User:Jpacobb/draft article2

Christianity

Monotheism, derived from Judaism, was a very significant element thought of the earliest christian fathers.^[1] How to integrate it intellectually with the fresh data of the specifically Christian revelation that claimed that God had revealed himself in and through Jesus the Messiah and he had also poured out on the Church his Holy Spirit was a theological problem.^[1] which was only resolved in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople^[2]

Biblical background

The Bible provides raw material for the formulation of a specifically christian doctrine of God but does not integrate it into a doctrinal definition.^[3] In the New Testament, a number of passages fall into a 'triadic pattern' associating the God (the Father), the Son, and the Spirit (notably 2 Cor 13:14 and Matthew 28:19 but there are many more^{[n 1]})^[4] and in addition a number of ideas about Christ's pre-existence and role in creation were beginning to take shape together with a profound awareness of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the Church.^[2] To which must be added the practice of praying directly to Jesus Christ.^[5] Nothing was done for some time to work these^{[n 2]} into a coherent whole.^[2]

Progress up to Constantinople 381

As Christianity emerged from its original Jewish milieu the demand for a specifically christian doctrine of God became unavoidable because Greek philosophy was an integral part of education and philosophy required rational explanations^[6] which to be comprehensible had to use current philosophical terminology.^[6]Among early Christians there was considerable debate over the nature of Godhead and how the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit could be understood without abandoning monotheism. Some denied the incarnation but not the deity of Jesus (Docetism); others envisaged one actor playing three consecutive roles (Sabellianism), in which the one essence of God behaved something like the substance water 'one in element' but may be solid, liquid, or gaseous; while others later calling for an Arian conception of God in which Jesus was a second or subordinate god.

The First Council of Nicaea, held in Nicaea (in present-day Turkey) and convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first world-wide or ecumenical^{[n 3]} council of bishops. In its attempt to refute Arianism it produced the original version of the Nicene Creed with appendix of anathemas (condemnations of unacceptable opinions) and affirmed both belief in one God and the full divinity of the Son. However, Constantine's attempt to coerce the Church into doctrinal harmony failed.^[7] and

After 381

Christian orthodox traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestants) follow the decision of the First Council of Constantinople and reached its full development through the work of the Cappadocian Fathers. They consider God to be a triune entity, called the Trinity, comprising the three "persons" God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the three of this unity are described as being "of the same substance" (ὁμοούσιος). Christians overwhelmingly assert that monotheism is central to the Christian faith, as the Nicene Creed, which gives the standard credal definition of the trinitarian monotheism and begins: "I believe in one God".

Modern Christians, though, believe their God is triune meaning that the three persons of the Trinity are in one union in which each person is also wholly God. Christians also do not believe that one of the three divine figures is God alone and the other two are not but that all three are mysteriously God and one.

Historically, most Christian churches have taught that the nature of God is a mystery, in the original, technical meaning; something that must be revealed by special revelation rather than deduced through general revelation.

Dissenting Views

The Christian notion of a triune Godhead and the doctrine of a man-god Christ Jesus as God incarnate is rejected by adherents of Judaism and Islam.

Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism do not accept the traditional doctrine the trinitarian monotheism. Mormonism argues that the Godhead is in fact three separate individuals which include; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Ghost. Each individual having a distinct purpose in the grand existence of human kind. Furthermore, Mormons believe that before the "Council of Nicaea," the predominant belief among many early Christians was that the Godhead was three separate individuals. Mormons look to the New Testament for proof of this doctrinal belief such as in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Later on Christ prays in John 17:21, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Clarifying that Jesus Christ is not in God physically but that they are one in purpose; which purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Finally, in the last moments of Jesus Christ's mortal existence, Jesus prays to the Father, "Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?" This statement reflecting the supposed reality that Christ is a distinct separate individual who sought for help from His Father in Heaven in Christ greatest hour of need.

Deism is a philosophy of religion which arises in the Christian tradition during the Early Modern period. It postulates that there is a God who however does not intervene in human affairs.

