Importance of Christology - Literature review Example

Importance of Christology as the traditional theological loci The Early Church was a marginal religious effort which faced major threats of persecution in their daily exercise of faith. Due to this, there was no thorough structure of worship as seen in the current day Christian worship. However, worship in those days paved way for the current settings of various churches which have greatly evolved over time. Christianity began among Jews as brought out in the New Testament. In the New Testament it is brought out that there was prosecution of early Christians. Paul of Tarsus a Pharisee prosecuted Christians before he was converted to be a Christian. Early Christians preached about the Messiah which did not conform expectations that were needed at the time. Persecution in the current times occurs due to beliefs and cultures. In some countries, there is abuse that occurs under governments who are authoritarian (Lange and Iblacker, 89). The governments regard of some religious groups as being enemies making the nation to have beliefs to challenge loyalty that the rulers have. The lack of basic human rights is another significant part of persecution in some countries. The rituals and worship is a sign of the importance of the natural world. Relationship with each other is deeply rooted in cultural and religious traditions, illustration human beings into relationship with each other, and with the nature and the world Introduction Theology is the study of religious faith, practice, and experience and mostly, the study of God and of God’s relation to the world.in the study however there are difficulties in the study of this field of study in today’s era (Lane Fox, 37). The main challenge is that people often become resistant to new thoughts or beliefs, and instead fully accept the ideas that have been existing and fail to accept the new ideas and beliefs. In theology of the First Letter to the Corinthians, there are challenges on a number of common views regarding New Testament literature and beliefs in the field. In analysis of Christology, the main focus will be on the book of 1 Corinthians specifically. Example given is on America and the practices on Christianity and the beliefs that they hold about Christianity. Study about religion in America is fundamental to understanding and appreciating the American heritage. America is a land of many races, cultures, languages, and religions. Students should learn about the contributions of religion to America., the main religion being Christianity. Christology as the traditional theological loci Christology is the field of study included in Christian theology primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the epistles of the New Testament. In the first instance, when reading 1 Corinthian there are various images that seem to stand out. The most obvious or convincing visual we see is the Christological image in the beginning of this letter where Paul draws the picture of Christ crucified. This is referred to as theology of the cross (Lane Fox, 78). 1 Corinthians has also been noted as accurately portraying what there was also theology of resurrection. Realizing these various elements is crucial to the argument because apart from the previously stated references to the cross, there are very limited mentions of this theology elsewhere in the disputed letters and the New Testament in general. 1 Corinthians 15: 21-22 another theological idea that is unique to Paul’s letter to Corinthians is his identification of Christ as a second Adam. He makes reference to this on a number of occasions throughout the letter (Lange and Iblacker, 194). This is brought to light in a few other spots in the Bible, but not as detailed and unique as it is in 1 Corinthians. One last aspect that distinguishes 1 Corinthians in terms of Christological orientation is the way in which Paul speaks of Christ’s relation to God. There are three very unambiguous statements regarding this found in the letter. The first being towards the beginning, when Paul emphasizes the notion that believers belong to Christ. He then continues to claim that Christ belongs to God. This can be found in 1 Corinthians 3:23. Paul then declares later on in the letter (1 Corinthians 11:3) that, “the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” The third statement is found towards the end of the letter when Paul proclaims that when the end comes, Christ will hand over the kingdom or the reign to God the Father, and after doing so will be made subject to him (1 Corinthians 15:24,28). The reason that these statements are so profound and important is because these ideas are not evident in any of the other letters, disputed or undisputed, of Paul. These theological views are unique to 1 Corinthians, further enhancing the earlier claim. While there are a number of Christological elements unique to the letter, there are limited theological aspects related to soteriology unique to 1 Corinthians. Persecution of Christians as the cultural trend Persecution of Christian occurs as a result of different reasons. Authoritarian governments have sought to control all religious expression and thought that people in a country have. In some countries, there is abuse that occurs under governments who are authoritarian. The governments regard of some religious groups as being enemies making the nation to have beliefs to challenge loyalty that the rulers have (Robinson, 37). The lack of basic human rights is another significant part of persecution in some countries. For instance, in Eritrea, there are abuses of the freedom of communication, assembly, and religious certainty and drive, in addition to killings, enforced vanishings, extended custody, anguish, and indefinite national service, which cause many Eritreans to escape the country. Religious traditions define beliefs and inspire practices in the relationships with the divine, sacred time, sacred space or natural world, and with each other. Another reason why Christians are persecuted is aggression towards those that do not believe in Christianity from a traditional perspective and marginal religious groups. For instance, in Niger more than 98 percent of the population is Islamic, and aggression comes more from culture than from the government (Allen, 295). Historically, Islam in West Africa has been moderate, but in the last 20 years, dozens of Islamic associations have emerged, like the Izala movement, which aims to restrict the freedom of deviant Muslims and minority religious groups like Christians The relationship with the divine is power of being or the kingdom of understanding different religious person’s to be present and to have revolution impact on their lives. Earlier in days man believed that religion is to help converse away natural occurrences (Robinson, 204). But however the modern