Powerpoint 3 Flashcards
Paths toward error regarding Christology
Overemphasize Christ’s humanity – ignore divinity
Overemphasize Christ’s divinity – ignore humanity
Deny unity of natures
‘The fullness of God was present in the man Jesus and thus the way was secured whereby all humanity could be united to God.’ (HOD, p. 105)
Ebionitism
Jewish sect of ‘Christians’
Jesus was solely and purely human with charismatic gifts
Anointed as Messiah at Baptism – Spirit came upon Him.
Contemporary version: Unitarianism
Jesus is a good man, a religious genius with exceptional insight
Stress Humanity - Deny Divinity
Adoptionism
Denies eternal nature
Adopted by God at his baptism as ‘Son of God’
Arianism
Jesus is the supreme/first created being
Denies divinity
Contemporary version: Jehovah’s Witnesses
Docetism (Gr. Dokeo: to seem)
Jesus Christ was purely divine with only the appearance of being human
Gnosticism (Gr. Gnosis: to know)
Matter is evil, therefore God cannot become material – or human – duality of spiritual & physical
Jesus Christ just ‘seemed human’ (Docetic)
Importance of secret, special knowledge/revelation
Denial of the Unity of the natures
The following cards contain heresies pertaining to this.
Nestorianism
Separation of Christ into two persons and two natures (Siamese twins)
Denies the Incarnation
Jesus was a human bound morally in friendship with Logos ( the Word)
Eutychianism
Neither God nor man
A composite – third type of being
Apollinarianism
Jesus possessed the body of a man, but the mind of God
‘A miraculous mixture’
Soul is disengaged from the body
Logos takes the place of the soul – a ‘soul-less being’
Council of Nicea – 325 C.E
Countered Arianism – Christ’s nature is of the same substance with the Father
Emphasized the Incarnation – union of natures
Emphasized mission
Nicene Creed
