The Theological Plain Of Christianity

The book Mere Christianity was derived from a series of radio talks by C.S. Lewis during World War two. The book is divided into four other small books each one providing one of the overall tenants of Christianity within its chapters.

The incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ are the enduring elements of the Christian theology. Many theologians have spent their time discussing and developing these Christian doctrines on how they came about, and how relevant they might be. According to Anselm, incarnation is a central doctrine of Christianity, followed by atonement. In order to ponder on the relationship between atonement and incarnation focusing on Anselm’s idea of satisfaction, we are supposed to look at the meanings of atonement, as well as incarnation. However, the doctrines of incarnation and atonement are interrelated as elucidated by many theologians.

First. Through the atonement we receive forgiveness of sins. Second. We receive sanctification through the blood of Jesus. Third. Healing of our bodies. Sickness and disease are destroyed through the precious atonement of Jesus.

Christianity treads a delicate delineation between faith and reason. At times, the two seem mutually exclusive. During the early stages of Christianity, church fathers argued about the roles of Athens and Jerusalem in Christianity. Some, like Tertullian, insisted Christianity consisted solely of Jerusalem, or faith alone. Others, like St. Augustine and Clement of Alexandria, argued that all truth stems from the character of God, and is thus viable to the Christian. They united Athens and Jerusalem, reason and faith. The interplay of faith and reason shines brightest through the work of Thomas Aquinas, who, like Augustine, believed faith and reason play an intertwined role in revealing truth.

According to Ninian Smart, the seven dimensions of religion include practical and ritual, emotional and experiential, narrative and mythical, ethical and legal, doctrinal and philosophical, social and institutional, and material. The practical and ritual dimension involves rituals and practices that provide spiritual awareness of adherents. The emotional and experiential dimension includes the life changing experiences that either the leaders or followers of a religion go through. Narrative and mythical dimension are the stories and past records that preserve tradition and culture in the religion. Ethical and legal dimension of the religion are basically the codes of behavior that are followed

Over the centuries, Christianity has organised its beliefs into a systematic theology that draws from its sacred writing and tradition. While the main beliefs of Christianity are shared by all Christian variants, there are degrees of different in the interpretation of these beliefs and how they are lived out in everyday life. This can be seen in the important of sacred text, principle belief of the concept of salvation in John 3:16, principle belief of divine and humanity in ‘John 1:14’, principle belief of resurrection in ‘Mark 16:1-8’, principle belief of revelation in ‘1 corinthians14:6’, and beliefs through the Trinity in ‘2 Corinthians 13:14’. This essay will explain the important of the sacred text and the principal beliefs of Christianity.

The Christian religion finds its foundation on the Word of God and the work of Jesus Christ. Christianity finds its beginnings with Jesus Christ about 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to earth to teach, heal, and die for the sins of humanity. When God created man, he openly rebelled against God, causing a rift in their relationship. Since humans cannot save themselves, a perfect and completely innocent sacrifice was necessary in order to purify and restore mankind. Christianity is all about Jesus’ death and resurrection, as well as denying oneself and following Christ.

Anselm, sometimes thought of as the first philosopher of Christianity, practiced scholasticism, and in his writings he attempted harmonizing faith and reason. A piece of writing he is author of is called Meditation on Human Redemption. Anselm touches on a variety of topics in this writing. The three major points this document covers are the concept of why God the Father is not able to simply forgive all of humanity’s sins, how justice is to be brought about once humans sin, and how Jesus Christ paid the debts for humanity.

“ You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left it open to us. He did not intend to.” (Lewis 78.) In Mere Christianity, Lewis talks about the silliness of accepting Jesus as another great moral teacher. According to Lewis, we must all make a choice to call Jesus liar, lunatic, or Lord.

We have now come to the fourth and final book of Mere Christianity. In this book, the author takes us to the place in our Christian growth where we begin to rely more heavily on the power of God and less on ourselves to become the being that God originally intended for us to be — a son of God. He begins with an explanation of the difference between “making” and “begetting”.

“None of us can meet God’s standard. As a result, none of us deserve to don the robe and stand behind the bench and judge others.” (MaxLucado39) Christians have a hard time abstaining from a judgemental mindset, but that is not always the case. Non-believers have a tendency to show their judgemental side by just saying that “Christians are always judging me.” whenever a Christian may approach a certain non-believer. This is one of the reasons that Christians are considered flat characters rather to the approach of flat characters becoming round. Christians are perceived as one dimensional and hypocritical but in all honesty Christians are striving to become a picture of Jesus Christ.

This week’s reading concentrated on the relational aspects of the second and third persons of the trinity and how they contribute to Wesley’s theology of justification, sanctification, and assurance. Wesley saw the Christ as holding the three offices of prophet, priest, and king which I hear within my studies on a regular basis. Also, Wesley sees Jesus as being Creator, Author, Supporter, and Preserver from his relational position within the trinity. Even though I have difficulty accepting the idea of Jesus atoning for humanity’s sins, Wesley apparently accepted it whole heartedly through his understanding of the rhetoric of the day such as the satisfaction theory and penal substitution. Regardless of how it was accomplished, it is clear that Wesley found it to be a sacrifice of love for humanity and that love carries forward into the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit.

In his hardback titled The Church: Contours of Christian Theology, Edmund P. Clowney writes a systematic presentation about concerning the doctrine of the church. In chapter eight of his book, he describes the Marks of the Church. Clowney writes about the marks of a true church of Christ, which include the true preaching of the Word of God; the proper observation of the sacraments; and the faithful exercise of church discipline.

According to theologian Maja Weyermann, “the resurrection is the redemption from sin through Christ and therefore the nullification of death.” In his biblical epistles to the Corinthians and the Romans, the apostle Paul considers how the acts of Jesus Christ purge humanity of the previous exploits of Adam, bringing salvation and life to all where there was previously sin and death. The initial parallels that Paul draws between Adam and Jesus Christ became the building blocks by which church fathers developed their own soteriology and theories of recapitulation. The most famous of which is St. Irenaeus of Lyons, whose writings developed an early understanding of Christian theology in the late second century. Drawing on Paul’s biblical writings, Irenaeus further developed his theory of atonement, or recapitulation, that focuses on the idea of a “do-over” that undoes previously committed sin. Based on the theological assertions made by Paul and Irenaeus, recapitulation in the greater doctrine of salvation is achieved through Christ as the second Adam, the Virgin Mary as the second Eve, and the Church as the second Eden.

This paper will provide an understanding the theories of theology of the history of the church, the celebration of the atonement; Jesus Christ being the vicarious substitutionary lamb slain for the sins of mankind.