jesus 98 3. The outline of the public ministry of Jesus 4. The message of Jesus: the reign of God is at hand 5. The miracles of Jesus a. The phenomenon of the miracle in the public ministry of Jesus b. Historical foundations for the miracle accounts c. Theological and philosophical considerations 6. The multiplication of loaves: a turning point in the ministry of Jesus? The Last Supper and the Kingdom 3.

Christian theology - Wikipedia

Some critics went so far as to question the very historicity of Jesus, but even those who did not go that far questioned the historicity of some of the sayings and deeds attributed to Jesus in the Gospels. In part that effort grew out of the general concern of 19th-century scholarsip with the problem of history, but it also reflected the religious and ethical assumptions of the theologians. Many of them were influenced by the moral theories of Kant in their estimate of what was permanent about the teachings of Jesus and by the historical theories of Hegel in the way they related the original message of Jesus to the Christian interpretations of that message by later generations of Christians. The ideas of evolution and of natural causality associated with the science of the 19th century also played a part through the naturalistic explanations of the biblical miracles. At the beginning of the 20th century the most-influential authorities on the New Testament were engaged in the quest for the essence of Christianity and for the Jesus of history. The effort to apply those teachings in modern life was criticized as a dangerous modernization. The years surrounding World War I also saw the development of a new theory regarding the composition of the Gospels. It stressed the forms of the Gospel narratives—parables, sayings, miracle stories, Passion accounts, and so on—as an indication of the oral tradition in the Christian community out of which the narratives came. The studies of form criticism made a life of Jesus in the old biographical sense impossible, just as consistent eschatology had declared impossible the codification of a universal ethic from the teachings of Jesus. Influenced by those trends in New Testament study, Protestant theology by the middle of the 20th century was engaged in a reinterpretation of the Christology of the early church. Some Protestant churches continued to repeat the formulas of ancient dogma, but even there the critical study of the New Testament documents was beginning to call those formulas into question. The struggles of the evangelical churches in Germany under Adolf Hitler caused some theologians to realize anew the power of the ancient dogma of the person of Christ to sustain faith , and some of them were inclined to treat the dogma with less severity. But even they acknowledged that the formulation of that dogma in static categories of person, essence, and nature was inadequate to the biblical emphasis upon actions and events rather than upon states of being. Karl Barth for the Reformed tradition, Lionel Thornton for the Anglican tradition, and Karl Heim for the Lutheran tradition were instances of theologians trying to reinterpret classical Christology. While yielding nothing of their loyalty to the dogma of the church, Roman Catholic theologians like Karl Adam were also endeavouring to state that dogma in a form that was meaningful to modern men and women. In much of Protestantism , the concentration of the 19th century upon the teachings of Jesus had made it difficult to speak of more than the prophetic office. The priestly office received least attention of all. By the end of the 20th century, theologians such as Rita Nakashima Brock were rejecting the doctrine of the Atonement altogether. Some scholars, such as those of the Jesus Seminar e. In a curious way, therefore, the figure of Jesus Christ has become both a unitive and divisive element in Christendom. All Christians are united in their loyalty to him, even though they express their loyalty in a variety of doctrinal and liturgical ways. But doctrine and liturgy also divide Christian communions from one another. To ask other readers questions about Jesus Christ , please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology. Feb 21, Ykcud rated it it was amazing Shelves: catholicism , christianity , history , religion , theology. A comprehensive introduction to christology from a Catholic perspective, including its history from the early Church to modern theology. Jun 03, Amicizia rated it it was amazing Shelves: christology. An excellent resource for the study of Christology, the branch of theology that deals with the person, mission and saving work of Jesus Christ. Kereszty provides a systematic survey of the development of Catholic Christological teaching, from the New Testament to the current day. As a bonus for sci-fi fans such as myself, he even includes a speculative chapter on the possible relationship between Christ, the universal savior, and the existence of life on other planets. As Mr. Spock would say, "F An excellent resource for the study of Christology, the branch of theology that deals with the person, mission and saving work of Jesus Christ. Spock would say, "Fascinating May 31, Stephen Fahrig rated it really liked it. Sep 16, Mauberley rated it it was amazing. As an introduction to Christology, I can't imagine finding a better book. Kereszty is a model scholar and, on the evidence of this book, a wonderful teacher. Although a Roman Catholic theologian, he