{"id":4540,"date":"2016-10-23T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4540"},"modified":"2016-10-19T13:11:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T17:11:49","slug":"gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-our-faith-20161023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4540","title":{"rendered":"Gaining a Deeper Understanding of Our Faith \u2013 20161023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"transfiguration\"<\/a>According to the three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus, on the way to Caesarea Philippi, a few days before the end of His messianic ministry in Jerusalem, asked His disciples a question about their belief concerning His personal identity: \u201cWho do you say that I am?\u201d The answer came from Peter, saying that Jesus was \u201cthe Messiah.\u201d Various schools of theology have, over the centuries, given different interpretations to Peter\u2019s answer. All agree that the entire meaning of the Christian experience depended upon it. Indeed, whatever Jesus said, whatever He did, was in virtue of His Messianic ministry;\u00a0 whatever\u00a0 he\u00a0 experienced\u00a0 on\u00a0 the\u00a0 cross, whatever was the concrete reality of his resurrection<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 depended\u00a0 for\u00a0 its\u00a0 ultimate\u00a0 significance\u00a0 of\u00a0 his personal\u00a0\u00a0 identity. This significance would be radically different whether he were Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, or an angel (Jewish thought), or a passionless Theophany (Gnostics) or a creature adopted by God (Paul of\u00a0 Samosata), or one of the many\u00a0 created\u00a0 \u201cintellects\u201d\u00a0 who\u00a0 did\u00a0 not\u00a0 submit\u00a0 to fallenness\u00a0 (Origen),\u00a0 or\u00a0 whether,\u00a0 by\u00a0 meeting\u00a0 Him, one met Yahweh\u00a0 Himself, so that Orthodox Jews would fall to\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 ground\u00a0\u00a0 hearing\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 his\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 name pronounced.<\/p>\n

In a sense, all the doctrinal debates of Christian history\u00a0 can\u00a0 be\u00a0 reduced\u00a0 to\u00a0 a\u00a0 debate\u00a0 on\u00a0 Christ\u2019s identity. In the period between apostolic times and the\u00a0\u00a0 high\u00a0\u00a0 Middle\u00a0\u00a0 Ages,\u00a0\u00a0 various\u00a0\u00a0 Christological positions\u00a0 were brilliantly expressed and defended. However, if one envisages the \u00a0fate of the historic catholic\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 orthodox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christian\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tradition,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 no Christological stand was as decisive, in terms of the nature\u00a0 of\u00a0\u00a0 spirituality,\u00a0\u00a0 as\u00a0 that\u00a0 of\u00a0\u00a0 two\u00a0\u00a0 eminent bishops of Alexandria in Egypt: Athanasius and Cyril.<\/p>\n

The achievement of Athanasius is relatively well known. He led the struggle for the faith of Nicaea, which\u00a0 firmly\u00a0 proclaimed\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 divinity\u00a0 of\u00a0\u00a0 Christ. Almost\u00a0\u00a0 singlehandedly,\u00a0\u00a0 he\u00a0\u00a0 secured\u00a0\u00a0 a\u00a0\u00a0 Nicaean triumph. But this victory was not only doctrinal, but also spiritual. The message of Athanasius was that only God himself could properly be seen and adored as Savior. Thus, the divine identity of Jesus, equal to (\u201cconsubstantial\u201d with) the Father, was not a matter of\u00a0\u00a0 abstract\u00a0 or\u00a0\u00a0 purely\u00a0\u00a0 theological\u00a0\u00a0 truth,\u00a0\u00a0 but\u00a0\u00a0 it indicated\u00a0 \u201cmortal\u00a0 humanity\u00a0 which\u00a0 could\u00a0 neither save itself nor be\u00a0 saved by another \u201ccreature\u201d and the true nature of God, who being love, performedhimself the salvation of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus, on the way to Caesarea Philippi, a few days before the end of His messianic ministry in Jerusalem, asked His disciples a question about their belief concerning His personal identity: \u201cWho do you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-our-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4541,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540\/revisions\/4541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}