Hypostatic Union Research Articles

Missio Dei and Missio Hominum: Top-Down-up Christology in Mission

In Christian theology, Christology remains a distinct branch of knowledge offering articulation of the hypostatic union or relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. Its exploration of Christ’s nature and identity moves from the pre-incarnation to post-ascension as enclosing Christ’s birth, earthly mission, resurrection, and ascension. Consequently, or in attempting to streamline such a complex knowledge, Christological theologians developed two categorization frameworks in the form of ‘top-down Christology’ and ‘bottom-up Christology’. When sketchily integrated into missiological frameworks, the missio Dei conforms to top-down Christology, whereas missio hominum conforms more to bottom-up Christology. In their transient articulation of Jesus Christ’s identity, the missio Dei on the one hand embraces the top-down Christology while the missio hominum on the other hand or correspondingly embraces the bottom-up Christology. Accordingly, or given the lack of missiological scholarship deriving the unique understanding of the missio Dei and consequently missio hominum through Christology, this article draws on literature to weave their novel understanding as anchored by Christ’s hypostatic union. Consequently, it first rationalizes the Missio Dei within top-down Christology before anchoring the Missio Hominum within bottom-up Christology. Determinedly, further studies will be required to test the novelty of this approach, as there appears to be no existential science that interprets Missio Dei and Missio Hominum through top-down-up Christology. Keywords: Missiology; Missio Dei; missio hominum; Top-down Christology; Bottom-up Christology.

Absolution: Divine and Human

This article is a contribution to an ecumenical theology of the Word, examining how divine absolution is realized in concrete human experience. It addresses both the scriptural and sacramental mediation of divine absolution, emphasizing the commonality of both resting on the power of God's word spoken in human concrete actuality. The philosophical literature concludes that human beings, in order for forgiveness to be real to them, need to hear and know that they are forgiven. In other words, for forgiveness to be complete, the wrongdoer requires an act of “absolution” (even in a secular sense), which may be verbal or gestural. This observation then drives our theological inquiry. How does divine Providence condescend in the economy of Revelation to make divine absolution available in the concrete details of human life, since it must be available to us, if it is to be received and accepted and be real to us? This investigation assumes that understanding forgiveness in human experience better serves to enrich theological reflection on divine forgiveness. The fact that forgiveness in human experience is primarily a dialogical affair, worked out in a “dialogical narrative” (Griswold) that parallels the dialogical nature of salvation, is evidenced in Scripture. In scriptural mediation, divine absolution becomes a living reality through a “hermeneutic of identity” by which the hearer of the Word appropriates the indexical language of a text, and, for example, self-inserts into a ready-made dialogue. In this way, God's absolution is effectively made a present reality. Finally, the article argues that Christ's words should be considered among his salvific acts, including his absolutions of individual sinners. The immanent expression of divine absolution, therefore, comes through the hypostatic union of the divine and human natures in historical concreteness, providing one avenue of response to the timeless theological question Cur Deus homo?

Hebrews Articulating Hypostatic Union with Christ

Hypostatic is derived from the original language of Scripture (Heb. 1:3) which brought the essential person of Jesus in his human and divine natures. Hebrews describes Jesus as superior to all other beings and all other claims. The doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches that our Lord’s divine nature and His human nature were united forever. He is different from the rest of humanity in that He is God and sinless and his unique theanthropic person of the universe. Despite the various opposing objections that attempt to criticize or disprove Jesus Christ’s two natures (divine and human) his obedience to God’s will even to the point of death shows Jesus’ divinity and humanity working together in perfect harmony. The basic idea that Christ is hypostatically communicating with both divine and human energies is also experienced by believers when their humanity is energized by the Holy Spirit and able to speak to God. In conclusion, the explanation of the anthropic unity of the person of Jesus Christ is quite clear that Jesus has both a divine will and a human will. The union of Christ’s divine and human natures are related to His acts as an incarnate person through His experience as a result of his person of Christ.

