Jesus as Son of God: God & Man Flashcards
What do Christians believe about God and sin?
Only God has the power to save humanity from sin - so if Jesus saved people from sin, he had to be (in some sense) God
What do Christians believe about Jesus as human?
Jesus had to be human in order to live on the earth as we do, suffer pain for the sake of humanity and submit to human death
Why does the idea of Jesus being both fully human and fully divine create issues?
God and humanity are very different, so it is difficult to see how anyone could be both at the same time
What do Christians reject found in ancient Greek and Roman mythology?
The demi-god idea
What human trait did Jesus not have?
He did not have a sinful nature that other human beings have. He was capable of being tempted by evil , but he rejected that temptation and so was able to bring humanity to reconciliation with God
What was the first way Medieval Christian theologians thought Jesus might have knowledge of God?
Face-to-face knowledge of God and all eternal and created things (scientia visionis)
What was the second way Medieval Christian theologians thought Jesus might have knowledge of God?
An ‘infused’ knowledge, which is knowledge that is not learned, but given by God (scientia infusa)
What was the third way Medieval Christian theologians thought Jesus might have knowledge of God?
Knowledge of life in the normal human way, gained through experience (scientia experientiae)
What do most Christians today agree on teachings of Jesus’ human and divine nature?
Jesus was ‘of the same substance’ as God, as one being
What is Jesus and God as one being referred to as?
Homoousios
Where is it confirmed that Jesus and God are one being?
The First Council of Nicea in AD325 and then the Council of Chalcedon in AD451
Who writes about Jesus’ understanding of his own nature in ‘Interpreting Jesus’ (1993)
Gerald O’Collins
What does Gerald O’Collins conclude?
We cannot draw conclusive answers about the inner life of anyone; knowledge and how it is gained is an extremely complex subject; but we know Jesus and God had a unique relationship
