Original Research - Special Collection: SASRF Creation - Consciousness and Christology

Combinatory Christology

Dirk Evers
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 72, No 4 | a3482 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i4.3482 | © 2016 Dirk Evers | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 12 May 2016 | Published: 11 November 2016

About the author(s)

Dirk Evers, Institute for Systematic Theology, Practical Theology and Philosophy of Religion, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany; Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa, South Africa

Abstract

This article aims to present Christology not as an add-on to monotheism, but as its specific Christian form. What Christ means can only be explained with reference to God and vice versa; what God stands for in a Christian sense has to be explained with reference to Jesus Christ and not with reference to generic religious terms. Christology thus informs and forms the Christian understanding of how to relate God and reality. Therefore, Christology has to be developed as combinatory Christology bringing different dimensions of reality including scientific and evolutionary perspectives into creative interplay. Theology is an ‘art of combination’ (Dalferth 1991:18), which in ever new ways relates traditions of faith with theoretical and historical knowledge in order to find relevant ways of understanding God’s presence in the world, to articulate the Christian faith in a meaningful way and to form our ways of living in such a way as to conform to God’s passion for the life of God’s creatures. This article wants to lay grounds for such an endeavour by re-evaluating the history of Christology and combining this analysis with present day challenges.

Keywords

Christology; religion; monotheism; evolutionary perspective; creation; history;natural science

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