Please Read The First Few Pages Thursday Pp 175–181

For Thursday Please Read Just The First Few Pages Pp 175 181 Of Po

For Thursday, please read just the first few pages (pp. 175-181) of Portier's "Classical Christology" chapter. You will be reading the section that introduces the first Christian ecumenical council, the Council of Nicaea. It is from this council that we get the creed that Rowan Williams kept referring to in the chapter we read this week. As you may have noticed from class so far, religious communities often struggle to understand their central texts and beliefs. While Christians consider the life of Jesus and their scriptures to be authoritative and inspired, their application to everyday life often brings about difficult and complicated questions. Christianity's struggles to more fully understand who Jesus was are often called the "Christological controversies." This reading gets you into some of the complexities of those controversies.

Paper For Above instruction

Understanding the dual nature of Jesus Christ — as both fully human and fully divine — is a fundamental aspect of Christian theology. The New Testament contains various passages that emphasize Jesus' humanity, such as his experiences of hunger, fatigue, and suffering, underscoring his genuine human nature (Mark 4:38; John 11:35). Conversely, other passages highlight his divinity, such as his miracles, authority over nature, and statements like “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), which affirm his divine status. For Christians, this paradoxical combination is not merely a theological curiosity but a core element of faith with significant implications for salvation, worship, and understanding God's nature. The importance of this duality lies in its role in affirming Jesus' unique position as the mediator between God and humanity; his humanity allows believers to relate to him, while his divinity establishes his authority and divine mission (Kelly, 2017). The early church grappled with this matter intensely, leading to the ecological controversies addressed in the ecumenical councils, especially Nicaea, where church leaders sought to clarify and articulate the orthodox understanding of Jesus’ divine and human natures (Pelikan, 2014). These debates were critical not only for doctrinal consistency but also for defining the nature of salvation, Christ's atonement, and the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. Therefore, the biblical passages emphasizing Jesus' humanity and divinity underscore the mystery of the Incarnation — that in Jesus, divine and human natures coexist without confusion or division — which remains central to Christian faith and theology (Tong, 2020). The ecumenical councils, especially Nicaea, were pivotal in addressing these theological tensions, aiming to arrive at a unified doctrine that affirms Jesus' full humanity and full divinity simultaneously (Alister, 2014). In sum, these biblical texts are vital for Christians because they shape the doctrinal foundation of Christology, influence worship and liturgy, and help believers comprehend the nature of salvation through Christ.

References

• Alister, M. (2014). Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus. InterVarsity Press.
• Kelly, J. N. D. (2017). Early Christian Doctrines. HarperOne.
• Pelikan, J. (2014). The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600). University of Chicago Press.
• Tong, M. (2020). Divine and Human: The Incarnation in Christian Theology. Routledge.