engages and celebrates the work of prominent Protestant thinkers. Recommended both to those who wish to understand dogma as well as to those for whom dogma in itself is insufficient. Please consider for a moment what an extraordinary breadth of audience that represents. Jan 26, Paul rated it it was amazing. A thoroughly deep text on all aspects of Christology. Who is Jesus and why is is full humanity and full divinity so important to our understanding of ourselves and God's love for us manifested in our redemption. It takes focus and thinking, time and prayer to read and meditate on the truths in this book. Loved it. Feb 24, Janet rated it it was amazing. This is a very good introduction to Christology. Heaven is the Realm of the Blessed Trinity , the angels [] and the saints. The essential joy of heaven is called the beatific vision , which is derived from the vision of God's essence. The soul rests perfectly in God, and does not, or cannot desire anything else than God. After the Last Judgment , when the soul is reunited with its body, the body participates in the happiness of the soul. It becomes incorruptible, glorious and perfect. Any physical defects the body may have laboured under are erased. Heaven is also known as paradise in some cases. The Great Gulf separates heaven from hell. Upon dying, each soul goes to what is called "the particular judgement " where its own afterlife is decided i. Heaven after Purgatory, straight to Heaven, or Hell. This is different from "the general judgement" also known as "the Last judgement " which will occur when Christ returns to judge all the living and the dead. The term Heaven which differs from "The Kingdom of Heaven " see note below is applied by the biblical authors to the realm in which God currently resides. Eternal life, by contrast, occurs in a renewed, unspoilt and perfect creation, which can be termed Heaven since God will choose to dwell there permanently with his people, as seen in Revelation There will no longer be any separation between God and man. The believers themselves will exist in incorruptible, resurrected and new bodies; there will be no sickness, no death and no tears. Some teach that death itself is not a natural part of life, but was allowed to happen after Adam and Eve disobeyed God see original sin so that mankind would not live forever in a state of sin and thus a state of separation from God. Many evangelicals understand this future life to be divided into two distinct periods: first, the Millennial Reign of Christ the one thousand years on this earth, referred to in Revelation —10 ; secondly, the New Heavens and New Earth , referred to in Revelation 21 and This millennialism or chiliasm is a revival of a strong tradition in the Early Church that was dismissed by Augustine of Hippo and the Roman Catholic Church after him. Not only will the believers spend eternity with God, they will also spend it with each other. John's vision recorded in Revelation describes a New Jerusalem which comes from Heaven to the New Earth, which is seen to be a symbolic reference to the people of God living in community with one another. See also World to Come. Purgatory is the condition or temporary punishment [29] in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. This is a theological idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the poetic conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the creation of medieval Christian piety and imagination. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a doctrine, though often without using the name "Purgatory" ; Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief. John Wesley , the founder of Methodism , believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there. Hell in Christian beliefs, is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved will suffer the consequences of sin. The Christian doctrine of Hell derives from the teaching of the New Testament , where Hell is typically described using the Greek words Gehenna or Tartarus. Unlike Hades , Sheol , or Purgatory it is eternal, and those damned to Hell are without hope. In the New Testament , it is described as the place or state of punishment after death or last judgment for those who have rejected Jesus. Hell is generally defined as the eternal fate of unrepentant sinners after this life. Only in the King James Version of the bible is the word "Hell" used to translate certain words, such as sheol Hebrew and both hades and Gehenna Greek. All other translations reserve Hell only for use when Gehenna is mentioned. It is generally agreed that both sheol and hades do not typically refer to the place of eternal punishment, but to the underworld or temporary abode of the dead. Traditionally, the majority of Protestants have held that Hell will be a place of unending conscious torment, both physical and spiritual, [] although some recent writers such as C. Lewis [] and J. Moreland [] have cast Hell in terms of "eternal separation" from God. Certain biblical texts have led some theologians to the conclusion that punishment in Hell, though eternal and irrevocable, will be proportional to the deeds of each soul e. Matthew , Luke — Another area of debate is the fate of the unevangelized i. Some Protestants agree with Augustine that people in these categories will be damned to Hell for original sin , while others believe that God will make an exception in these cases. A "significant minority" believe in the