Catholicism For Dummies. Rev. Kenneth Brighenti
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is that Jesus died for the sins of all humankind. Only a real human nature can feel pain and actually die. Docetism and Gnosticism were considered hostile to authentic Christianity, or, more accurately, orthodox Christianity. (The word orthodox with a small letter o means correct or right believer. However, if you see the capital letter O, then Orthodox refers to the Eastern Orthodox Churches, such as the Greek, Russian, and Serbian Orthodox Churches.)
Arianism
Arianism was the most dangerous and prolific of the heresies in the early Church. (By the way, the Arianism that we’re referring to isn’t about modern-day skinheads with swastikas and anti-Semitic prejudices.) Arianism comes from a cleric named Arius in the fourth century (A.d. 250–336), who denied the divinity of Jesus. Whereas Docetism denied His humanity, Arianism denied that Jesus had a truly divine nature equal to God the Father.
Arius proposed that Jesus was created and wasn’t of the same substance as God — He was considered higher than any man or angel because He possessed a similar substance, or essence, but He was never equal to God. His Son-ship was one of adoption. In Arianism, Jesus became the Son, whereas in orthodox Christianity, He was, is, and will always be the Son, with no beginning and no end. Arianism caught on like wildfire because it appealed to people’s knowledge that only one God existed. The argument was that if Jesus was also God, two gods existed instead of only one.
Emperor Constantine, living in the Eastern Empire, was afraid that the religious discord would endanger the security of the realm. He saw how animate and aggressive the argument became and ordered that a council of all the bishops, the patriarchs, and the pope’s representatives convene to settle the issue once and for all. The imperial city of Nicea was chosen to guarantee safety. In Nicea, the world’s bishops decided to compose a creed that every believer was to learn and profess as being the substance of Christian faith. That same creed is now recited every Sunday and Holy Day at Catholic Masses all over the world. It’s known as the Nicene Creed, because it came from the Ecumenical Council of Nicea in A.d. 325.
The punch line that ended the Arianism controversy was the phrase “one in being with the Father” in the Nicene Creed (the phrase that has recently been replaced by “consubstantial with the Father”). The more accurate English translation of the Greek and Latin, however, is consubstantial or of the same substance as the Father. This line boldly defied the Arian proposition that Jesus was only similar but not equal in substance to the Father in terms of His divinity.
Nestorianism
Another heresy was Nestorianism, named after its founder, Nestorius (c. 386–451). This doctrine maintained that Christ had two hypostases (persons) — one divine and one human. Nestorius condemned the use of the word Theotokos, which was Greek for “bearer” or “mother of God.” If Jesus had two persons, the most that could be said of Mary was that she gave birth to the human person of Jesus and not to the divine. Nestorius preferred the use of the word Christotokos or Christ-bearer to Theotokos.
Another Ecumenical Council was convened, this time in the town of Ephesus in A.d. 431, where the participants ironed out the doctrine that Jesus had one person, not two, but that two natures were present — one human and one divine. Because Christ was only one person, Mary could rightly be called the Mother of God because she gave birth to only one person.
In other words, Jesus didn’t come in parts on Christmas Day for Mary and Joseph to put together. He was born whole and intact, one person, two natures. The Church says that because Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Church could use the title Mother of God (Theotokos), realizing that she didn’t give Jesus His divinity. (This concept is similar to the belief that your mother gave you a human body, but only God created your immortal soul. Still, you call her mother.)
Monophysitism
The last significant heresy about Jesus was known as Monophysitism. This idea centered on a notion that the human nature of Jesus was absorbed into the divine nature. Say, for example, that a drop of oil represents the humanity of Jesus and the ocean represents the divinity of Jesus. If you put the drop of oil into the vast waters of the ocean, the drop of oil, representing His humanity, would literally be overwhelmed and absorbed by the enormous waters of the ocean — His divinity.
The Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in A.d. 451 condemned Monophysitism. A simple teaching was formulated that one divine person with two distinct, full, and true natures, one human and one divine, existed in Jesus. These two natures were hypostatically (from the Greek hypostasis, for person) united into one divine person. Thus the Hypostatic Union, the name of the doctrine, explained these things about Jesus:
In His human nature, Jesus had a human mind just like you. It had to learn like yours. Therefore, the baby Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem didn’t speak to the shepherds on Christmas Eve. He had to be taught how to speak, walk, and so on. Likewise, His human will, like yours, was free, so He had to freely choose to embrace the will of God.In other words, in His humanity, Jesus knew what He learned. And He had to freely choose to conform His human will to the divine will. (Sin is when your will is opposed to the will of God.) Any human knowledge not gained by regular learning was infused into His human intellect by His divine intellect. Jesus knew that fire is hot just as you’ve learned this fact. He also knew what only God could know, because He was a divine person with a human and a divine nature. The human mind of Christ is limited, but the divine is infinite. His divinity revealed some divine truths to His human intellect, so He would know who He is, who His Father is, and why He came to earth.
The divine nature of Jesus had the same (not similar) divine intellect and will as that of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. As God, He knew and willed the same things that the other two persons of the Trinity knew and willed. Thus, in His divinity, Jesus knew everything, and what He willed, happened.
As both God and man, Jesus could bridge the gap between humanity and divinity. He could actually save humankind by becoming one of us, and yet, because He never lost His divinity, His death had eternal and infinite merit and value. If He were only a man, His death would have no supernatural effect. His death, because it was united to His divine personhood, actually atoned for sin and caused redemption to take place.
It’s a mouthful to be sure, but the bottom line in Catholic theology is that the faithful fully and solemnly believe that Jesus was one divine person with a fully human nature and a fully divine nature. Each nature had its own intellect and will. So the divine nature of Jesus had a divine intellect and will, and the human nature of Jesus had a human intellect and will.
Chapter 5
Defining “The Church” and What Membership Means
IN THIS CHAPTER