This Curricula: Christology provides an outline of all major developments regarding the Church's understanding of Our Lord Jesus. Here we examine not only his divinity but also his humanity.

NOTE: This is not an article from the Catholic Encyclopedia. It is provided here for the benefit of those interested in pursuing additional studies in this area.

General Overview

• Definition - of Christology
• Christology in the East
• Christology in the West

Essentials

• Incarnation - the mystery and the dogma of the Word made Flesh
• Mediator - the Mediatorship of Christ
• Transfiguration - culmination of the public life of Christ; a glorious manifestation of his divinity
• Redemption - the restoration of man from the bondage of sin through the satisfactions and merits of Christ
  • Redemption (in the Old Testament)
• Ascension - Elevation of Christ into heaven by His own power

Conceptions

• Logos - designates the Word of God, or Second Person of the Blessed Trinity
  • in the New Testament
  • in early Christian literature
• Alpha and Omega (in Judaism and Christianity) - Alpha and Omega in Jewish Theology and Christian Usage
• Alpha and Omega (Scriptural) - The first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet

• Communicatio Idiomatum - theological expression re: the Incarnation; the properties of the Divine Word can be ascribed to the man Christ, and the properties of the man Christ can be predicated of the Word
• Homoousion - Word used by the Council of Nicaea to express the Divinity of Christ.
• Kenosis - Christ's assumption of humanity and the simultaneous occultation of the Divinity

• Hypostatic Union - theological term expressing that in Christ one person subsists in two natures
  • Nature - includes discussion of theological distinctions between nature and person and between natural and supernatural orders
  • Person - definition, especially with reference to the doctrine of the Incarnation; and in connection with Trinitarian disputes.
  • Theology of

• Humanity of Christ - Christ's humanity
• Divinity of Christ - Christ's divinity
• Knowledge of Christ - Christ's intellectual endowment

• adoption, supernatural - Gratuitous taking of us by God as his children, made brothers of Jesus Christ
• filiation of Christ - Relationship of Christ with God the Father

• Adam - The first man and the father of the human race; type for Christ
  • Adam in Early Christian Liturgy and Literature - in the writings of the first five centuries
• Monotheism - comparatively modern term to designate belief in the one supreme God

• Philosophy

Sources

• Old Testament
  • Prophecy - Old Testament Christology

• New Testament
  • St. John's Gospel
  • Christology of the Synoptists
  • Colossians, Epistle to
  • Hebrews, Epistle to
  • I Corinthians - Christological teachings
  • Catholic Epistles - Christological teachings

• Tradition

• Saint John the Evangelist
• St. Paul

• Apostolic Fathers - early Christian writers considered to have known some of the Apostles
• Fathers of the Church - the earliest teachers, both East and West, who instructed the Church in the teaching of the Apostles
  • Patristic era developments

Sources - Councils

• Council of Rome (381) - pronounced anathemas against doctrines of Apollinarianism
• Council of Nicaea (325) - First ecumenical council; pronounced on Arianism
  • Arius and the Council
• Council of Chalcedon (451) - Fourth ecumenical; asserted the orthodox Catholic doctrine against the heresy of Eutyches and the Monophysites

Doctrinal Statements

• Apostles' Creed - fundamental statement of the Christian faith; basic foundation of Christ's Sonship
• Athanasian Creed - short, clear exposition of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation

• Pascendi dominici gregis - Encyclical on Modernism

Christological heresies; defective quasi-religious systems; etc.

• Adoptionism - Christological theory according to which Christ, as man, is the adoptive Son of God
• Agnoetae - Name given to those who denied the omniscience either of God or of Christ
• Alogi - Persons who denied the manifestation of the Paraclete, and refused, in consequence, to admit the Gospel of St. John, wherein it is announced
• Apollinarianism - heresy; held that Christ had a human body and soul, but no human rational mind
• Arianism - heresy which denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ
• Bonosians - followers of the heretic bishop Bonosus; denied the divinity of Christ
• Eunomianism - form of extreme Arianism prevalent in part of the Eastern church
• Eutychianism - heresy that rejected the orthodox expression two natures of Christ
• Marcionites - heretical sect; taught that Christ was not the Son of the god of the Jews
• Monophysitism - heresy; held "one person, one hypostasis, one nature" of Christ
• Montanists - Schismatics of the second century, also known as Phrygians; prophesized as God the Father, and as Christ
• Monarchians and Monarchism
  • Dynamistic, or Adoptionist, Monarchians - heresy; held that Jesus was merely a pious man until hs baptism
  • Monarchians, or Patripassians - heresy; held that the Father and Son were one Person; usually called Sabellians in the East
• Nestorianism - heresy; held "one person, two hypostases, two natures" of Christ
• ante-Nicene Semi-Arianism - heresy; tried to soften Arianism, but unable to define a logical system
• Socinianism - body of doctrine held by a Reformation-era Antitrinitarian sect