Unitarianism is a theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism.^[8]

Notes

^ Christians have held that in scriptural references to 'God the Father' (Philippians 1:2, 1 Peter 1:2) 'God the Son' (John 1:1, 1:14, Hebrews 1:8, Colossians Col 2:9) and 'God the Holy Spirit' (Acts 5:3–4) are referring to or describing the different divine persons. But they also still believe that passages of the New Testament, such as 1 Corinthians 8:4–6 "there is none other God but one... to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him" and the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 45:5–7 "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me... there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else", claim God as being 'one'.
^ Examples of ante-Nicene statements:
Hence all the power of magic became dissolved; and every bond of wickedness was destroyed, men's ignorance was taken away, and the old kingdom abolished God Himself appearing in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal life.
— St. Ignatius of Antioch in Letter to the Ephesians, ch.4, shorter version, Roberts-Donaldson translation

We have also as a Physician the Lord our God Jesus the Christ the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin. For ‘the Word was made flesh.' Being incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassible, He was in a passable body; being immortal, He was in a mortal body; being life, He became subject to corruption, that He might free our souls from death and corruption, and heal them, and might restore them to health, when they were diseased with ungodliness and wicked lusts
— St. Ignatius of Antioch in Letter to the Ephesians, ch.7, shorter version, Roberts-Donaldson translation

The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: ...one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father ‘to gather all things in one,' and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess; to him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all...
— St. Irenaeus in Against Heresies, ch.X, v.I, Donaldson, Sir James (1950), Ante Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0802880871

For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water
— Justin Martyr in First Apology, ch. LXI, Donaldson, Sir James (1950), Ante Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0802880871
^ Ecumenical, from Koine Greek oikoumenikos, literally meaning worldwide the earliest extant uses of the term for a council are in Eusebius's Life of Constantine 3.6 [1] around 338 "σύνοδον οἰκουμενικὴν συνεκρότει" (he convoked an Ecumenical council), Athanasius's Ad Afros Epistola Synodica in 369 [2], and the Letter in 382 to Pope Damasus I and the Latin bishops from the First Council of Constantinople [3]

References

^ ^a ^b Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines A&C Black (1965) pp.83;87;87 respectively
^ ^a ^b ^c Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines A&C Black (1965) pp.87;87-8 respectively
^ Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 238f
^ Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Creeds Longmans (1963) pp.22,23
^ Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 239
^ ^a ^b Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 239f & 247 respectively
^ Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 237
^ Unitarians at 'Catholic Encyclopedia', ed. Kevin Knight at New Advent website

[4] Christians have held that in scriptural references to 'God the Father' (Philippians 1:2, 1 Peter 1:2) 'God the Son' (John 1:1, 1:14, Hebrews 1:8, Colossians Col 2:9) and 'God the Holy Spirit' (Acts 5:3–4) are referring to or describing the different divine persons. But they also still believe that passages of the New Testament, such as 1 Corinthians 8:4–6 "there is none other God but one... to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him" and the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 45:5–7 "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me... there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else", claim God as being 'one'.

[7] Examples of ante-Nicene statements:
Hence all the power of magic became dissolved; and every bond of wickedness was destroyed, men's ignorance was taken away, and the old kingdom abolished God Himself appearing in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal life.
— St. Ignatius of Antioch in Letter to the Ephesians, ch.4, shorter version, Roberts-Donaldson translation

We have also as a Physician the Lord our God Jesus the Christ the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin. For ‘the Word was made flesh.' Being incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassible, He was in a passable body; being immortal, He was in a mortal body; being life, He became subject to corruption, that He might free our souls from death and corruption, and heal them, and might restore them to health, when they were diseased with ungodliness and wicked lusts
— St. Ignatius of Antioch in Letter to the Ephesians, ch.7, shorter version, Roberts-Donaldson translation

The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: ...one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father ‘to gather all things in one,' and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess; to him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all...
— St. Irenaeus in Against Heresies, ch.X, v.I, Donaldson, Sir James (1950), Ante Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0802880871

For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water
— Justin Martyr in First Apology, ch. LXI, Donaldson, Sir James (1950), Ante Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0802880871

[9] Ecumenical, from Koine Greek oikoumenikos, literally meaning worldwide the earliest extant uses of the term for a council are in Eusebius's Life of Constantine 3.6 [1] around 338 "σύνοδον οἰκουμενικὴν συνεκρότει" (he convoked an Ecumenical council), Athanasius's Ad Afros Epistola Synodica in 369 [2], and the Letter in 382 to Pope Damasus I and the Latin bishops from the First Council of Constantinople [3]

[kelly1-1] Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines A&C Black (1965) pp.83;87;87 respectively

[kelly2-2] Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines A&C Black (1965) pp.87;87-8 respectively

[3] Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 238f

[5] Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Creeds Longmans (1963) pp.22,23

[6] Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 239

[hanson-phil-8] Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 239f & 247 respectively

[10] Hanson, R.P.C "The Doctrine of the Trinity Achieved in 381" in Studies in Christian Antiquity T&T Clarke (1985) p. 237

[11] Unitarians at 'Catholic Encyclopedia', ed. Kevin Knight at New Advent website

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