Singing Toward Virtue: The Christ Hymn and Spiritual Formation in Colossians

Abstract

A theological reading of the Christ Hymn in Colossians reveals claims about Jesus that are meant to evoke worship and empower a different moral and ethical life. Paul wanted the Colossian Christians to worship Christ rightly and then to live accordingly. The root of his doctrinal warnings and ethical injunctions are found in the claims of the Christ Hymn, making worship in the Colossian letter not the prelude but the premise. The theological message of the Christ Hymn focuses on Christological claims about Christ’s place in creation and new creation, his nature, and his relation to the Father. Using the theoretical framework of ritual studies to demonstrate how canonical messages in a ritual are confirmed through performance, these claims are then traced throughout the remainder of the letter to demonstrate how Christian life and practice flow from Christian worship. Worship has the power to be formative, but the formation is not automatic. Spiritual formation results from a careful theological exposition of the claims about Christ and a pastoral application of those claims into communal discourse and practice.