doctrine of conditional immortality , [] which teaches that those sent to Hell will not experience eternal conscious punishment, but instead will be extinguished or annihilated after a period of "limited conscious punishment". Some Protestants such as George MacDonald , Karl Randall , Keith DeRose and Thomas Talbott , also, however, in a minority, believe that after serving their sentence in Gehenna , all souls are reconciled to God and admitted to heaven, or ways are found at the time of death of drawing all souls to repentance so that no "hellish" suffering is experienced. This view is often called Christian universalism —its conservative branch is more specifically called 'Biblical or Trinitarian Universalism '—and is not to be confused with Unitarian Universalism. See universal reconciliation , apocatastasis and the problem of Hell. Theodicy can be said to be defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. Specifically, Theodicy is a specific branch of theology and philosophy which attempts to reconcile belief in God with the perceived existence of evil. Responses to the problem of evil have sometimes been classified as defenses or theodicies. However, authors disagree on the exact definitions. A defense need not argue that this is a probable or plausible explanation, only that the defense is logically possible. A defense attempts to answer the logical problem of evil. A theodicy, on the other hand, is a more ambitious attempt to provide a plausible justification for the existence of evil. A theodicy attempts to answer the evidential problem of evil. As an example, some authors see arguments including demons or the fall of man as not logically impossible but not very plausible considering our knowledge about the world. Thus they are seen as defenses but not good theodicies. Lewis writes in his book The Problem of Pain :. We can, perhaps, conceive of a world in which God corrected the results of this abuse of free will by His creatures at every moment: so that a wooden beam became soft as grass when it was used as a weapon, and the air refused to obey me if I attempted to set up in it the sound waves that carry lies or insults. But such a world would be one in which wrong actions were impossible, and in which, therefore, freedom of the will would be void; nay, if the principle were carried out to its logical conclusion, evil thoughts would be impossible, for the cerebral matter which we use in thinking would refuse its task when we attempted to frame them. Another possible answer is that the world is corrupted due to the sin of mankind. Some answer that because of sin, the world has fallen from the grace of God, and is not perfect. Therefore, evils and imperfections persist because the world is fallen. Dembski argues that the effects of Adam's sin recorded in the Book of Genesis were 'back-dated' by God, and hence applied to the earlier history of the universe. Evil is sometimes seen as a test or trial for humans. Irenaeus of Lyons and more recently John Hick have argued that evil and suffering are necessary for spiritual growth. This is often combined with the free will argument by arguing that such spiritual growth requires free will decisions. A problem with this is that many evils do not seem to cause any kind of spiritual growth, or even permit it, as when a child is abused from birth and becomes, seemingly inevitably, a brutal adult. The problem of evil is often phrased in the form: Why do bad things happen to good people? Christianity teach that all people are inherently sinful due to the fall of man and original sin ; for example, Calvinist theology follows a doctrine called federal headship , which argues that the first man, Adam , was the legal representative of the entire human race. A counterargument to the basic version of this principle is that an omniscient God would have predicted this, when he created the world, and an omnipotent God could have prevented it. The Book of Isaiah clearly claims that God is the source of at least some natural disasters, but Isaiah doesn't attempt to explain the motivation behind the creation of evil. In it, Satan challenges God regarding his servant Job, claiming that Job only serves God for the blessings and protection that he receives from him. God allows Satan to plague Job and his family in a number of ways, with the limitation that Satan may not take Job's life but his children are killed. Job discusses this with three friends and questions God regarding his suffering which he finds to be unjust. God responds in a speech and then more than restores Job's prior health, wealth, and gives him new children. Bart D. Ehrman argues that different parts of the Bible give different answers. One example is evil as punishment for sin or as a consequence of sin. Ehrman writes that this seems to be based on some notion of free will although this argument is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible. Another argument is that suffering ultimately achieves a greater good, possibly for persons other than the sufferer, that would not have been possible otherwise. The Book of Job offers two different answers: suffering is a test, and you will be rewarded later for passing it; another that God in his might chooses not to reveal his reasons. Ecclesiastes sees suffering as beyond human abilities to comprehend. Apocalyptic parts, including the New Testament , see suffering as due to cosmic evil forces, that God for mysterious reasons has