Kenosis: The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture & Theology ed. by Paul T. Nimmo and Keith L. Johnson

Reviewed by: Kenosis: The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture & Theology ed. by Paul T. Nimmo and Keith L. Johnson Mark Mattes Kenosis: The Self-Emptying of Christ in Scripture & Theology. Edited by Paul T. Nimmo and Keith L. Johnson. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2022. xi + 332 pages. This book on Christ's "emptying" or kenosis (Philippians 2:6–8), usually interpreted not as a loss Christ suffers but instead as a gain, that is, his incarnation, is a collection of sixteen contributions, scanning the history of Christian interpretation of kenosis and offering contemporary statements on the doctrine, all authored in honor of retired Princeton theologian Bruce McCormack. These essays are extremely helpful for anyone studying Christology. In this brief overview, I will focus on those essays which I found most relevant. In the introduction, Paul Nimmo and Keith Johnson point out that historically the kenosis was not seen as the incarnate Logos somehow foregoing his divine powers but instead as his assumption of a human nature and the "consequent concealment of the divine glory during his life on earth" (4). They refer to the historic dispute (early seventeenth century) between the theological faculties of Giessen, which argued that Christ refrained entirely from using divine attributes during his ministry, and Tübingen, which argued that Christ did employ the communicated attributes of divinity, but only in secret (4). Unfortunately, the nineteenth-century Erlangen theologian Gottfried Thomasius, who advocated that the incarnate Christ divested himself of some of his divine attributes, is not considered in this volume. However, David Fergusson does present the influence of Thomasius's Erlangen kenotic theory on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Anglican theologians. Interpreting Philippians 2, John M. G. Barclay points out that, unlike Edwardian interpretations of kenosis, the apostle Paul did not see Christ's self-emptying as displaying "an ethical ideal" but instead as his enveloping "the full gamut of human life within the renewing love of God—a purpose that reaches its goal in the saving Lordship of Christ" (13). Christ's vulnerability in the incarnation should not be seen as antithetical to divine power because God's power operates "on a different plane" than that of human power. It is radically transcendent, "such that [paradoxically] it can be expressed both in humanly measured weakness and in human measured power" (17). [End Page 210] Han-luen Kantzer Komline examines kenosis in Augustine. For Augustine, as for the majority of Christians, "kenosis happened, not by giving up the form of God, but by taking up the form of a servant" (100). Specifically, the form of a servant was added, not the form of God subtracted (107). Augustine was both proto-anti-Nestorian and proto-anti-monophysite. His response was not to resolve the "Pauline paradox" with how God could incarnate himself as a slave. Instead, "Christ was greater than himself and he was less than himself simultaneously as one unified person" (113). In a powerful essay, Katherine Sonderegger builds on Cyril of Alexandria's imagery of heated iron to describe the hypostatic union: "Altogether and through and through, the iron bar is fiery hot; and altogether and without reserve, the fire is ironclad. They penetrate one another, that is, and although the fire is the sole efficient cause—important for Cyril and later for Thomas Aquinas—the iron receives the fire wholly, and indeed becomes a molten mass …" (126). This leads her to conclude: "What Jesus saw, or better, what he was, in his own unique person, was the holy fire who is God, cascading down the ladder between heaven and earth, a molten divine Son, who will make his own flesh the sacrifice to be burned to ash on the world's altar" (135). Matthew J. Aragon Bruce, interpreting Luther's view of kenosis, notes that Luther "refused to consider the logos asarkos, i.e., the word apart from the incarnation. It is in personal union with humanity that the Word saves us. It is this union itself … which saves us because this is what accomplishes the work of salvation" (173). In his constructive essay, the late Christoph Schwöbel summarizes the whole point of the kenosis thus: "While Christ was in...

