What is Christology?

 Christology is the area of theology that considers who Jesus Christ is. Is/was Jesus human, divine, or both? Theology can be abstract and academic (and esoteric), but it is really just discussions about God. Theology can also be very practical as what we believe often shapes how we live, for better or worse. Everyone has a theology, even atheists. Atheists have a particular view of God and choose not to believe in that God. For many people, their theology may be implicit rather than explicit. 

Similarly, Christology is just discussions about who Jesus is. Again everyone has a Christology. There are many dimensions to and expressions of Christology. The New Testament presents Jesus as both human and divine, an eternal being, Son of the Father, without sin, Lamb of God, compassionate, teacher, healer, miracle worker, King of Kings, King of the Jews, carpenter, Messiah, Saviour, Prince of Peace, the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, mediator between God and humans, ... How does one bring all these different dimensions into relationship with one another? Where are there harmonies, tensions and inconsistencies? There are decisions to be made about relative importance and emphasis. That is what Christology is about.

The early church got itself in all sorts of intellectual and political knots as it tried to precisely define how Jesus could be both fully human and fully God, and how Jesus, the Son of God, was related to the Father and the Holy Spirit (i.e. the Trinity). Did the Spirit proceed from the Father or the Son? ... These issues were "resolved" in the early creeds. Some of the controversies pivoted around a single letter, in the case of homoousios vs. homoiosious [same substance vs. similar substance]. The Father and the Son are of the same [similar] substance. The former was adopted in the Nicene Creed [325 A.D.] after much debate. The two terms only differ by an "i" or "iota", the smallest object in the Greek alphabet. Amusingly, this may be the origin of the phrase, "it makes not one iota of difference."

Christology can be (and has been) formulated from many different perspectives, including theological, historical, sociological, political, philosophical, cultural, credal, ... Again, there are questions of emphasis. And, does (and should) the language used, and the approach taken vary depending on the historical and cultural context?

These issues are on my mind because as part of the Logos and Cosmos Initiative, I am reading a wonderful book, In Search of Christ in Latin America: From Colonial Image to Liberating Savior, by Samuel Escobar. I am looking forward to discussing it with my Latin American colleagues. In some future posts, I will discuss some of the ideas in the book.