given power over the world, but which will soon be defeated and things will be set right. The Greek word in the New Testament that is translated in English as "sin" is hamartia , which literally means missing the target. Jesus clarified the law by defining its foundation: "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. Substantial branches of hamartiological understanding subscribe to the doctrine of original sin , which was taught by the Apostle Paul in Romans —19 and popularized by Saint Augustine. He taught that all the descendants of Adam and Eve are guilty of Adam's sin without their own personal choice. In contrast, Pelagius argued that humans enter life as essentially tabulae rasae. The fall that occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God was held by his group to have affected humankind only minimally. But few theologians continue to hold this hamartiological viewpoint. A third branch of thinking takes an intermediate position, arguing that after the fall of Adam and Eve, humans are born impacted by sin such that they have very decided tendencies toward sinning which by personal choice all accountable humans but Jesus soon choose to indulge. The degree to which a Christian believes humanity is impacted by either a literal or metaphorical "fall" determines their understanding of related theological concepts like salvation , justification , and sanctification. Christian views on sin are mostly understood as legal infraction or contract violation, and so salvation tends to be viewed in legal terms, similar to Jewish thinking. In religion , sin is the concept of acts that violate a moral rule. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Commonly, the moral code of conduct is decreed by a divine entity, i. Divine law. Sin is often used to mean an action that is prohibited or considered wrong; in some religions notably some sects of Christianity , sin can refer not only to physical actions taken, but also to thoughts and internalized motivations and feelings. Colloquially, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, shameful , harmful, or alienating might be termed "sinful". An elementary concept of "sin" regards such acts and elements of Earthly living that one cannot take with them into transcendental living. Food, for example is not of transcendental living and therefore its excessive savoring is considered a sin. A more developed concept of "sin" deals with a distinction between sins of death mortal sin and the sins of human living venial sin. In that context, mortal sins are said to have the dire consequence of mortal penalty , while sins of living food , casual or informal sexuality , play , inebriation may be regarded as essential spice for transcendental living, even though these may be destructive in the context of human living obesity, infidelity. In Western Christianity , "sin is lawlessness " 1 John and so salvation tends to be understood in legal terms, similar to Jewish law. Sin alienates the sinner from God. It has damaged, and completely severed, the relationship of humanity to God. That relationship can only be restored through acceptance of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross as a sacrifice for mankind's sin see Salvation and Substitutionary atonement. In Eastern Christianity , sin is viewed in terms of its effects on relationships, both among people and between people and God. Sin is seen as the refusal to follow God's plan, and the desire to be like God and thus in direct opposition to him see the account of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. To sin is to want control of one's destiny in opposition to the will of God, to do some rigid beliefs. In Russian variant of Eastern Christianity , sin sometimes is regarded as any mistake made by people in their life. From this point of view every person is sinful because every person makes mistakes during his life. When person accuses others in sins he always must remember that he is also sinner and so he must have mercy for others remembering that God is also merciful to him and to all humanity. The fall of man or simply the fall refers in Christian doctrine to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God , to a state of guilty disobedience to God. In the Book of Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve live at first with God in a paradise , but are then deceived or tempted by the serpent to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil , which had been forbidden to them by God. After doing so they become ashamed of their nakedness, and God consequently expelled them from paradise. The fall is not mentioned by name in the Bible , but the story of disobedience and expulsion is recounted in both Testaments in different ways. The Fall can refer to the wider theological inferences for all humankind as a consequence of Eve and Adam's original sin. Examples include the teachings of Paul in Romans —19 and 1 Cor. Some Christian denominations believe the fall corrupted the entire natural world, including human nature, causing people to be born into original sin , a state from which they cannot attain eternal life without the gracious intervention of God. Protestants hold that Jesus ' death was a "ransom" by which humanity was offered freedom from the sin acquired at the fall. In other religions, such as Judaism , Islam , and Gnosticism , the term "the fall" is not recognized and varying interpretations of the Eden narrative are