Christology and Mariology
Nature
"the principle of motion in that in which it is essentially and not accidentally" This principle is either form or matter. Boethius definition: "Nature is what informs a thing with its specific difference,"---i.e. which perfects the specific definition.
St. Anselm
(1033 - 1109) 11th century into 12th century (Middle Ages). Italian by birth, from Aosta, Italy. Often (incorrectly) too closely associated with Neoplatonism. Augustine is a major influence during this period. Developed the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God, in the Proslogian Some call him the Father of Scholasticism.
Tertullian of Carthage
(155-220 A.D.) First to use the (Latin) term trinitas (trinity) Using more technical language in discussing Christ (e.g., substantia) Trained in Law and rhetoric Anti-philosophical? (He is the one who wrote "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?") He desires to maintain the two-nature state.
Origen
(185-254 AD) Wrote De Principiis A scholar, ascetic, and early Christian theologian. The last Great Apologist, catechist. From Alexandria, studied under Bishop Clement. Philosophically, he is associated with "Middle Platonism." A contemporary and probably studied with Plotinus (the Father of NeoPlatonism).
St. Augustine
(B. 354-d.430) Is Greco-Roman Most writings after his ordination in 395. De Trinitate (his great dogmatic work), City of God. He has a two-nature one-subject Christology evidenced in his forma dei/forma servi language. This is an orthodox Christology. Has a very clear and true understanding Christ, early in the game. Christ subsists in two natures. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. When looking at the natures, one nature is subordinate to the other.
Exitus-Reditus schema
(Begins with God, goes out to creatures, returns in the Person of Christ [salvation])
Gregory Nazianzen
(Born: 329 - D. 390 AD) Wrote Theological Orations Fourth Theological Oration (Christological focus) Written well after Nicea. (379-380)
theandric
(God and man) a term applied to the activity of Christ which are, due to the Hypostatic Union, the work of the God-Man. The term can also be used incorrectly based on or tending to a Monophysite position
Theopaschism
(God and to suffer) a term applicable to any of several heretical Christologies that attribute suffering to the Divine Nature in and through the passion of Christ.
Monoergism
(Gr. one, alone + activity) a Christological error that asserted only one theandric activity of the Word Incarnate
The 12 Anathemas by Cyril
(all these address the Nestorian Controversy) Asserts the true divinity of Christ and that Mary is mother of God (theotokos) Emphasizing UNITY in Christ, hypostatic union. One may distinguish between the natures, but one must not distinguish between the persons. Christ is "one in the same."
St Athanasius of Alexandria
(approx 298-373) "Father of Orthodoxy" Wrote De Incarnatione when he was 20 yrs old Genre: Apologetic, Christology is only there to explain the main arguments for Christianity. It is more of a work of Soteriology.
Cyril of Alexandria
(b.376 - d. 444) Bishop and Doctor of the Church, Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. -Christ is a single person (hypostasis) -Logos is connected to humanity in a real, physical and personal union. -The activities of Christ, although done by two natures, should be attributed to the one person, Christ. --It is only the one person that is born of the Virgin that dies on the Cross -There is a communicatio idiomata ("communication of properties") based on the Hypostatic Union -Mary is Mother of God (theotokos)
Eutyches
(born c. 375—died 454) asserts not double person, but a single nature in Christ. He does not have enough distinction between nature and person to understand and articulate the proper person of Christ. He thought since the person is single (correct) that the nature must also be single (incorrect).
St. Irenaeus of Lyon
(d. 203 A.D.) Major work: Adversus Haereses (Against the Heretics)
Monophysitism
(one , alone + nature) a Christological heresy that would reduce the natures of Christ into one nature One nature, one person. One divine nature.
Monotheletism
(one, alone + to want, to will) a Christological heresy that taught that Christ had only one will based on the one hypostasis, instead of two wills based on the integrity of each nature.
Docetism
(to seem or appear) Christological heresy of the first centuries of the Church which understood the Incarnation (and therefore the Passion and Resurrection) as mere appearances by the Son of God in the economy based on dualism (contradicts unity). There are different strands.. Some strands say Christ was mere phantom (contradicts integrity principle).
