download the pdf - St.Francis Magazine

More documents

Recommendations

Info

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012 NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTOLOGY IS NICENE CHRISTOLOGY: AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE By Mina Fouad Tawfike 1 freeorthodoxmind@gmail.com Abstract: In his book The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History, Michael Baigent states that the aim of the Council of Nicaea‘was to get support for the idea that Jesus Christ was “of one being” with God the Father, a claim that Arius and others disputed; for them, Jesus was not divine’ (p. 83). Princeton’s Elaine Pagels dryly observes: “Those who opposed this phrase pointed out that it occurs neither in the Scriptures nor in Christian tradition” (Beyond Belief, p.173). In this paper I will argue that such ideas, which argue that Christ was deified in the Council of Nicaea, are incoherent and indefensible. They completely ignore three centuries of written tradition (writings of the Fathers, the New Testament, tombstones and songs of praise) and oral tradition (which is shown in the liturgical practices), of both which completely support Nicaea. 1 Jesus Christ: A Deified Man, Or An Incarnate God Baigent, Pagels and others suggest that Christ's so-called Nicene deification was due to the direct effect of the Greco-Roman civilization, especially on the Jewish culture in Palestine. The evidences provided for this idea are the characteristics or properties given to the Roman emperors, like “the god”, “the lord”, and “the giver”. For instance, in an inscription dating back to the third century BC we read, “Ptolemy the savior and god: .” We may see various inscriptions and texts that give the same meaning and the first question we pose is, could these ideas 1 Mina is a freelance writer, blogger and teacher of Patristics at Alexandria School of Theology. He is a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church. You can visit his blog at www.freeorthodoxmind.org. St Francis Magazine is a publication of Interserve and Arab Vision 442
St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012 about divinity be related to the godhead of Christ Or, more specifically, was it this sort of concept that led to the Nicene doctrine of the Word being “of one substance” with the Father, as authors like Pagels and Baignet have suggested 2 The Theology Of Christ’s Incarnation Against Pagels and other like-minded thinkers, I argue that the theology of God Incarnate goes far beyond the idea of an “incarnated god”. In biblical thought, the key concept is related to salvation and redemption, i.e. its main purpose is redeeming and saving humanity. This theological theme is seen in the Old Testament and the Jewish rabbinic writings. It completely and fundamentally differs from the idea of gods’ incarnations in mystery cults and the Greco-Roman thought. This Biblical presentation, which implies a soteriological dimension, contrasts with the idea of Christ being deified in the sense that Greek and Roman humans could be deified; indeed a doctrine of the “deification of Christ” could not serve the Christian doctrine of salvation presented by the New Testament and as understood in the Orthodox Tradition. Christianity is considered a compound philosophy in the shape of coordinated systems of dogma and liturgical rituals that communicate the Word of God and his death on the cross as recorded in the Holy Bible. The rituals are nothing without these dogmatic bases. On the contrary, the bases of the Greco-roman cults are totally the opposite. Their rituals do not express written texts or even oral ones, or dogmas or any philosophical justifications 2 . In fact the Greco-Roman religions are related to rites more than faith. This is totally different from Christianity, which identifies a communal, ecclesiastical relationship with God in Christ, made known graciously by God and appropriated by faith in this message. The dogmas are lived out and experienced in the rituals of the Church, which in Orthodoxy are called mysteries (Arabic, asraar). 2Ittai Gradel, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion (Oxford Classical Monographs), Oxford University Press 2002, p. 3 St Francis Magazine is a publication of Interserve and Arab Vision 443
Page 1 and 2: St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | A
Page 47: St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | A
Page 99 and 100:
St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | A
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
show all

download the pdf - St.Francis Magazine

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?