presented. Christianity interprets the fall in a number of ways. The doctrine of original sin , as articulated by Augustine of Hippo's interpretation of Paul of Tarsus , provides that the fall caused a fundamental change in human nature, so that all descendants of Adam are born in sin , and can only be redeemed by divine grace. Sacrifice was the only means by which humanity could be redeemed after the fall. Jesus, who was without sin, died on the cross as the ultimate redemption for the sin of humankind. Thus, the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree—which God had commanded them not to do—sinful death was born; it was an act of disobedience, thinking they could become like gods, that was the sin. Since Adam was the head of the human race, he is held responsible for the evil that took place, for which reason the fall of man is referred to as the " sin of Adam ". This sin caused Adam and his descendants to lose unrestricted access to God Himself. The years of life were limited. In Christian theology, the death of Jesus on the cross is the atonement to the sin of Adam. As a result of that act of Christ, all who put their trust in Christ alone now have unrestricted access to God through prayer and in presence. Original sin, which Eastern Christians usually refer to as ancestral sin , [] is, according to a doctrine proposed in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man. Those who uphold the doctrine look to the teaching of Paul the Apostle in Romans —21 and 1 Corinthians for its scriptural base, [34] and see it as perhaps implied in Old Testament passages such as Psalm and Psalm The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists mostly dealt with topics other than original sin. He thought it was a most subtle job to discern what came first: self-centeredness or failure in seeing truth. The consequences of the fall were transmitted to their descendants in the form of concupiscence , which is a metaphysical term, and not a psychological one. Thomas Aquinas explained Augustine's doctrine pointing out that the libido concupiscence , which makes the original sin pass from parents to children, is not a libido actualis , i. In Augustine's view termed "Realism" , all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all have sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of Adam which all humans inherit. As sinners, humans are utterly depraved in nature, lack the freedom to do good, and cannot respond to the will of God without divine grace. Grace is irresistible , results in conversion, and leads to perseverance. Augustine's formulation of original sin was popular among Protestant reformers, such as Martin Luther and John Calvin , and also, within Roman Catholicism, in the Jansenist movement, but this movement was declared heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. Calvin believed that humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the moment of conception. This inherently sinful nature the basis for the Calvinistic doctrine of " total depravity " results in a complete alienation from God and the total inability of humans to achieve reconciliation with God based on their own abilities. Not only do individuals inherit a sinful nature due to Adam's fall, but since he was the federal head and representative of the human race, all whom he represented inherit the guilt of his sin by imputation. The scriptural basis for the doctrine is found in two New Testament books by Paul the Apostle , Romans —21 and 1 Corinthians , in which he identifies Adam as the one man through whom death came into the world. Total depravity also called absolute inability and total corruption is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the fall of man , every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God , is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered. It is also advocated to various degrees by many Protestant confessions of faith and catechisms, including those of Lutheranism , [] Arminianism , [] and Calvinism. Total depravity is the fallen state of man as a result of original sin. The doctrine of total depravity asserts that people are by nature not inclined or even able to love God wholly with heart, mind, and strength, but rather all are inclined by nature to serve their own will and desires and to reject the rule of God. Even religion and philanthropy are wicked to God to the extent that these originate from a human imagination, passion, and will and are not done to the glory of God. Therefore, in Reformed theology , if God is to save anyone He must predestine , call, elect individuals to salvation since fallen man does not want to, indeed is incapable of choosing God. Total depravity does not mean, however, that people are as evil as possible. Rather, it means that even the good which a person may intend is faulty in its premise, false in its motive, and weak in its implementation; and there is no mere refinement of natural capacities that can correct this condition. Thus, even acts of generosity and altruism are in fact egoist acts in disguise. All good, consequently, is derived from God alone, and in no way through man. Christian soteriology is the branch of Christian theology that deals with one's salvation. Atonement is a doctrine that describes how human beings can be reconciled to God. In Christian theology the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of one's sin through the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion , which made possible the reconciliation between God and creation. Within Christianity there are three main theories for how such atonement might work: the ransom theory , the satisfaction theory and the moral influence theory. Christian soteriology is unlike and not to be confused with collective salvation. Christian soteriology traditionally focuses on how God ends the separation people have from him due to sin by reconciling them with himself. Many Christians believe they receive the forgiveness of sins Acts , life Rom. Christ's death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit , is called The Paschal Mystery. Christ's human birth is called the Incarnation. Either or both are considered in different versions of soteriology. While not neglecting the Paschal Mystery , many Christians believe salvation is brought through the Incarnation itself, in which God took on human nature so that humans could partake in the divine nature 2 Peter 1. As St. Athanasius put it, God became human so that we might become divine St. Athanasius, De inc. This grace in Christ 1 Cor. This involves accepting Jesus Christ as the personal saviour and Lord over one's life. Protestant teaching, originating with Martin Luther , teaches that salvation is received by grace alone and that one's sole necessary response to this grace is faith alone. Older Christian teaching, as found in Catholic and Orthodox theology, is that salvation is received by grace alone , but that one's necessary response to this grace comprises both faith and works James , 26; Rom —7; Gal Human beings exists because God wanted to share His life with them. In this sense, every human being is God's child. In a fuller sense, to come to salvation is to be reconciled to God through Christ and to be united with His divine Essence via Theosis in the beatific vision of the Godhead. The graces of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection are found in the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Specific areas of concern include the church's role in salvation , its origin, its relationship to the historical Christ , its discipline, its destiny , and its leadership. Ecclesiology is, therefore, the study of the church as a thing in, and of, itself. Different ecclesiologies give shape to very different institutions. Thus, in addition to describing a broad discipline of theology, ecclesiology may be used in the specific sense of a particular church or denomination's character, self-described or otherwise. This is the sense of the word in such phrases as Roman Catholic ecclesiology , Lutheran ecclesiology , and ecumenical ecclesiology. Ecclesiastical polity is the operational and governance structure of a church or Christian denomination. It also denotes the ministerial structure of the church and the authority relationships between churches. Polity is closely related to Ecclesiology , the study of doctrine and theology relating to church organization. Issues of church governance appear in the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles ; the first act recorded after the ascension is the election of Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot. Over the years a system of episcopal polity developed. During the Protestant Reformation , arguments were made that the New Testament prescribed structures quite different from that of the Roman Catholic Church of the day, and different Protestant bodies used different types of polity. Episcopal polity is used in several closely related senses. Most commonly it refers to the field of church governance in the abstract, but it also can refer to the governance of a particular Christian body. In this sense it is used as a term in civil law. Though each church or denomination has its own characteristic structure, there are three general types of polity. Churches having episcopal polity are governed by bishops. The title bishop comes from the Greek word episkopos , which literally translates into overseer. Bishops in this system may be subject to higher ranking bishops variously called archbishops , metropolitans or patriarchs , depending upon the tradition; see also Bishop for further explanation of the varieties of bishops. They also meet in councils or synods. These synods, subject to presidency by higher ranking bishops, may govern the dioceses which are represented in the council, though the synod may also be purely advisory. Note that the presence of the office of "bishop" within a church is not proof of episcopal polity. For example, in Mormonism , the "bishop" occupies the office that in an Anglican church would be occupied by a priest. Also, episcopal polity is not usually a simple chain of command. Instead, some authority may be held, not only by synods and colleges of bishops, but by lay and clerical councils. Further, patterns of authority are subject to a wide variety of historical rights and honors which may cut across simple lines of authority. It is also common in Methodist and Lutheran churches. Among churches with episcopal polity, different theories of autonomy are expressed. So in Roman Catholicism the church is viewed as a single polity headed by the pope , but in Eastern Orthodoxy the various churches retain formal autonomy but are held to be unified by shared doctrine and conciliarity —that is, the authority of councils, such as ecumenical councils , Holy Synods and the former standing council, the Endemusa Synod. Many Reformed