T. Aquinas - The Young Intellectual
-Biblical Bachelor (1248-52) -Bachelor in the Sentences I (1252-56) -Master in Sacra Pagina: legere, disputare, praedicare (1256-59)
St Thomas Aquinas
-Born to a noble family in 1225 -Begins education at Monte Cassino (1230) -Enrolls at the studium general in Naples (1239), gets exposed to the works of Aristotle and Domincan's -Takes Dominican Habit (1244) -Disciple of Albert the Great (1245-52)
T. Aquinas - Important Works
-Commentary on the Sentences -De ente et essentia -De Veritate -Scripture Commentaries -Commentaries on Aristotle's works -Summa Theologiae
Structure of Summa Theologiae
-First Part: Sacred doctrine, God, Trinity, Creation, distinction of things in general, good/evil, angels, work of 6 days, Man, the conservation/government of creatures. -Second Part Part 1 Part 2 -Third Part Supplement to Third Part (composed by others after Thomas' death)
Who are the Apologists?
-Roughly from 150-250 AD -Those who present a defense of the faith. -Those writing in the mid-second to the mid-third century AD. oncerned with answering the following: How can Christianity have universal salvific efficacy if it is only 150 years old? How can the scandal of the cross be accepted? How is evil to be reconciled with the providence of a merciful God?
Individual Substance
1st substance, not just man, but this man. As soon as he includes rational nature this excludes all other animals. Man is person, angels are person...
Whether the union of the Incarnate Word took place in the nature? (Q2, Article 1:)
Aquinas is basically responding no, the union is not in the natures. -Rep. 1: Word of God united flesh to itself -Rep. 2: As an individual subsists in flesh and soul, Christ subsists in human and divine natures -Rep. 3: Flesh is deified through union with the Word, but retains its natural properties (does not become God).
The Apologists and the Logos In general, they regarded the Logos:
As the mediator of the creation of the cosmos (cosmological aspect) As the basis of knowledge and truth (noetic aspect) As the source and summit of the moral law (nomic aspect) As the original thought of the Father (psychological trinitarian aspect) As the revealer and mediator of salvation (soteriological aspect)
Nestorianism
Attempted to correct Apollinarianism. theology is a 2-subjects Christology a Christological heresy, bearing the name of its proponent, Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople. Nestorius's position was tantamount to denying that Christ is only one subject or person. Nestorius held this based on his adequation of nature and subject.
The Marvelous Exchange
Becoming poor: God became man so that man could become God.
Boethius
Born 480, Died 524 (executed). A statesman and Roman citizen. Charged with treason, executed at age 54 - relatively young. Wrote "Consolation of Philosophy" while in prison. Influenced all of the Scholastics
Dyotheletism
Christ has two wills. The Church teaches that the will corresponds with the nature, therefore Christ, having two natures, has two wills: one human, one divine.
Eutychianism
Christological heresy named after the monk Eutyches which posited that over-emphasized the unity of the two natures in Christ so as to fuse the two into one theandric nature
Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.)
Condemns Nestorius and upholds Cyril's position. Filiation (sonship) belongs to the Person, not to the nature. Since Christ is a divine person, Mary's maternity is a divine maternity; she is Mother of God.
Council of Ephesus
Convened in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. The main issue in the dispute between St. Cyril and Nestorius was the question which arose at the Council of Constantinople: What exactly was the being to which Mary gave birth? Was Mary Theotokos? Condemns Nestorius and upholds Cyril's position. Filiation (sonship) belongs to the Person, not to the nature. Since Christ is a divine person, Mary's maternity is a divine maternity; she is Mother of God.
individual substance of a rational nature
Definition of Person
Gnostics
Deny the God of the Old Testament is the Good God of the New Testament
Epiphany
Gk. term for "appearing"
St. Irenaeus on God, Christ, and Creation
God of the OT is the Father of the Logos as opposed to the Gnostics (Valentinus and Marcion) who identify the OT God with the demiurge O.T. witnesses to the Trinity Son and Spirit are the "two hands of God" in the economy Link between his doctrine of creation and his doctrine of redemption in his salus carnis teaching. Understanding of Christ to be "one and the same" (unus et idem) Importance of the concept of recapitulation (anekephalaiosis) Presumes an incarnation Links earthly Jesus to heavenly Christ (contra the Gnostics)
De Incarnatione (paragraph 2)
Goes over 3 different cosmologies Epicureans: deny any order in universe. Platonists: demiurge was the fashioner of the universe. Athanasius critiques the demiurge as dependent on "the stuff" of the universe. Gnostics: Deny the God of the Old Testament is the Good God of the New Testament. In a very nice nutshell: The very One that creates man is the same One that must recreate him and bring man back to order.
ousia
Greek philosophical term that is, by the Council of Chalcedon, similar to the meaning of the Latin substantia
Fourth Theological Oration
Gregory Nazianzen Cf. Proverbs 8:22: "The LORD created me at the beginning of His ways with a view to His works." This verse was co-opted by the Arians, read in an Arian skew.
