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Anonymous
Anonymous asked in Society & CultureReligion & Spirituality · 1 decade ago

Christians, What is Christology?

Does anyone know what Christology is and who started the teaching of it? I'll give you a hint, it's a saint.

Update:

it deals with theology and Christ. the works of theology is mixed with learning of Christ.

Update 2:

St. Thomas Aquinas is the man who started this study of Christ.

Update 3:

Christology Lesson 7: St. Thomas Aquinas's Christology influence of Greek Christology: translations into Latin were made first available to Thomas in the early 1260s. He was the first among the medieval western theologians to drink deeply of this Greek font. He composed the Catena Aurea, or The Golden Chain, a collection of patristic sayings, both eastern and western, corresponding to each passage from the four Gospels. His passion for the Gospels and the life of Christ is shown by his decision to include an extensive treatment of the mysteries of the Life of Christ in his Summa theologiae. Thomas devotes the Questions 1-26 of the Third Part of his Summa to the hypostatic union of Christ and then Questions 27-59 to the words and deeds of Christ. He is unique among medieval theologians to include such a commentary on the life of Christ in a systematic work of theology.

Update 4:

Christ's Place in the Summa theologiae

Some theologians object to Christ's place in St. Thomas Summa. The Summa has three parts. The first part treats God and creatures coming forth from him. The second part treats mans return to God through the moral life. The third part treats Christ who as man is our way of returning to God (qui secundum quo domo via est nobis tendendi ad Deum) (prologue, Third Part). There is a great exitus-reditus (emanation and return) scheme that was first described as such by the Dominican Marie-Dominique Chenu in the 1940s. Chenu himself was unsure of how the third part on Christ fit into the neoplatonic theme of emanation and return. But as Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., and others have argued, Christ is the fulfillment of the return. St. Thomas does not merely accept a neoplatonic theme, but Christianizes it.

Update 5:

St. Thomas does not merely accept a neoplatonic theme, but Christianizes it. He shows that the return of creatures, specifically man, only occurs in Christ. Christ is not superfluous in St. Thomas's consideration, but instead is fulcrum around which God and his creatures turn. Thomas himself says in his Christology that Christ is the consummation, or fulfillment, of the study of the theology.

One must also recognize also that St. Thomas does not begin his Summa with Christology. We enter the Christian faith through faith in Christ. Thomas knows that basic theological catechesis works with the stories of Christ and Israel from the Scriptures and as summarized in the Creeds which Thomas considered summaries of the whole of Scripture.

Update 6:

But a speculative or, better, contemplative approach to theology does not simply consider the reality of God, man and Christ as it appears to us. Speculative theology seeks to consider reality as it is in itself, in other words as it appears to God. Thus, God and man are treated separately before Christ. Although the revelation of Christ is the basis for much of our knowledge of God and man, by treating God and man separately first, we will more adequately be able to approach the mystery of Christ. Another way of putting it is that from our perspective Christ is the center. But from God's perspective, the true perspective, the Trinity is the center. Christ reveals the Trinity to us. We learn sacra doctrina (sacred doctrine or holy teaching) from him. Thomas's theology thus begins with the Triune God as revealed in Christ before considering the God-man.

Update 7:

Thomas's theology thus begins with the Triune God as revealed in Christ before considering the God-man.

Thomas distinguishes between the order of discovery and the order of speculative knowledge (Aristotle's scientia). The order of discover moves from effects to causes. The order of speculative knowledge from knowledge of the causes to explain the effects.

Some charge that in his section on Christology St. Thomas deduces everything from the fact of the hypostatic union. This is not the case at all. Thomas is simply proceeding in a second-order pedogogical manner that moves from the cause -- the hypostatic union -- to the effects -- Christ's life, death, and resurrection.

