Canter Bridge

Christian faith hinges upon the relationship between God and humankind. Specifically, it discerns in the person of Jesus Christ a mystery that probes at the edges of monotheistic conviction while fully embracing it. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human, a conviction sketched out in the New Testament but requiring centuries before its formulation in more or less classical form in the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Definition.

Christians do well to call this a ‘mystery’, not because it is antithetical to careful reasoning but because it is deeply paradoxical.

Several close followers of the Nazarene prophet had an unanticipated glimpse of the divine of their master in that portion of the gospels that is often called the ‘transfiguration’. There, Jesus is described in conversation with his Israelite antecedents in a manner that urges his superiority over them and paints him in the colors of deity.

The first chaper of John’s Revelation does the same, though in terms that are common to it and not to the so-called ‘synoptic’ gospels:

And in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.

When one compares this vocabulary with that employed in the Old Testament theophanies, the ontological solidarity between YHWH and Jesus Christ that is being argued here comes clear. One might find such an equation abhorrent or glorious. What is not in doubt is that the existence and person of Jesus Christ are presented in a manner that affirms an existencial overlap with the existence and person of YHWH.

Christological monotheism, if one can coin such a phrase, would not be a bad label for the notion.

The deep paradox of Christian conviction lies just here. Jesus was truly human. Jesus is so much like God that one more accurately concedes their identity than argues their distinction.

The medieval theologian Anselm famously asked, and not without reason: Cur Deus Homo?