Justin's Trinitarian Theology and Christology
Has a kind of subordinism, in which the son is a lesser than God the Father, gives the Father and Son different attributes. Logos as principle of all knowledge. Emphasis is not cosmological, but epistemological/soteriological Logos as Dunamis - Conquers evil Not concerned with questions of two natures in the Incarnation o The Father is invisible—the Logos is visible o The Father is wholly transcendent; only the Logos can and does get involved in the economy.
St. Anselm (The Incarnation of the Word)
He addresses the Nominalism, who believe that universals do not really exist but are only a sound (semantics/words alone) and says they have not business working in the field of the Sacred.
Whether it was necessary for the restoration of human race that Word become incarnate? (Q1, Article 2:)
Here Aquinas takes on Anselm, who seems to say that it is necessary that God become incarnate. Incarnation was best way to save man, not the only way. I answer that: a thing is said to be necessary in 2 ways: 1) when the end cannot be without it (food is necessary for preservation of life) and 2)when end is attained better and more conveniently, as a horse is necessary for a journey. God could've restored man in another way, but it was better that He did it through incarnation.
Apollinarian Heresy
Heresy that said Christ does not have a rational human soul. That he, in a sense, takes on a body, with the lower parts of the soul; but without the nous, the highest part of the soul. This would be the next great heresy after Athanasius. Apollinarius was a follower of Athanasius. He was later condemned. It can be seen how Apollinarius may have developed his views from this writing.
Asymmetrical relationship
Integral to Christology, asymmetrical in regards to the Logos relating to the divine nature (being the divine nature) and human nature (having a human nature) Christ, in divinity, IS the divine essence. In regards to his humanity, He takes on a human nature. Christ was not simply a God-bearing man, but was God himself.
Whether it was fitting that God should become incarnate? (Article 2 Question 1, Obj. + Reply)
It is not fitting to unite things that are infinitely apart. God and flesh are infinitely apart...God is simple, flesh is composite. So it was not fitting that God be united to flesh. -the very nature of God is goodness (Dionysius)...what belongs to the essence of goodness befits God. It belongs to the essence of goodness to communicate himself to others.
Cyril of Alexandria Christology
Logos becomes flesh (human nature/essence) without any loss of divine nature/essence. The divine nature was not "cast off" with Incarnation, nor was human nature changed into divine nature. Cyril, here, is defending the integrity principle. Christ has properties that go with his natures. Christ has a human nature, but he is the divinity. This is an asymmetrical relationship (one of the most important things we learn in Christology. It describes how Christ is related to his two natures). We do not say he is human nature. He has a human nature.
Natures can be predicated in 3 ways:
Nature belongs to anything that exists which can be in some way apprehended by intellect. -Nature is either that which can act or that which can be acted upon. -Nature is the principle of movement, per se, and not accidental -Nature is the specific difference that gives form to anything
Whether it was fitting that God should become incarnate? (Question 1)
Objection 1 focuses on divine immutability, implying that any change in a perfect God would indicate a change toward imperfection. However, the union in Christ does not take place in the nature, humanity, or divinity; it occurs in the person of Christ. Thomas' reply: God is not changed in any way, rather he is united to the creature (humanity of Christ). In Christ, humanity which was not previously united to God was afterwards united to Him (after Incarnation) in and through Christ.
De Principiis
Origen begins with introducing the notion of a two-nature Christology in the very first line. Constant theme in Chapter 1: God the Father and His Wisdom are co-eternal. For him (like the Platonists), all human souls pre-exist their incarnation. the Logos combined with a created soul as first step in Incarnation. This created soul united to Logos pre-existed his physical manifestation. Christ' human soul was so virtuous that it got united to the Logos. The preexistent soul along with the Logos is the one that becomes Christ.
