Trinitarian Christology Research Articles

Luther and the “Repair of Chalcedon”1

AbstractLuther's Christology has long been suspected of deviating from the Chalcedonian Definition. Analysis of the suspicions raises in turn questions about Chalcedon as an incoherent compromise between the forces of Cyril and Leo. Complicating the issue is the metaphysical rendering of hypostasis as suppositum in medieval Western scholasticism. Luther's theopaschite Christology presses for the “repair” of Chalcedon by situating the Antiochene concern for Christ's human obedience within the divine self‐donation of the Eternal Son according to the Alexandrians. In a Trinitarian Christology incorporating the Antiochene concern for the human obedience of Christ, there would be no competition between the personal union of the divine Son in taking on human body and soul and the Holy Spirit anointing this assumed flesh to create of it the new Adam.

The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas by Dominic Legge, O.P.

The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas by Dominic Legge, O.P.

Deuteros Theos: Constantine’s Christology at Nicaea

Recent inquiries into the Christology of Rome’s first Christian emperor have produced a more or less “orthodox” image. While it is widely acknowledged that Constantine’s Christian doctrine developed throughout his career, his vision of Jesus at the time of the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) has been regularly cast as a Trinitarian Christology of co-eternality and ontological unity with God the Father. Recent analysis has not, however, taken into account the range of possible interpretations of the available data. By revisiting this data, including Constantine’s Oration, an important letter from Eusebius, the history of the word homoousios, and the Hermetic philosophical tradition, it is possible to locate within Constantine’s views a subordinationist Christology—a Christology which the Council of Nicaea allegedly condemned.

Christological Evaluation Of Inculcivism Theology

Inclusivism is defined as a mindset that recognizes that Jesus' liberation mission is addressed to every human being without exception. As a result, each and every person has the right to salvation and release. This theology does not want to be viewed as cruel by exclusivism, but neither does it want to be regarded as rejecting Christ's uniqueness by pluralism, thus it chooses the middle ground, namely inclusivism. This study employs qualitative special literature on verses like as John 3:8, 1 Timothy 2:4, 1 John 4:7-8, and Acts 10:22, which are utilized by Inclusivism as the foundation for their Christological beliefs. The Inclusivist Trinitarian Christology undermines the idea of Christ as a Special Revelation because it obscures the privilege of Christ as Revelation (John 1:1) and the Bible as a Special Revelation by the Holy Spirit's inspiration by 'perpetuating the News of Christ' in order to remain available to everyone throughout all centuries.

Contributions and Issues of Jacques Dupuis’ Trinitarian Christology in the Context of Religious Pluralism