The Humility of the Eternal Son: Reformed Kenoticism and the Repair of Chalcedon by Bruce Lindley McCormack, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021, pp. xi + 316, £29.99, hbk

The Humility of the Eternal Son: Reformed Kenoticism and the Repair of Chalcedon by Bruce Lindley McCormack, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021, pp. xi + 316, £29.99, hbk

From Deep Incarnation to Deep Anthropology: Hypostatic Union and the Universe in the Image of Imago Dei

ABSTRACT This paper reflects upon some modern theologians’ stance on the idea of “Deep Incarnation” offering its Eastern Orthodox theological, philosophical and scientific assessment. The main problems and corresponding questions to this idea are: (1) Because of the vast and causally disconnected structure of the universe, humanity at best is consubstantial to the 4% of matter in the visible universe so that the claims for the relevance of the historical Incarnation to the whole creation are not plausible; (2) By de facto equating the transfigured flesh of Christ (through the hypostatic union), with the rest of creation, thus depriving the process of deification of humanity and transfiguration of the visible universe of its temporal dimension, Deep Incarnation goes contrary to the Orthodox stance on deification as a personal endeavour not implanted into the logic of the natural world; (3) the claims of the Deep Incarnation idea would be trivial if they were concerned only with the necessary conditions for the historical Incarnation, which are cosmological. However, the sufficient conditions of the Incarnation as an inaugural event of Christian history cannot be placed into the fabric of the material world. (4) The idea of Deep Incarnation may be treated as contributing to the old makroanthropos idea, related to humanity as a mediating agency not only between moral divisions in creation, but also between different life forms by bringing them to the unity in God.

12 anathematisms of St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Christology of the Armenian Church

It is well known that the Christology of the Armenian Church is based on the Christological teaching of St. Cyril of Alexandria. Following St. Cyril, the Armenian Church confirms the invariability and perfection of divine and human natures in Christ. The hypostatic union of Christ does not lead to a change or amalgamation of natures. It admits the union of Christ with God the Father in deity and with us in humanity. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is a perfect God and a perfect man, begotten before the ages from the Father according to deity, and for our salvation from Mary the Virgin according to humanity. And therefore, there is one nature of God the Word incarnate, revered together with His flesh in one worship. This is what the Armenian Church has believed since the 5th century to date. This article will examine the connection of 12 anathematisms contained in the letter of St. Cyril of Alexandria to Nestorius with the Christological teaching of the Armenian Church.

Miaphysitism in the Perspective of Ecumenism: Reinterpretation of St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Christology

Miaphysitism, originating from the well-known phrase used by St Cyril of Alexandria, mia physis (or mia hypostasis) tou Theou logou searkomene, is most basic, central, and important conversations in the dialogue between the Oriental Churches, that is Non-Chalcedon Churches, and Chalcedon Churches under the Ecumenical Movement, and is the theological basis for theological reconciliation and reunification of the two sides after more than ten centuries of separation since the Council of Chalcedon. After investigating the meaning and usage of the key words “physis” and “hypostasis”, this article will analyze the basic connotations of mia physis (natural union) and mia hypostasis(hypostatic union) in detail, as well as the connection and distinction between them, and explore the reason of the theological reconciliation and reunification between the Oriental Churches and Chalcedon Churches. In the last part, this article will try to discuss the significance of Miaphysitism to Construction of Chinese theology.

Incarnation and Ascension: The Forgotten Relationship of the Two Doctrines

This study focuses on the relationship between the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Ascension of Jesus Christ, which often does not receive adequate attention in contemporary theology. The problem of separating the two doctrines is solved by re-examining the doctrine of the hypostatic union of Christ in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions. Analytical and comparative approaches to the two traditions are undertaken to clearly show the tensions that arise and the possibility of imaginatively and faithfully linking the Incarnation and the Ascension. The study of these two models is furthered by comparing the two contemporary res­ponses of the two traditions, one by Thomas Torrance and an­other by Niels Gregersen, that results in two ways of under­stand­ing Ascension, both as a reversal and as an extension.

