DTS ST5102 FINAL EXAM FINAL PAPER
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
◉ Arianism
Answer: Taught by an Egyptian presbyter who proclaimed that
Jesus was a god, the firstborn of all creation through whom God
created the world. Thus the Son is supposedly only of "similar
nature" (Gk. homoiousios) to the Father, not truly absolute God.
See Isa 42:8; 43:10. (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons).
◉ Chalcedonian Creed (Definitio Fidei)/Council (451)
Answer: BUILDING ON THE TRINITARIAN NICENO-
CONSTANTINOPLAN CONFESSION, THIS MAJOR COUNCIL
CLARIFIED THAT JESUS CHRIST HAS A DIVINE NATURE THE
SAME AS THAT OF GOD THE FATHER (HOMOOUSIOS) AND A
HUMAN NATURE THE SAME (HOMOOUSIOS) AS OURS IN EVERY
WAY EXCEPTING SIN. THUS, THE TWO NATURES IN THE SINGLE
PERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS CAME TO CALLED THE
"HYPOSTATIC UNION."
◉ Communicable Attributes
Answer: Aspects of God's character that he shares or
"communicates" with us.
◉ Incommunicable Attributes
,Answer: Aspects of God's character that God does not share with
us.
◉ Divinization, Theosis
Answer: Developing through the early Christian centuries,
especially in the East, the theology of divinization affirms that
believers are to "participate in the divine nature" (2Pe 1:4),
infused by the divine presence, hence becoming godly, godlike,
indeed gods and God by grace. Later Eastern fathers ascribed such
Christian deification to the penetration of the divine energies,
thus distinguishing between the absolute Trinitarian persons and
the divine nature that infuses the believer.
◉ Docetism
Answer: Gnosticism was a predominant worldview in Greco-
Roman culture. This teaching is its Christianized form, believed
Jesus to be a divine emanation but not truly human. Matter is
intrinsically evil. When Jesus walked on the sand he left no
footprints. See 1 Jn 1:1-4. (New Age, some Spiritism)
◉ Ebionism
Answer: The belief of a 2nd-century Jewish sect. They believed
Jesus was perceived as an extraordinary prophet like John the
Baptist who identified with the oppressed. But Jesus was not God.
(Today Unitarianism, most theological Liberalism, some
Liberation Theology, Islam)
◉ eternal generation of the Son
, Answer: Owing to Origen, the Nicean and Christian tradition
affirms the eternal generation of the Son from the Father, as an
expression of Ps 2:7 ("today I have begotten thee") and its
citations in the NT and, again, the Gk. monogenes (trad. "only
begotten"; lit. "one and only"). Some question the exegetical bases
of eternal generation; others see it as broadly expressing the
ontological relations of the Son and the Father.
◉ Eternal Procession of the Spirit
Answer: (Gk. ekporeuomai, Jn 15:26; Lat. processio, "to emanate
from another") In Trinitarian theology, as the Son is eternally
generated from the Father, so the Holy Spirit eternally comes forth
(proceeds) from the Father—"and [in Western theology] the Son"
(Lat. filioque). The procession of the Spirit (or in the West the
double procession) has traditionally distinguished the eternal
relations of the Spirit within the Godhead.
◉ Eutychianism
Answer: Disputing Nestorius, he mixed the two natures of Christ,
such that each nature absorbed the characteristics of the other:
the human became divine and the divine human. But the church
fathers understood the need to maintain the divine and human
natures as distinct in the one person of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless
post-Chalcedonian schisms in the East continued tendencies
toward a single nature (MONOPHYSITISM) or a single will
(MONOTHELITISM).
◉ Filioque
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
◉ Arianism
Answer: Taught by an Egyptian presbyter who proclaimed that
Jesus was a god, the firstborn of all creation through whom God
created the world. Thus the Son is supposedly only of "similar
nature" (Gk. homoiousios) to the Father, not truly absolute God.
See Isa 42:8; 43:10. (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons).
◉ Chalcedonian Creed (Definitio Fidei)/Council (451)
Answer: BUILDING ON THE TRINITARIAN NICENO-
CONSTANTINOPLAN CONFESSION, THIS MAJOR COUNCIL
CLARIFIED THAT JESUS CHRIST HAS A DIVINE NATURE THE
SAME AS THAT OF GOD THE FATHER (HOMOOUSIOS) AND A
HUMAN NATURE THE SAME (HOMOOUSIOS) AS OURS IN EVERY
WAY EXCEPTING SIN. THUS, THE TWO NATURES IN THE SINGLE
PERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS CAME TO CALLED THE
"HYPOSTATIC UNION."
◉ Communicable Attributes
Answer: Aspects of God's character that he shares or
"communicates" with us.
◉ Incommunicable Attributes
,Answer: Aspects of God's character that God does not share with
us.
◉ Divinization, Theosis
Answer: Developing through the early Christian centuries,
especially in the East, the theology of divinization affirms that
believers are to "participate in the divine nature" (2Pe 1:4),
infused by the divine presence, hence becoming godly, godlike,
indeed gods and God by grace. Later Eastern fathers ascribed such
Christian deification to the penetration of the divine energies,
thus distinguishing between the absolute Trinitarian persons and
the divine nature that infuses the believer.
◉ Docetism
Answer: Gnosticism was a predominant worldview in Greco-
Roman culture. This teaching is its Christianized form, believed
Jesus to be a divine emanation but not truly human. Matter is
intrinsically evil. When Jesus walked on the sand he left no
footprints. See 1 Jn 1:1-4. (New Age, some Spiritism)
◉ Ebionism
Answer: The belief of a 2nd-century Jewish sect. They believed
Jesus was perceived as an extraordinary prophet like John the
Baptist who identified with the oppressed. But Jesus was not God.
(Today Unitarianism, most theological Liberalism, some
Liberation Theology, Islam)
◉ eternal generation of the Son
, Answer: Owing to Origen, the Nicean and Christian tradition
affirms the eternal generation of the Son from the Father, as an
expression of Ps 2:7 ("today I have begotten thee") and its
citations in the NT and, again, the Gk. monogenes (trad. "only
begotten"; lit. "one and only"). Some question the exegetical bases
of eternal generation; others see it as broadly expressing the
ontological relations of the Son and the Father.
◉ Eternal Procession of the Spirit
Answer: (Gk. ekporeuomai, Jn 15:26; Lat. processio, "to emanate
from another") In Trinitarian theology, as the Son is eternally
generated from the Father, so the Holy Spirit eternally comes forth
(proceeds) from the Father—"and [in Western theology] the Son"
(Lat. filioque). The procession of the Spirit (or in the West the
double procession) has traditionally distinguished the eternal
relations of the Spirit within the Godhead.
◉ Eutychianism
Answer: Disputing Nestorius, he mixed the two natures of Christ,
such that each nature absorbed the characteristics of the other:
the human became divine and the divine human. But the church
fathers understood the need to maintain the divine and human
natures as distinct in the one person of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless
post-Chalcedonian schisms in the East continued tendencies
toward a single nature (MONOPHYSITISM) or a single will
(MONOTHELITISM).
◉ Filioque