Pneumatological Christology is one of several currents in contemporary theology which have emerged since the Second Vatican Council. Another notable trend is the increasing attempt to develop Christology in the context of interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. These two movements occasionally intersect, raising questions about Jesus Christ’s uniqueness and universality which became paramount issues in today’s theological discourse. Accordingly, this paper looks to examine how the Christology of Jacques Dupuis attempts to address this issue in question. At the center of Dupuis’ Christological inquiry is the following question: “How are we to preserve and confess our faith in Jesus Christ as the unique savior of humanity, while acknowledging the universal presence of the Holy Spirit who operates in other religions and cultures?” In addressing this complex issue, Dupuis was able to propound a theological vision relevant to the contemporary contexts of interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. But in addition to such contribution, his attempts also incited much controversy and hence gave rise to new issues in theology. In this context, the task of presenting an ideal model that harmoniously integrates Logos Christology and pneumatological Christology poses a significant challenge. The key lies in acknowledging the theological tension that may exist between the two while maintaining balance and harmony. Hence, the two models of Christology should not be mutually exclusive, but rather mutually complementary. But, it is not easy to maintain this reciprocal balance when developing pneumatological Christology in the context of interreligious dialogue and religious pluralism. This is because the task of preserving such harmony is ultimately tied to the mystery of Jesus Christ’s uniqueness and universality. Jacques Dupuis’ Christology can be seen as a tentative attempt to interpret this issue in a novel way without overstepping the boundaries of traditional theology.제2차 바티칸 공의회 이후의 현대 신학에서는 그리스도론의 새로운 흐름들이 전개되고 있는데, ‘성령론적 그리스도론’은 이러 한 새로운 흐름들 중의 하나이다. 그리고 ‘종교 간 대화’ 및 ‘종교다원주의’ 맥락에서의 그리스도론 역시 최근 새로이 전개되고 있는 흐름들 중 하나이다. 이 두 가지 흐름은 때로는 상호 교차되어 전개되기도 하는데, 이러한 상황 속에서 예수 그리스도의 ‘유일성’과 ‘보편성’에 관련한 문제가 최고의 신학적 쟁점으로 부상하게 되었다. 본 논문에서는 이 주제와 관련하여, 자크 뒤피 신부의 그리스도론을 살펴본다. 뒤피의 그리스도론적 질문의 핵심 은 바로 다음과 같은 것이었다. “어떻게 우리는 예수 그리스도를 모든 인류의 구원자로 고백하고 선포하는 신앙을 간직하면서도, 동시에 다른 세계 종교들과 여러 문화 안에서 활동하시는 성령의 보편적 현존을 인정할 것인가?” 이처럼 복잡하고도 어려운 주제를 다룸에 있어, 뒤피는 현대의 종교 간 대화 및 종교다원주의 맥락에서 볼 때 매우 의미 있는 신학적 전망을 제시하게 되었다. 하지만 뒤피의 이러한 시도는 동시에 많은 찬반논쟁을 불러일으켰으며, 여러 신학적 쟁점들을 새로이 부상시키게 되었다. 바로 이러한 맥락에서, ‘말씀 그리스도론’과 ‘성령론적 그리스도론’을 조화롭게 통합시키는 과제는 매우 중요한 과제로 부상하게 되었다. 이 두 가지 그리스도론 흐름들 사이에 존재할 수도 있는 그 어떤 긴장을 인식하면서도, 동시에 어떻게 전체적인 균형과 조화를 유지하는가에 그 해결의 열쇠가 있다고 할 수 있다. 그러므로 이 두 가지의 그리스도론적 모델들은 상호 배타적이지 않고 상호 보완적이어야만 한다. 하지만 종교 간 대화 및 종교다원주의 맥락에 마주하여 성령론적 그리스도론을 개진해 나가는 상황에서, 그러한 상호 균형을 유지하는 것은 쉽지 않은 일이다. 이러한 작 업은 결국 예수 그리스도의 유일성과 보편성이란 핵심 주제와 연결되기 때문이다. 자크 뒤피 신부의 그리스도론은, 전통적인 그리스도론의 범위를 벗어나지 않으면서도 이러한 주제를 참신하게 해석하고자 한 시도라고 평가할 수 있을 것이다.