Whether the union of the Incarnate Word took place in the Person? (Q2, Article 2 difficult question)
Person has a different meaning from "nature." For nature, as has been said, designates the specific essence which is signified by the definition. • Whereas a human person is not the same as human nature, in God the Divine person is the Divine Nature (in a sense). • Person is an individual substance (subsistence) of a rational nature. • Union takes place in the person of the Word, and not in the nature. The Logos is the Divine Nature, but Christ "possesses" human nature. Possessing human nature accrues to the Word (something that was not there before). The Incarnate Word subsists in two natures, in an asymmetrical relationship.
De Trinitate (Augustine)
Pro-Nicene bishop by this time of his life. Developing here a two-nature Christology.
Unity Principle
Refers to one subject/person of Christ. The Man and the Divine in Christ are one in the same - they terminate in the one person of Christ. We have to say that the Man and the Divine in Christ are one in the same. We have to unite these two disparate natures in one Person.
De Incarnatione
St Athanasius of Alexandria - He is defending why Christ came and why he had to come. -Affirms throughout that the Word is God -"Word' becoming Man, and to His divine Appearing amongst us..." -appearing: shows up a lot in this text. The Greek word is where we get the word "epiphany"
adoptionism
Strict adherence to monotheism, but couldn't bring Jesus into Godhead. Saw Him as Holy man & prophet, adopted as Son of God. the general name applied to any Christological heresy which denies the natural and eternal sonship of Christ, but forwards a view of Christ as an adopted son
Justin Martyr's Logos Theology
The Logos is universal (spatially and temporally) Christ identified with the Logos, therefore, He is the universal Savior Identification of Logos, Sophia, Nomos, Dunamis The Logos is the expression of the Father; He (Logos) is the subject of the theophanies For Justin, the Father never gets involved in the world directly.
The Error of Nestorius (Patriarch of Constantinople)
The Son of Mary is not the same person as the Son of God -The two natures in Christ correspond to two distinct subject or persons -The human activities (birth, hunger, suffering, death) are to be attributed to the human person; the divine activities (omniscience, impassibility, eternity) to the divine person -Mary was not Mother of God (theotokos, "God bearer") but only Mother of the man Jesus (anthropotokos)
Hypostatic Union
The properties of each nature is united in the person and is communicated in and through the one person of Christ, in the hypostatic union.
De Fide Orthodoxa (Ch XIV)
Things that have same essence have the same will/energy. Things that have different will and energy have different essence. -Christ, who has 2 natures (divine and human), then has 2 wills. -Father, Son, Holy Spirit in Godhead share the same essence, and so have the same will.
Universal vs. Particular Substance
Universal - those that are predicated of individuals, as man, animal, stone, etc. Particular - never predicated of other things: Cicero, Plato, this stone, etc. Person cannot be predicated of universals, but only of particulars and individuals. There is no person of man as animal or genus; only of Cicero, Plato, or some individual. The name "man" points to the individual nature of a thing, distinct from orange, dog, etc.
Augustine's Christology
Unlike Athanasius or Gregory of Naziensus, there is no treatment of Christology per se, or ex officio. But such teaching "comes and goes," within his works.
Integrity Principle
Wholeness; refers to keeping both natures whole and entire. Each nature of Christ, human and divine, are each whole/complete/entire.
De Fide Orthodoxa
Work by St. John Damascene distinguishes between universals and particulars. Oupostasis is like "first substance" (e.g., John) and "second substance is "human nature". When you have a subsistence that participates in an essence, they participate not in part, but as a whole. For example, when John participates in humanity, he is as fully human as the next man is human. The subsistence of John is individual, and several individuals differ in number, but all participate in the one nature of "man."
"Communication of Idioms" (Chapter IV, Pg. 78)
a Christological concept about the interaction of deity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. He is both incapable of suffering, and capable of suffering. -He is both Son of God and God. -He was crucified. His divinity was not crucified or die
Apollinarianism
a Christological heresy named for Apollinaris of Laodiciea which understood that the Logos assumed an incomplete human nature, the Logos taking the place of the intellective soul. Think of the Platonic anthropology of Tripartite soul with the "nous" being the highest in this hierarchy. In this heresy, the nous is replaced by the Logos, and the human rational soul is left out.