churches, notably those in the Presbyterian and Continental Reformed traditions, are governed by a hierarchy of councils. The lowest level council governs a single local church and is called the session or consistory ; its members are called elders. The minister of the church sometimes referred to as a teaching elder is a member of and presides over the session; lay representatives ruling elders or, informally, just elders are elected by the congregation. The session sends representatives to the next level higher council, called the presbytery or classis. In some Presbyterian churches there are higher level councils synods or general assemblies. Each council has authority over its constituents, and the representatives at each level are expected to use their own judgment. Hence higher level councils act as courts of appeal for church trials and disputes, and it is not uncommon to see rulings and decisions overturned. Presbyterian polity is, of course, the characteristic governance of Presbyterian churches, and also of churches in the Continental Reformed tradition. Elements of presbyterian polity are also found in other churches. For example, in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America governance by bishops is paralleled by a system of deputies, who are lay and clerical representatives elected by parishes and, at the national level, by the dioceses. Legislation in the general convention requires the separate consent of the bishops and of the deputies. Note that, in episcopal polity, a presbyter refers to a priest. Congregationalist polity dispenses with titled positions such as bishop as a requirement of church structure. The local congregation rules itself, though local leaders and councils may be appointed. Members may be sent from the congregation to associations that are sometimes identified with the church bodies formed by Lutherans , Presbyterians , Anglicans , and other non-congregational Protestants. The similarity is deceptive, however, because the congregationalist associations do not exercise control over their members other than ending their membership in the association. Many congregationalist churches are completely independent in principle. One major exception is Ordination , where even congregationalist churches often invite members of the vicinage or association to ordain their called pastor. It is a principle of congregationalism that ministers do not govern congregations by themselves. They may preside over the congregation, but it is the congregation which exerts its authority in the end. Congregational polity is sometimes called "Baptist polity", as it is the characteristic polity of Baptist churches. A sacrament, as defined in Hexam's Concise Dictionary of Religion , is what Roman Catholics believe to be "a rite in which God is uniquely active. As defined above, an example would be baptism in water, representing and conveying the grace of the gift of the Holy Spirit , the Forgiveness of Sins , and membership into the Church. Anointing with holy anointing oil is another example which is often synonymous with receiving the Holy Spirit and salvation. Another way of looking at Sacraments is that they are an external and physical sign of the conferral of Sanctifying Grace. Throughout the Christian faith, views concerning which rites are sacramental, that is conferring sanctifying grace , and what it means for an external act to be sacramental vary widely. Other religious traditions also have what might be called "sacraments" in a sense, though not necessarily according to the Christian meaning of the term. In the majority of Western Christianity, the generally accepted definition of a sacrament is that it is an outward sign that conveys spiritual grace through Christ. Christian churches , denominations , and sects are divided regarding the number and operation of the sacraments. Sacraments are generally held to have been instituted by Jesus Christ , although in some cases this point is debated. They are usually administered by the clergy to a recipient or recipients, and are generally understood to involve visible and invisible components. The invisible component manifested inwardly is understood to be brought about by the action of the Holy Spirit, God 's grace working in the sacrament's participants, while the visible or outward component entails the use of such things as water, oil, and bread and wine that is blessed or consecrated ; the laying-on-of- hands; or a particularly significant covenant that is marked by a public benediction such as with marriage or absolution of sin in the reconciliation of a penitent. The Orthodox Churches Eastern and Oriental typically do not limit the number of sacraments, viewing all encounters with reality in life as sacramental in some sense, and their acknowledgement of the number of sacraments at seven as an innovation of convenience not found in the Church Fathers. It came into use, although infrequently, later on from later encounters with the West and its Sacramental Theology. Since some post-Reformation denominations do not regard clergy as having a classically sacerdotal or priestly function, they avoid the term "sacrament," preferring the terms "sacerdotal function," "ordinance," or "tradition. This view stems from a highly developed concept of the priesthood of all believers. In this sense, the believer himself or herself performs the sacerdotal role [ citation needed ]. Eucharist, also called Communion, or