The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas by Dominic Legge

Reviewed by: The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinasby Dominic Legge Joseph Wawrykow The Trinitarian Christology of St. Thomas Aquinas. By D ominicL egge, O.P. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. xvii + 261. $95.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-19-879419-6. The author's main ambition is to show the profoundly Trinitarian cast of Aquinas's presentation of Christ; the title, then, is nicely descriptive of the contents of the book. Asecondary purpose is to call into question a modern [End Page 295]assessment, as in Karl Rahner (on the Catholic side), that Aquinas has separated talk of Christ from Trinitarian discourse, driven a wedge between the economic and the immanent Trinity—as if one could know the latter apart from the former—and failed to do justice to the Incarnation of, precisely, the second divine person. The book is divided into three main parts. The first is given over to Aquinas's Trinitarian teaching, focusing on the missions. The missions are patterned on the eternal processions and manifest them, extending them, as it were, into time and the created world. By mission, a divine person who is eternally from another (the second person from the first) or from others (the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Word) is sent and becomes present in a new way, in a temporal effect. Thus the Word, who is eternally spoken by the Father, becomes incarnate as sent by the Father and is the term of the taking up of human nature (the second person's visible mission). The Holy Spirit, the Love eternally breathed forth by the Father and the Word, is present to those who are marked by God's love, imparting the grace and infused virtues and gifts that make possible the return of rational creatures to God as their end (the Spirit's invisible mission). The second person also has an invisible mission, being present to the intellect in wisdom. The third person also has a visible mission, as in the appearance in the form of a dove at Jesus' baptism (see too the transfiguration). Here, and elsewhere in the book, Legge insists on the inseparability of the missions, mirroring the eternal generation and procession: the sending forth of the Word into the world is accompanied by the breathing forth of the Spirit into the world. Part 2 is on the Incarnation of the second divine person, who as incarnate is fully and truly human. Legge is adept in presenting Aquinas's version of the hypostatic union and is especially good at explaining why for Aquinas it was most fitting that the second person be the term of the assumption of human nature (when it could have been one of the other divine persons). The book's final part examines what Aquinas has to say about the incarnate Word in relation to the third person, the Holy Spirit. It looks at Christ as under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and as endowed with the Spirit's spiritual aids, which are essential to the salvific work of the Word become incarnate. Legge in this connection can legitimately refer—and does so repeatedly—to Aquinas's Christology as a "Spirit Christology." Indeed, part 3 of the book looks at Christ as the giver of the Spirit in the application of his spiritual benefits to those for whom the Word came, lived, suffered, died, and was raised. Legge is consistent and resolute in showing as the book proceeds how what is said of the Word incarnate vis-à-vis the Spirit echoes and is rooted in the inner life of the triune God and is patterned on the generation of the second divine person and the procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son. The teaching on the Trinity and Christ as found in Aquinas's masterwork, the Summa theologiae(in the Primaand the Tertia pars), is highlighted and is [End Page 296]the consistent point of reference in the book. Question 43 of the Prima pars(on the missions); question 3, article 8 of the Tertia pars(on the especial fittingness of the second person as the term of the...

The Significance of Spirit Christology

Spirit Christology is one of the oldest theological attempts by the Christian church to understand how Jesus Christ is both divine and human. Although it is deeply rooted in the biblical tradition as well as in the thinking of the earliest apologists, Spirit Christology was often considered to be in danger of falling into adoptionism. In contrast, Logos Christology became, without major objections, the prevalent Christological standpoint of the early church and the churches in the following generations partly because of its strong affirmation of the divine origin of Jesus Christ. Recently, however, Spirit Christology has come back to the theological discussions as a major Christological and pneumatological option for the twenty-first century Christian theology. In keeping with the rediscovery of the significance of Spirit Christology, the Pentecostal theologian Frank D. Macchia criticizes the pneumatology of the evangelical theologian Donald G. Bloesch for lacking a pneumatological fullness. As both theologians acknowledge, Macchia and Bloesch have more agreements than disagreements: Both envision a trinitarian Christology and both suggest a complementary relationship between Logos and Spirit Christologies. Nonetheless, Macchia finds that Bloeschs subordinationist pneumatology repeats the shortcomings of the Reformed understanding of the Spirit when it excessively connects the work of the Spirit to the work of the Son. Pentecostal theology has never lost the vision of a Christ-centered theological thinking. This does not mean, however, that Pentecostal pneumatology suggests Christomonism. Spirit Christology fully acknowledges the Spirit-Son relationship without making it the sole field of ministry of the Spirit.

