“If Christ has not been raised, faith is worthless” – St Paul (1 Corinthians 15:17)

Page chapter links:
Jesus as the son of God
The Nicene biblical debate
The development critique of high christology
The incarnation paradox
Jesus’ miracles
Reimarus’ historical scepticism
N. T. Wright on the historicity of the resurrection
The teacher of wisdom view of Jesus
Critiques of the 1st quest ‘mere’ teacher of wisdom view
John Hick
Gess’ radical Kenotic theology
Jesus as liberator
Ruether’s golden thread argument
The biblical basis of LT

Introduction 

Trinitarianism is the view that God is three persons (Father, Son & Holy spirit) in one being. This means that Jesus is God. Today, the overwhelming majority of Christians accept this doctrine. Early Christianity was much less settled. The first 3 centuries were rife with controversy over how Jesus was related to God. Official doctrine at the council of Nicaea declared the Son to be “of one substance” with the Father in 325, but rival positions remained powerful and at times received imperial and conciliar support. Trinitarianism only became securely dominant in the late fourth century, especially following Constantinople in 381.

The debates over Jesus’ nature and role typically revolve around interpretation of what the bible is communicating about Jesus through his words and actions, and through the events in his life. E.g., his miracles and resurrection. 

Early Christianity

The debate in early Christianity was: what is Jesus? Views included:

• Trinitarianism: Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons of one Being.
• Arianism: Jesus was divine but created by God and thus a distinct and lesser being.
• Adoptionism: Jesus was only human but was specially chosen, empowered and ‘adopted’ by God as his Son and Messiah.
• Sabellianism/modalism: Father, Son and holy spirit are not distinct persons but different manifestations of the one God.
• Docetism: Jesus was not human but only God in the appearance of a human.

Post-reformation Christianity 

Trinitarianism was not disputed by the protestant reformers. Nonetheless the breaking of theological authority from the Church subsequently allowed for the emergence of non-trinitarian protestant denominations in the proceeding centuries and to this day, such as:

• Unitarianism. The view that God is a unity and does not have three persons.
• Jehovah’s witnesses. Jesus is a created being and thus not God. 

Post-enlightenment Christianity:

The enlightenment period saw the development of critical methods, including historical, literary, philosophical and political. These were applied to scripture. This provoked the question: What can we establish about Jesus historically, independently of doctrine? For some, this undermined the traditional view, while others found in it opportunity for new forms of support. 

Historical criticism

The ‘quest for the historical Jesus’ asked what light historical methods could shine on the ‘Jesus of history’, and how far that resembled the ‘Christ of faith’.

• The first quest 18-19h c. (Reimarus, Strauss, Renan, Schleiermacher, Schweitzer)
• Post-enlightenment movement which downplayed as unhistorical the supernatural events in Jesus’ life. Jesus was instead a mere human teacher of wisdom, failed political revolutionary or apocalyptic preacher. 

• The ‘no’ quest Early 20th c (Bultmann)
• Bultmann’s existentialist philosophical theology dominated this period, claiming very little about Jesus could be established securely by historical methods, and Christian faith should not depend upon reconstructing the historical Jesus.

• The second / ‘new’ quest Mid 20th c. (Käsemann)
• Bultmann’s students reignited interest in a historical analysis of the bible. 

• The third quest Late 20th c – now (Sanders, Crossan, Wright, Ehrman)
• Renewed historical study understands Jesus within 1st century Judaism using broad historical, social, archaeological and literary evidence. Radically different conclusions are reached about whether this evidence supports a mere human Jesus, or a traditional higher christology. 

Modern Philosophical theology

The philosophical question is whether traditional claims about Jesus can be made coherent. Developments in philosophy provoked new understandings of Jesus 

• Hegelianism & Kenotic Christology (W. Gess): radical self-emptying offers a solution to the apparent contradiction between divine infinity and genuine human limitation.
• Existentialism (Bultmann and Tillich): Christological language is interpreted through questions of human existence, estrangement and authentic life.
• Religious & liberal pluralism (John Hick): Kantian epistemology and religious diversity lead Hick to reinterpret incarnation metaphorically.

Liberation Christology

The modern world called for progress as well as reason. The idea that Christianity aims at political liberation as well as spiritual became popular in the 20th century. This movement argues religion and politics are fused. Christian moral life includes political action to tackle issues like poverty, gender and racism. A common argument is Jesus’ teachings and actions themselves aimed at, or at least resulted in, liberation. They conclude we should see Jesus as a political liberator.

• Liberation theology
• Feminist theology
• Black theology

Jesus as the son of God