Arianism
a Christological/Trinitarian heresy named for the presbyter, Arius of Alexandria, which denied the deity of Christ. Arius's phrase, "There was a time when he (the Logos) was not," was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325
Messiah
a Hebrew word meaning anointed. A term/title used of kings and priests in the OT
Ebionites
a Jewish-Christian sect of the Apostolic Period that denied the natural generation of Christ, thereby denying the full divinity of the Second Person of the Trinity
Kenosis
a becoming; emptying
Canonica Regula
a canonical rule. Canonical Criticism means to look at the whole of Scripture to do exegesis. Augustine already knows this.
mixed relation
a philosophical concept developed in the Scholastic Period to describe the unequal relations between two things, whereby the relation from one thing to the other is real, but the relation of the second thing to the first is merely logical. A prime example is mixed relation between the knower and the thing known.
hypostasis (υπόσταση)
a philosophical term that developed within the Trinitarian controversies of the 4th century and again in the Christological controversies of the 5th century. Originally having the same or similar sense as ousia (οὐσία) the term came to be distinguished from ousia by the Cappadocians. At Chalcedon (451), Christ is described as one hypostasis in two natures
anhypostatic
a term applied to the humanity of Christ, which although an integral human nature, does not terminate in a human hypostasis or person
hypostatic union
a term referring to the union of the two natures of Christ in the person (hypostasis) of the Word
fomes peccati
a term used to describe the disordered inclination to sin as a result of original sin
Immaculate Conception
a title and teaching applied to Mary based on the fact that she was conceived without the stain of original sin in view of the future merits of Christ
Co-Redemptrix
a title applied to Our Lady based on the role she plays in the redemption of mankind. This role, however, is qualitatively different from, and dependent upon, the role played by Christ as the Redeemer of the world.
Mediatrix
a title used by various popes (Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI) to describe the real but derivative role of Mary in the mediation of graces
logos sarx Christology
a type of Christology, usually identified with Alexandria, that stressed the union of the Logos with the humanity of Christ
logos anthropos Christology
a type of Christology, usually identified with Antioch, that stressed the full and integral human nature.
Definition of Person by Boethius
an individual substance of a rational nature nature is a substrate of person, nature is the specific property of any substance and person cannot be predicated apart from nature. -Nature and person are not the same thing, but are closely linked. -to talk about person you have to talk about nature, but to talk about nature you do not have to talk about person.
St. John Damascene
b.676-d.750 A Syrian monk and priest. Wrote "De Fide Orthodoxa" Worked in late Patristic Period. Takes on is monotheletism heresy Influenced: Thomas Aquinas
communicatio idiomata (communication of idioms or properties)
based on the hypostatic union, this refers to the ability to predicate of Christ (the person) properties of both the human and divine natures. The expression, "God died on the cross," is true based on the communication of idioms
Christology from Below
begins with the Incarnation itself (e.g., Matthew's Gospel, which begins with a long genealogy).
Christology from Above
begins with the pre-incarnate Christ (e.g., John's Prologue, "in the beginning was the Word...")
Justin Martyr
born c. 100 — died c. 165, Rome [Italy] Beheaded Wrote Dialogue with Trypho
Docetists
denied true, full incarnation. Still called themselves Christians. Committed to cosmology that said that material is evil and immaterial/spiritual is good.
Epicureans
deny any order in universe
Kenotic Christology
descriptive of various christologies of the 19th century that applied the emptying (κένωσις) of Christ, as described in Phil 2:6-11, to the divinity of Christ
Form
intrinsic principle of nature.
High Christology
means that you emphasize the Divinity of Christ. One must be aware not to over emphasize the Divinity.
Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)
the hub of all Christological teaching, Boethius follows this council and uses principles from it.
Low Christology
the modern starting point. It emphasizes the humanity of Christ. That is typical in the 20th Century. Much of this comes from the search for the historical Jesus. Be aware not to disregard the Divinity of Christ.
Soteriology
the study of religious doctrines of salvation.
Platonists
the view that there exist such things as abstract objects — where an abstract object is an object that does not exist in space or time and which is therefore entirely non-physical and non-mental.
Substances alone
those that are incorporeal Anything said to exist can be called substance
Mother of God
title given to Mary, of more Christological import than Mariological, especially in the Patristic Period, based on the correct understanding of the Hypostatic Union and the resultant communicatio idiomata. Her son is truly the Son of God, and so she can be rightly called this.
Theotokos
title of Mary, the Third Ecumenical Council in 431 AD declared that the Blessed Virigin Mary was indeed the Mother of Jesus.