White’s The Incarnate Lord: An Appreciative Interaction

White’s The Incarnate Lord: An Appreciative Interaction Chris Tilling Every few years or so, I have been fortunate enough to read authors to whom I know I will endlessly return. For me, that list includes the likes of Karl Barth, Douglas Campbell, Jeff McSwain, and Richard Bauckham, to name some of the “likely suspects.” I may now add Thomas Joseph White to that list, for he has encouraged me to rethink some of my inherited theological commitments. Indeed, the learning, eloquence, and cogency of argumentation on display in The Incarnate Lord1 was, for me, like a New Testament baptism in that I felt plunged into deep waters—refreshing waters, I might add, as he kept sight of “first order” theological discussion. Rather than a boring and very well-worn escapade into hermeneutical or reader-centered concerns that some inexplicably still seem to think are cutting edge, here we are treated to the kind of theological analysis that stretches, that seeks to advance. What is more, the scope of White’s volume is impressive. His argument ranges confidently through philosophical subtleties, both ancient and modern. He handles complex, yet important, Christological debates and soteriological discussions in conversation with giants in the field, one of whom alone usually suffi ces for a lifetime of reading. And this is all done in conversation with important contemporary interlocutors. As a result, the numerous and arguably important observations contained in The Incarnate Lord will shape my own questions for years to come. How refreshing to read a work of theology that seeks [End Page 629] unapologetically to “peer into the mystery of God himself ” (29)! This is all to say that it is an honor to respond to White’s work. It is also a considerable task for this humble Neutestamentler. Consequently, in what follows, I will not outline what I consider to be White’s overarching concerns, except as they are refracted by my own interests, nor place his contributions on the landscape of alternative proposals. Rather, I will alight upon what I consider to be matters most worthy of dissection given my own expertise and interests. To wit, I will first note areas that are significant impulses in my own theological development. This will lead to the most substantial section of this paper, second, where I will ponder White’s engagement with Scripture and in light of Scripture, particularly as presented in his introduction. This will provide a useful springboard into a variety of substantial concerns in White’s volume. Third, I will seek to bring the many debates and discussions to as sharp a formulation as possible, in the hope that it may provoke fruitful dialogue. Significant Contributions As stated, this section is not meant to enumerate the various contributions White makes in terms of general systematic theological discussion. This would extend an already overly ambitious review. I would be ill-equipped to make such judgments, either way. This is more personal, relating to an entirely contingent theological biography, and how White’s arguments push me to develop. First, I note his critical commentary on the Barthian tradition, and its implicit endorsement—without sufficient theological justification—of the Kantian critique of metaphysics. This was an insight made with particular force and cleverly contrasted with the implicit ontological commitments of Chalcedon. As he rightly asks: “What does it mean to say that God personally ‘exists’ as a human being among us? How should we understand the difference between Christ’s human nature and his divine nature?” Or again, how is “nature” attributed “to Christ’s human essence as distinct from his divine essence?” White presses the point: “In seeking to recover Chalcedonian ontology ‘after Kant’ without a commitment to classical metaphysics, the Barthian ‘tradition’ cannot answer these questions adequately” (49). In particular, he then asks whether it is adequate to follow Barth in placing the “site” of the hypostatic union in the identity of God “revealed in a voluntary act of the human Christ.” Barth, thereby, locates central ontological considerations concerning the divine–human unity in “an ‘accidental’ feature of the human being of Christ” (49). As such, this tends toward a [End Page 630] particular understanding of Nestorianism (as...

Loving Creatures

Wessling’s treatment of divine love raises several questions for systematic consideration. My goal here is to articulate some of these questions and their rationale insofar as they relate to the Creator-creature distinction. I begin with the nature of “creaturely love,” with its material content and methodological contours in Wessling’s account. Then I move to questions about the Creator’s love with regard to divine aseity. Finally, I ask about the Creator’s relationship to creatures in the hypostatic union of the Son with a human nature.

Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments by Timothy P. O'Malley

