Christology

Chapter I recapitulates and applies to Christology the proof of Christ's Divinity already given in the Trinity treatise. The dogmatic argument from Scripture establishes: (1) Christ is the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father; (2) He is true God as well as man; (3) the Logos of St. John's Gospel is identical with the incarnate Son. Refutes Harnack's Rationalist reduction of the Gospel to 'God and the soul' and demonstrates that Christ's claim to divine Sonship was the explicit cause of His condemnation.

Two articles establish the reality and completeness of Christ's human nature. Article 1: The Reality of Christ's Sacred Humanity — de fide against the Docetae and their modern successors; Christ truly suffered and died in a real material body, confirmed by Nicaea II, Lateran IV, and the Council of Florence. Article 2: The Integrity of Christ's Sacred Humanity — de fide against Arianism (Christ had no human soul) and Apollinarianism (no rational human soul); the Council of Chalcedon defines Christ as 'perfect man, of a rational soul and body'.

Proves that Christ as man is descended from Adam through the Virgin Mary — de fide from the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. Establishes: (1) the genuine blood-relationship between Christ and the human race is required for our redemption; (2) the virginal conception is de fide; (3) Christ's descent through Mary is explicitly attested in the Matthean and Lucan genealogies and in Pauline texts. Refutes Valentinus (Christ brought a heavenly body from heaven) and Apelles.

Establishes that Christ freely accepted real bodily passibility and suffering (de fide — Florence, Decretum pro Jacobitis). Refutes Docetic Impassibility, Aphthartodocetism (Julian of Halicarnassus: Christ's body was intrinsically incorruptible), and the Theopaschite heresy. Treats the difficult passage in St. Hilary's De Trinitate and shows how Christ's suffering was real though freely assumed and not necessitated by sin.

Article 1 proves the Hypostatic Union from Scripture and Tradition as defined against Nestorianism (which posited two persons in Christ). Bases exposition on the Chalcedonian definition. Proves: (a) Christ's unity of person from Scripture (John 1:14; Gal. 4:4; Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:6–8); (b) from the unanimous Patristic witness including Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, and John Damascene; (c) from the conciliar definitions of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451).

Article 2 gives the Scholastic explanation of the Hypostatic Union. Distinguishes Nature and Person (the key distinction underlying the dogma). Treats: (1) the Hypostatic Union as a mystery transcending human reason; (2) Nature vs. Person — Boethius's definition, the Thomistic and Scotistic accounts of personality; (3) the mode of union — the human nature subsists in the Logos's divine hypostasis without its own created subsistence (enhypostasia); (4) the role of the Trinity in the Incarnation.

§2 treats the permanent distinctness of the two natures within the one Person. Article 1: One Divine Person in Two Perfect Natures — against Monophysitism (Eutyches: the two natures merged into one after the union); de fide from Chalcedon. Article 2: Two Wills in Christ — against Monothelitism (one will only); Chalcedon and the Third Council of Constantinople (680) define two wills and two natural operations; treats the controversy over Pope Honorius and the orthodoxy of his letters.

§3 proves that the two natures in Christ were permanently and inseparably united — the union cannot be dissolved. Refutes Pre-existentism (Origen: the soul of Christ pre-existed and was joined to the Logos before the Incarnation). Treats the Scholastic controversies about the separation of body and soul at death — whether the Logos remained hypostatically united to Christ's body in the tomb and to His soul in Limbo; the majority opinion (de Lugo, Suarez, Scheeben) is that both remained united to the Logos throughout the triduum mortis.

Three articles on the attributes flowing from the Hypostatic Union on the side of the divine nature. Article 1: The Perichoresis of the Two Natures — the mutual indwelling and compenetration of divinity and humanity in Christ; the human nature is vivified and glorified by the divine. Article 2: The Communication of Idioms — what is predicated of one nature can be predicated of the Person (subject) and vice versa; rules and limits of this predication; the famous amphibologies. Article 3: The Divine Sonship of Christ — refutation of Adoptionism (Christ is Son of God only by adoption): Christ is the natural, eternal Son of God, not an adopted son.

Three articles on the attributes flowing from the Hypostatic Union on the side of the human nature. Article 1: The Ethical Perfection (Holiness) of Christ's Human Will — freedom from original sin (de fide), freedom from actual sin (de fide), intrinsic impeccability (sententia communis), fullness of sanctifying grace, the gratia capitis (headship grace). Article 2: The Human Knowledge of Christ — the three kinds of knowledge (beatific vision from the first moment, infused, acquired/experimental); the problem of Christ's ignorance (Mark 13:32); the Church's rejection of Agnoetism. Article 3: The Adorableness of Christ's Humanity — the sacred humanity receives latria (divine worship) as the humanity of a divine Person; devotion to the Sacred Heart.