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A HISTORY OF GOD. Chapter 4 Trinity: The Christian God. The Burning Question of 20 th Century Chistianity : What was the Nature of Jesus?. Who was Yeshua ?. Who was Yeshua ?. Professor Thomas Sheehan.
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A HISTORY OF GOD Chapter 4 Trinity: The Christian God
The Burning Question of 20th Century Chistianity:What was the Nature of Jesus?
Professor Thomas Sheehan • Thomas Sheehan is Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University and the author of The First Coming, a widely acclaimed and controversial account of Easter. • His philosophical specialties are in philosophy of religion, twentieth-century European philosophy, and classical metaphysics. His interests in biblical history exegesis include first-century Christianity and early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic.
The Burning Question of Early Chistianity:What was the Nature of Jesus?
4th CE: Arian Heresy • A heresy which arose in the fourth century, and denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
Arian Heresy • Arius, a Libyan preacher, had declared that although Jesus Christ was divine, God had actually created him, and there was a time when he was not. • This made Jesus less than the Father and contradicted the doctrine of the Trinity. • Arius's teaching provoked a serious crisis.
The original Nicene Creed was first adopted in 325 CE at the First Council of Nicaea. • The Nicene Creed was adopted in the face of the Arian controversy. • The Nicene Creed of 325 explicitly affirms the divinity of Jesus, applying to him the term "God."
The Nicene Creed • The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. • It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in 325.
The Nicene Creed • The Nicene Creed has been normative to the Anglican and Roman Catholic Eucharistic rite as well as Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgies.
Athanasius of Alexandria • Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 293 – 2 May 373), also given the titles, was a Christian theologian, bishop of Alexandria, Church Father, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century. • He is best remembered for his role in the conflict with Arius and Arianism. • At the First Council of Nicaea, Athanasius argued against Arius and his doctrine that Christ is of a different substance from the Father.
Athanasius of Alexandria • The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. • The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. • The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. • And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
The Trinity • The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. • The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being.
Mystery of the Trinity • The Trinity only makes sense as a mystical or spiritual experience. • It has to be lived, not thought, because God went beyond human concepts. • It is not a logical formulation.
St. Augustine Explains the Trinity • Augustine gives a psychological theory of the Trinity. • Three Properties of the Soul: A. Memory B. Understanding C. Will
St. Augustine Explains the Trinity • By cultivating a continual sense of God’s presence within our minds, the Trinity will be disclosed.
Eastern/Greek Christians View of Jesus • Human beings would only fulfill themselves when they had been united to God. • We can all aspire to become deified human beings like Christ, but only by the Grace of God.
Latin [Western] Christianity • Western View of Jesus • Sin was such a great affront to God that only the sacrifice of his son could set things right between man and God.