Update 8:

Christ the Teacher: The theme of Christ as the teacher is a unique motif that unites all the various parts of the Summa theologiae. This is important to understand since it shows that reflection on the mystery of the Person of Christ informs our entire understanding of theology. The moral life (considered in the second part) is also centered on Christ as the teacher. Thomas's consideration of the moral life begins with our vocation to beatitude in the vision of God. He then examines moral action, the passions, virtues and vices, law and grace. This culminates in the New Law of Christ that actually enables man to achieve his supernatural happiness. Christ is the teacher who gives the New Law. But as a divine and human teacher, he gives the New Law primarily as the divine gift of the Holy Spirit and secondarily as teachings about the sacraments and the moral preaching of the Sermon on the Mount. In Thomas's treatment of the virtue of faith he says that faith is accepted from the divine

Update 9:

teacher -- Christ. Although Thomas's moral theology relies upon an understanding of human nature and the natural law, his moral theology puts Christ as the origin our strength and the goal of the moral life.

Christ as Example

Throughout Thomas's discussion of Christological issues, he frequently makes reference to the example of Christ. For example, he says that Christ suffered physical ailments such as hunger and thirst to give us an example of patient endurance of suffering. Christ is a moral example for us to follow. But Thomas's theology goes one step beyond this moral exemplarity to include what is best described as ontological exemplarity -- not only acting like Christ, but being like him. To be like Christ means to share in his identity as the Son of God. Thomas knows there is only one Son of God, but affirms that all Christians possess adoptive filiation. We become other sons of God.

TAKE NOTES ON THESES, BECAUSE I GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO TO HELP YOU LEARN THIS.

Update 10:

READING ASSIGNMENT:

Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering, Knowing the Love of Christ: An Introduction to the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002) Ch. 4-5, pp. 61-89.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT:

Write a two-page essay in which you analyze the connection between the mystery of the Person of Jesus Christ as defined by St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Thomas's presentation of Christ as teacher and example.

SUGGESTED READING:

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part III, Qq, 1-4, 7-8, 16, 23, 42. Available on the web. Just type Summa Theologica into a search engine.

6 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Christology is the branch of theology dealing with the nature, person, and deeds of Jesus Christ. (www.dictionary.com)

    "The earliest Christological reflection focused on the titles given to Jesus in the apostolic writings. These titles, some of which were used more widely than others, derived in one way or another from the Hebrew Scriptures. Son of Man, Son of God, and Messiah were three terms prominently employed in the Gospel narratives. Jesus was also described as judge and as high priest (as in the Epistle to the Hebrews). John the Baptist referred to him as the Lamb of God on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, but this title hardly appears subsequently in the apostolic writings. It was used in the liturgy, however, and the iconography of the lamb, generally depicted with a cross, became one of the foremost Christian symbols. Another title used in the New Testament, but only sparingly afterward, was Servant of God."

    The text above does not mention the Catholic Church, until further into the article, and it was not St Thomas Aquinas that was mentioned....

    "The most widely used title for Jesus was Lord (Greek: Kyrios), undoubtedly because for non-Jews it was more comprehensible than Christ; the former term also implied adoration. As indicated by the preceding discussion, in the apostolic age the titles and appellations given to Jesus were often used in a guarded and tentative way, as in the Second Letter of Clement (written c. 125–140 by an unknown author) and in the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 110)."

    This article I researched is found on the website listed in the "Source(s)" box, and I never read anything mentioning St Thomas Aquinas as the "founder of Christology", or rather....the man who started the study of Christ.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Christology;

    Christ's incarnation refers to the divine act in which ''the eternalSon of God took to Himself a genuine human nature and lived a genuine human Life on earth without for a moment ceasing to be Deity.''

    Christ was pre-existent with the Father; John 1;2-3; 17:5.

  • 1 decade ago

    As you can see from the write-up, theologians really did make the knowing of Christ hard. Don't worry, though, Paul says knowledge puffs up and doesn't count much in Heaven as long as you have wisdom. Love is more verifiable in Heaven and would get figured out as to where to seat you in the banquet of Heaven. If you get seated in hell, you'd probably just drool for the virtual water or the mirage of a pond in the abyss..

  • 1 decade ago

    Christology is simply the study of Christ. Nobody "started it".

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  • Sean
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    it's the study of your relation to Christ

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    If you know the answer, why are you asking the question?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christology

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