Reviewed by: Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments by Timothy P. O'Malley Roland Millare Timothy P. O'Malley Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2022 121 pages. Paperback. $15.95. The Church continues to suffer from a precipitous decline in the number of people receiving each of the sacraments. There is no shortage of commentary upon the state of the current sacramental crisis that plagues the Church. One of the most common explanations has been the popular notion that many of the faithful have been sacramentalized but not evangelized. In Invitation and Encounter: Evangelizing through the Sacraments, Timothy O'Malley presents a counter thesis: the sacraments are "always evangelizing, because they make available the salvation offered by Jesus Christ to the Church and to the world" (11). O'Malley offers the personalist view of sacramental theology that contends the sacraments are encounters with Jesus Christ and His love. O'Malley draws upon an array of theologians throughout his work to weave a unity between sacraments and evangelization, [End Page 323] including Thomas Aquinas, Gregory of Nazianzus, Marc Ouellet, Gary Anderson, Joseph Ratzinger, Sara Butler, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and John Paul II. The most prominent author cited throughout is the nineteenth-century theologian Matthias Scheeben, who articulated the unity between the human and divine actions of Jesus Christ, which will have implications for our encounter with Christ in the sacraments: "The humanity of Christ is able to operate in a supernatural manner within itself, and also to perform acts which are of supernatural benefit to all creatures and to achieve much that in itself can be effected only by the infinite power of God. Thus the humanity of Christ can communicate to others the supernatural life which it possesses itself" (17). Contrary to the Pelagian tendency that would empty the sacraments of their efficacy by emphasizing the work of the individual, O'Malley highlights succinctly how each sacrament is first and foremost a work of Jesus Christ, who evangelizes and forms us. Baptism, confirmation, and holy orders (chapter two) transform our identity as priests of Christ. Once again, Scheeben posits that "the character of the members of Christ's mystical body must consist in a seal which establishes and exhibits their relationship to the Logos; their character must be analogous to the hypostatic union and grounded upon it" (36). Baptism bestows the grace of divine filiation, enabling us to become sons and daughters in the Son. confirmation strengthens and deepens this identity and "orients us toward mission" (48). Holy orders enables men to act in the person of Christ the Priest or Christ the Servant, so they may serve the common priesthood through a "total, self-giving love and service" (55). Holy orders is not about power, but service to assist the faithful to realize their own identity, given in baptism and confirmation. The reflections on the mystery of the Eucharist (chapter three) build upon the notion of identity to focus on our creation for sacrificial worship. Citing St. Thomas (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 73, a. 4), O'Malley notes that the Eucharist is a movement between the past, present, and future. Every celebration of the Eucharist is a remembering of what has been wrought for humanity in the past (salvation history), which effectively brings about the unique sacramental [End Page 324] presence of Christ here and now, to prepare us for the immediate future and for the eschaton. The heart of worship is sacrifice, which is defined by a love that transforms all of space and time. Consequently the "new worship" of the Eucharist according to Benedict XVI in Sacramentum Caritatis "cannot be relegated to something private and individual, but tends by its nature to permeate every aspect of our existence" (73). The Eucharist becomes the very form for how all believers should live their lives as a reflection of Christ's presence, sacrifice, and communion. Marriage, like the Eucharist, is instituted to transform the mundane world (chapter four). O'Malley summarizes marriage's transformation well: "The day-to-day mission of loving one's spouse, raising children, and participating in social life may become an efficacious sign of divine love...

How Jesus Communicates #Metoo

This article offers a practical theological praxis of how the church may participate in Christ’s atoning ministry of healing towards persons who have experienced sexual violence. Drawing from the theory of intergenerational trauma, it uses the mentioning of “the wife of Uriah” in Matthew’s genealogy to convey how Jesus identifies with survivors of sexual violence. The article then focuses on the hypostatic union to establish how Jesus provides ontological healing in the atonement for said survivors. It concludes by demonstrating how Matthew’s Gospel calls radical disciples to a healing praxis of listening to stories of the disenfranchised, thereby pointing towards Christ’s atoning work of bearing and healing humanity’s weaknesses.

How Jesus Communicates #Metoo: A Perspective on Intergenerational Trauma and Healing in the Atonement

This article offers a practical theological praxis of how the church may participate in Christ’s atoning ministry of healing towards persons who have experienced sexual violence. Drawing from the theory of intergenerational trauma, it uses the mentioning of “the wife of Uriah” in Matthew’s genealogy to convey how Jesus identifies with survivors of sexual violence. The article then focuses on the hypostatic union to establish how Jesus provides ontological healing in the atonement for said survivors. It concludes by demonstrating how Matthew’s Gospel calls radical disciples to a healing praxis of listening to stories of the disenfranchised, thereby pointing towards Christ’s atoning work of bearing and healing humanity’s weaknesses.