the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance , generally considered to be a re-enactment of the Last Supper , the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his arrest and eventual crucifixion. The consecration of bread and a cup within the rite recalls the moment at the Last Supper when Jesus gave his disciples bread, saying, "This is my body", and wine, saying, "This is my blood". There are different interpretations of the significance of the Eucharist, but "there is more of a consensus among Christians about the meaning of the Eucharist than would appear from the confessional debates over the sacramental presence, the effects of the Eucharist, and the proper auspices under which it may be celebrated. The phrase "the Eucharist" may refer not only to the rite but also to the consecrated bread leavened or unleavened and wine or, in some Protestant denominations, unfermented grape juice used in the rite , [] and, in this sense, communicants may speak of "receiving the Eucharist", as well as "celebrating the Eucharist". For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks , he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. The King James Version has. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The Last Supper appears in all three Synoptic Gospels : Matthew , Mark , and Luke ; and in the First Epistle to the Corinthians , [29] [] [] while the last-named of these also indicates something of how early Christians celebrated what Paul the Apostle called the Lord's Supper. As well as the Eucharistic dialogue in John chapter 6. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians c. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me'. The synoptic gospels, first Mark, [] and then Matthew [] and Luke, [] depict Jesus as presiding over the Last Supper. References to Jesus' body and blood foreshadow his crucifixion, and he identifies them as a new covenant. The expression The Lord's Supper , derived from St. Paul 's usage in 1 Corinthians —34 , may have originally referred to the Agape feast , the shared communal meal with which the Eucharist was originally associated. But The Lord's Supper is now commonly used in reference to a celebration involving no food other than the sacramental bread and wine. The Didache Greek: teaching is an early Church order, including, among other features, instructions for baptism and the Eucharist. Most scholars date it to the early 2nd century, [] and distinguish in it two separate Eucharistic traditions, the earlier tradition in chapter 10 and the later one preceding it in chapter 9. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the Apostolic Fathers and a direct disciple of the Apostle John , mentions the Eucharist as "the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ", [] and Justin Martyr speaks of it as more than a meal: "the food over which the prayer of thanksgiving, the word received from Christ, has been said Many Christian denominations classify the Eucharist as a sacrament. Most Christians, even those who deny that there is any real change in the elements used, recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. Transubstantiation is the metaphysical explanation given by Roman Catholics as to how this transformation occurs. Lutherans believe that the body and blood of Jesus are present "in, with and under" the forms of bread and wine, a concept known as the sacramental union. The Reformed churches, following the teachings of John Calvin , believe in a spiritual or "pneumatic" real presence of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and received by faith. Anglicans adhere to a range of views although the Anglican church officially teaches the real presence. Some Christians reject the concept of the real presence, believing that the Eucharist is only a memorial of the death of Christ. The Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry document of the World Council of Churches , attempting to present the common understanding of the Eucharist on the part of the generality of Christians, describes it as "essentially the sacrament of the gift which God makes to us in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit", "Thanksgiving to the Father", "Anamnesis or Memorial of Christ", "the sacrament of the unique sacrifice of Christ, who ever lives to make intercession for us", "the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, the sacrament of his real presence ", "Invocation of the Spirit", "Communion of the Faithful", and "Meal of the Kingdom". Broadly speaking, it is the study of the destiny of man as revealed in the Bible. Eschatology is concerned with the afterlife , beginning with death and the personal judgment which follows the death of the individual, and which is followed by the destination of heaven or hell. In Catholic theology, heaven is sometimes preceded by purgatory. Eschatology also concerns itself with events which are said to happen at the end of this age: the return of Jesus , the resurrection of the dead , the Rapture , the Tribulation , and following these things, the Millennium, or thousand years of peace, which has been interpreted both literally and symbolically. Finally, eschatology concerns itself with the end of the world and its associated events: the Last Judgment ; the banishment of Death, Hades, and Satan and his followers to the Lake of Fire; and the creation of a new heaven and earth.

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