man continues to utilize divinity to push away supernatural sensations, at which one usually refers to as miracles. (Allen, 303) In an example a sudden and total recovery from a disaster, life threatening conditions, and surviving a deadly occurrence is viewed as a miracle. The Relationship with the sacred time defines as life goes on as time goes on. When it comes to sacred time the greater power and divinity breaks through. The eternity is the sacred time that many religions live by (Masci, 623). One reason that believers of Christian religions find certain places to be important is that God has declared that certain places should be considered sacred. In the Book of Exodus, the Lord talk to Moses on the mountain of Horeb telling him to remove the sandals from his feet, for the place where he was stand was a holy ground. There are many sacred spaces of the person’s that are important to the faith and are joined to the principal beliefs of the religion specially the belief of the Gods becoming associated with a particular natural trait (Robinson, 301). These spaces are normally located in the natural environment and have a detail meaning and fitting to key beliefs. The rituals and worship is a sign of the importance of the natural world. Relationship with each other is deeply rooted in cultural and religious traditions, illustration human beings into relationship with each other, and with the nature and the world. In America, rooted in Christian culture is Education. Back when this country started, students were taught about Christianity, they prayed before and after school, they learned about historical and social importance of the Christian faith. Things however changed as brought out in 1995 where California State Board of Education published a handbook on teaching about religion in the schools. The reason that was given out was that school personnel was obliged to help students develop an informal understanding and appreciation of the role of religion in the lives of Americans and people of other nation. Jesus told his disciples to go and spread the good news, to teach others that He taught his disciples. This lead to many schools being built across Europe with a focus on Christian Doctrine. Christianity wanted a universal education, education that wasn’t limited to certain people based on their wealth, sex, and lineage Holidays are always fine and great. Most of the holidays are rooted in Christianity. Christmas is an annual holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. And contains symbols as gift giving to celebrate the gifts that Jesus gave to us and is still giving us. Easter is another holiday embedded in Christianity. Easter is an annual holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most important part of the Christian religion. Thanksgiving in the history of America was a day to give God thanks and was created by our President and Senate. All these Christian influences embedded in our Culture that many people are oblivious too. The citizens of the United States of America are directly or indirectly influenced my Christianity on a daily biases through their knowledge or when they do not know it. But now many people are trying to take all these Christian influences and remove them not realizing the implications that might have on the foundation of the nation, which is a foundation influenced by the Greek, Israel, and New Testament Christian culture (Barker, Burdick and Boa, 568). People are now taking God out of our education. Students no longer pray before or after school. Students are being taught Evolutionism and schools are ignoring and not teaching creationism. Schools are no longer allowing students to express their Christian Culture in talent shows or other school events. People are taking Christian holidays and making them more focused on material things than what they were initially celebrated for. Christmas is now a holiday based on gift giving instead of the birth of Jesus Christ. Easter is now a Holiday for celebration instead of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving is now a holiday which one gets together and eats a lot with their family, instead of giving thanks for everything we have to our Heavenly Father (Woods, 18). From the above discussion, Christology is one of the doctrines of people in Christ. According to Tertullain, the incarnation of Christ has two dimensions; against the pagan polytheism and against the Monarchianism in the church of Christian. Additionally, he was to fight against the divisive and disruptive tendencies of the valentius and Marcion. Tertullian formed the Christological terminology to curb the forces. Some of the sources of this theological formulae include the legal language, Judaism, bible, and also Gnosticism. Stoicism was important for purposed of theological reflection. Consequently, the traditional loci for systematic theology include church, redemption, sin, and God are properly Christocentric in their origin and orientation. There is no doctrine in Christianity that fails to stand in Jesus work which illumined in Christology. The Early Church was a marginal religious effort which faced major threats of persecution in their daily exercise of faith. Christianity began among Jews as brought out in the New Testament. In the New Testament it is brought out that there was prosecution of early Christians. Paul of Tarsus a Pharisee prosecuted Christians before he was converted to be a Christian. Study about religion in America is fundamental to understanding and appreciating the American heritage. America is a land of many races, cultures, languages, and religions. Persecution of Christian occurs as a result of different reasons. Authoritarian governments have sought to control all religious expression and thought that people in a country have. Works cited Allen, John L. The Global War On Christians. 2009 Print. Barker, Kenneth L, Donald W Burdick, and Kenneth Boa. Zondervan NASB Study Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999. Print. Lane Fox, Robin. Pagans And Christians. New York: Knopf, 2007. Print. Lange, Martin, and Reinhold Iblacker. Witnesses Of Hope. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2004.. Print. Masci, David. Evangelical Christians. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2001. Print. Menocal, Maria Rosa. The Ornament Of The World. Boston: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company, 2002. Print. Moss, Candida R. The Myth Of Persecution. New York: HarperOne, 2013. Print. Robinson, Anthony. A Short History Of The Persecution Of Christians, By Jews, Heathens, & Christians. Carlisle: Printed for the author, by F. Jollie, and sold by J. Johnson, St. Pauls Church Yard, London, 2003. Print. Woods, Robert. Evangelical Christians And Popular Culture. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2013. Print. Read More