Thomas Aquinas on Christ’s Unity: Revisiting the De Unione Debate

AbstractThe claim that article four of Thomas Aquinas’s De unione verbi incarnati is a reversal of his consistently held single esse position is challenged in this paper. The article argues that reading all five articles of the De unione as a single-structured argument discloses a single esse understanding of the Incarnate Word. The very nature of the radically hypostatic union between God and man in Christ is at stake in this dispute. According to Thomas, positing a second esse in Christ not only contradicts the tradition, especially of the Christian East, that he appropriates, but it would also compromise the reality of the hypostatic union itself.

The hypostatic union – the foundation of the theandry of the Church

God being love, He decided from ages the incarnation of Christ for the salvation of the whole mankind, which was subject to sin and death. In the Person of Christ, through the act of incarnation, performed at ”the fulness of time” (Galatians IV,4), the divine and the human nature are harmoniously completed, the latter becoming entirely obedient to the Father. If Christ had not been incarnated and if He had not lifted our own nature towards complete obedience to the Father, humanity would have never been able to obtain divine forgiveness and would not have known how to exist in the love of the Holy Trinity.

The Concept of Mysticism in Islam and Christianity

Judging from its origin, there is an opinion that Sufism originates from Islam. Some say that Sufism is influenced by the practices of other religions, such as the practices of Christian priesthood and of other religions. This article aims to examine the comparison between the concepts of zuhud (asceticism / detachment) and wahdat al-wujud (the unity of existence) in Islam and the concepts of asceticism and hypostatic union in Christianity. In Christianity there is a clerical structure, but Islam does not recognize or implement it. Islamic Sufis did not transform Sufism from Christianity or other religions because Sufism is related to human instincts. Additionally, the human soul is the same despite different societies and nations. The similarities of the practice of asceticism cannot be sufficiently used as the reason that it stems from Christian asceticism. There are in fact similarities between the concept of wahdat al-wujud and hypostatic union in Christianity. The differences between the two lies in the esoteric and exoteric dimensions. However, according to al-Junaid and al-Ghazali, mahabbat and ma'rifat are the limitations of the maqam of Sufism, a level of maqam where man is still in a state of understanding of his own existence. So, between man and God, there is still distance. In this modern era, there is a need for a re-interpretation of Sufism in which Sufism is not only oriented to be purely transient to be in union with God, but it is a form of fulfilling our obligations as God's caliphs who should improve things for fellow humans and other living beings. In other words, Sufism not only contains a theophanic dimension of transience, but also a profane dimension in which there are of fellow human interests worldwide.

The Metaphysics of the Incarnation in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy of Religion

The paper presents the latest achievements of analytic philosophers of religion in Christology. My goal is to defend the literal/metaphysical reading of the Chalcedonian dogma of the hypostatic union. Some of the contemporary Christian thinkers claim that the doctrine of Jesus Christ as both perfectly divine and perfectly human is self-contradictory (I present this point of view on the example of John Hick) and, therefore, it should be understood metaphorically. In order to defend the consistency of the conciliar theology, I refer to the work of, among others, Eleonore Stump, William Hasker, Peter Geach and Kevin Sharpe. As a result, I conclude that recent findings in analytic metaphysics provide an ontological scaffolding that explains away the objection of the incompatibility of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In order to confirm this conclusion such metaphysical topics as properties attribution (what it means for an object to have a property), relation of identity (what it means for an object x to be identical with object y), and essentialism and kind membership (what it means for an object to belong necessarily to a kind) are scrutinized in detail.

KENOTIC THEOLOGY IN THE EASTERN CHURCH HYMNS

The hypostatic or personal union (enosis ipostatiki) is the wreath and the bond between man and God. The consequences of the hypostatic union form the object of most of the hymns from the cultic treasure of the Eastern Church. The theandric person of our Saviour Jesus Christ is intrinsically present under one form or the other in all the hymns of our Church. Kenosis represents one of the consequences of the hypostatic union and a profound expression of God’s supreme love for mankind. The Orthodox teaching - both in dogma and in divine service - is against a radical kenosis that would nullify the sense of Jesus’ Embodiment as overflowing of the divine energies in the world and in mankind.

So Great a Salvation: A Dialogue on the Atonement in Hebrews

So Great a Salvation: A Dialogue on the Atonement in Hebrews