Back to a Way Forward: Jacques Dupuis' Trinitarian Christology and the Invisible Missions of the Word and Spirit

Jacques Dupuis' book, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, drew an enormous response from theologians, some of them very concerned by Dupuis' argument in terms of the universal presence and action of the Word and Spirit as “extending beyond” that of the risen incarnate Word, and his insistence that “a divine action of the Word as such remains, which extends beyond the human action of the risen Christ”. The aim of this essay is to examine the distinctly trinitarian elements of Dupuis' argument, in the light of the classical teachings regarding Trinity and Christology, for it is on the basis of his “trinitarian christology” that Dupuis grounds his theology of religious pluralism. The author argues that, while Dupuis' “trinitarian christology” points the way to a more positive appreciation of the salvific efficacy of non-Christian religions, he has confused rather than advanced an understanding of the operation of Word and Spirit in regard to non-Christian religions. The author argues that the classical notion of the divine missions, visible and invisible, a strange omission from Dupuis' argument, would facilitate the case he seeks to make, avoid some of the ambiguities that dog his case, and mute the key concerns which have been raised by reviewers.

Jacques Dupuis' Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism

Given the politics and publicity surrounding Jacques Dupuis' Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, his contribution to the developing theology of religious pluralism deserves closer scrutiny. The general question guiding this discussion is the following: does Jacques Dupuis provide adequate resources for claiming both the authenticity of Christian revelation and a genuinely positive acceptance of religious pluralism? This article outlines Dupuis' interreligious hermeneutical methodology, enquires into his understanding of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, and examines the implications of his Trinitarian Christology for a theology of religious pluralism. Dupuis' contribution is then assessed from the dual perspectives of Christian theology and theological rhetoric. Finally, the issue of Christian universalism is brought to hermeneutical attention.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar: una vocación y existencia teológicas

We approach the biography of von Balthasar, basing ourselves on five of the most significant moments of his life, while always bearing in mind that, if we really want to understand both the man and his work, we cannot separate his personal biography from his theological work and ecclesiastical mission. Balthasar is a systematic theologian and his work can be considered as the Summa Theologica of the 20th century of Catholic theology. This Summa is elaborated from a centre which holds everything else together: Trinitarian christology. This inaprehensible centre of the figure of Christ, whose uniqueness of person and universality of mission is founded on the mystery of the Trinity, is the key-stone of the arch on which our author integrates the rest of the dogmatic treatises. Every great theologian however has his shadow side and his limitations. Because of this, it is legitimate to wonder out loud about some of the critical aspects of his theology. All of this sheds light on his theological work from four perspectives: the height, the depth, the breadth and the length of Theology.

Le pluralisme religieux dans le plan divin de salut

A new approach to the theology of religions seeks to go beyond the question of the positive values contained in them, to ask what true meaning they may have in God's overall design for the salvation of humankind. It is the question of a religious pluralism, not only de facto, but also de iure. A Trinitarian Christology, it is suggested here, can serve as a hermeneutical key capable of establishing the theological foundation of such pluralism. It helps to discover new dimensions to the one divine plan for humankind, in which the universal saving event of Jesus Christ combines with the dynamic influence of the Word and the Spirit, the «two hands» of God.

Christology: In Dialogue with Feminism

AbstractRightly understood, christology is feminism's strongest ally. The historical context for this investigation is the emergence of the “second stage” of feminism (Freidan) which challenges feminist theology to move beyond criticism to construction in dialogue and mutuality with men (Part I). A critical review of feminist christological work (Daly, Heyward, Ruether) points towards the liberal view of Jesus and a “therapeutic” view of soteriology. In view of the methodological elusiveness and the inescapable maleness of the historical Jesus and in view of the radical nature of sexism as systemic evil, these biases may indicate weaknesses (Part II). Drawing upon some recent reformulations of the trinity (Jenson, Moltmann, Congar), the paper proposes that a trinitarian christology will directly address the soteriological requirements of feminist theology and will provide a model of God which centers in mutuality, equality and freedom, and thus avoids oppressive, male qualities (Part III). Finally the implications of this christology are drawn to the practicalities of the feminist/masculinist debate.