Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The doctrine of the incarnation, which is a central and distinctive Christian doctrine, holds that the eternally divine second person of the Trinity (see Article 66, trinity) took on human nature, retaining his full divinity while becoming fully human. This doctrine, which is rooted in biblical affirmations about Jesus Christ, undergirded the faith and worship of the earliest Christians. Still, debates over how to understand Christ's divinity and humanity troubled the early church and led to the councils of Nicaea (325), which affirmed the deity of Christ, and Chalcedon (451), whose affirmation of Christ's true divinity and true humanity set the standard for orthodox teaching on the incarnation.Since the Enlightenment, some have criticized Chalcedonian Christology as incoherent or self-contradictory, while others have defended its coherence and consistency. At least two contemporary Christologies — the “two-minds” and the kenotic theories - offer plausible accounts of the incarnation.The New Testament generates the Christian claim that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God who took on human flesh, becoming like us in every respect except sin (see Article 68, sin and original sin). In one of the earliest New Testament writings, the apostle Paul, probably quoting an early Christian hymn, says that Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something ... log in or subscribe to read full text