• Druzes - small Mohammedan sect; teach a distinction between Jesus, the son of Joseph, and the Christ
• Ebionites - One or more early Christian sects infected with Judaistic errors
  • Elcesaites - Sect of Gnostic Ebionites

• Albigenses - asserted two mutually opposed principles: one spiritual (good), the other material (evil); advocated human extinction
• Docetism - Gnostic-type sect dating back to Apostolic times; denied some or all aspects of Christ's humanity
• Gnosticism - collective name for many greatly-varying pantheistic-idealistic sects which held salvation via secret knowledge
• Manichaeism - form of religious Dualism; synthesis of Zoroastrianism, Babylonian folklore, Buddhist ethics, and small bits of Christian elements.
  • Mani - Persian founder of Manichaeism
• Paulicians - A dualistic heretical sect, derived originally from Manichaeism

• Modernism - subordination of dogma to the intellectual, moral and social "needs" of today

Heretics - Christological

• Cerinthus - A Gnostic-Ebionite heretic, contemporary with St. John
• Valentinus - the best known and most influential of the Gnostic heretics
• Paul of Samosata - bishop; held doctrine akin to dynamistic Monarchianism
• Photinus - 4th century bishop and heretic; condemned Arianism, but became a Monarchist

Heterodox Writers

• Tertullian - ecclesiastical writer, apologist, controversialist; later became a Montanist
• Theodore of Antioch - considered a primary source for Pelagians and Nestorians
  • Christological writings

• John Scotus Eriugena - 9th century Irish teacher, theologian; christological writings; many unfortunate errors
• Hugh of St. Victor - Medieval philosopher, theologian; combated the errors of Abelard, but his Christology marked by own errors
• Lucian of Antioch - his Christological system was a compromise between Modalism and Subordinationism
• Abelard, Peter - early scholastic philosopher; used reason to defend the personhood of Christ; but was accused of Nestorianism

Faltering Missteps

• Ethiopian Church - Christianity stained by Monophysitism
• Acacianism - A via media heresy, essentially Arian in outlook, that tried to arrive at a political compromise between orthodoxy, the Semi-Arians, the Aetians, and the Anomoeans

• Monothelitism - heresy; a modification of Monophysitism in an attempt to reconcile the Monophysites with the Church
• Synod of Ancyra (358) - condemned the grosser Arian blasphemies, but set forth an equally heretical doctrine in the proposition that the Son was in all things similar to the Father, but not identical in substance
• Acoemetae - Eastern ascetics; defended orthodox Christology against Nestorius and Eutyches; later drifted into Nestorianism
• Henoticon - Imperial law made in attempt to reconciliate Catholics and Monophysites

Sources - apocryphal

• Agrapha - Sayings of Jesus that have come down to us outside the canonical Gospels
• Epistle of Barnabas - an early work that touches on Christology and soteriology
• Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs - apocrypha of Jewish origin touching on the Messiah
• Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite - author of vague Christological writings that were given greater weight then warranted
• Clementines - central doctrine of the Clementines is the Unity of God

Biography

• St. John Chrysostom
• St. John Damascene
• St. Justin Martyr
• Didymus the Blind

• St. Ambrose
• Philip Aranda - "a most acute theologian" who wrote on the charateristics of Christ
• Domingo Banez - "The brightest light" of Spain; Dominican; strong devotee of St. Thomas
• Pope Dionysius

• St. Dionysius of Alexandria
• St. Cyril of Alexandria
• St. Cyril of Jerusalem
• Gabriel Vasquez - Jesuit theologian; Christological writings

• Theodoret - Bishop of Cyrus and theologian; wrote on Christology
• John Duns Scotus - founder of the Scotist school; Christological writings
  • Scotists
• Clement of Alexandria - Greek theologian and head of the catechetical school of Alexandria; early Christological writings
• Alcuin - foremost champion of the Church against the Adoptionist heresy