The christologists believe that the church has preserved an utterly false picture of him. The book claims to be about Christology, which according to the author Davis "is a branch of Christian theology, perhaps its chief branch" (Davis, p
"There is, thus, a difference between the way in which the first Christians and the later Church understood the Christological problem" (Cullman pg. 4) The modern church is spending an increasing amount of time debating the "problem of language" as it pertains to the divinity of Jesus (Aldwinckle pg 45)
The Old Testament Books understand salvation to be salvation from any danger. (Elwell 967)
These centuries saw the debate turn not so much on finer theological points as had been the case earlier but rather on the fullness of Christ's nature and character vis-a-vis personal experiences of Christians. So, for example, one of the central debates was between Christ as a figure removed from the common person or as a newly configured tender-hearted Jesus, almost like a personal friend, an individual who would provide love and ongoing support and comfort throughout a Christian's lifetime (Astley, Brown, & Loades, 2009, p
The central debate in Christology during this era focused on the question of whether Christ was fully mortal ranging through the belief that he was a divine incarnation that had taken on a temporary human form. The longest running doctrinaire conflict during this period was that between the Athanasian perspective (also termed the homoousian perspective) that dictated that the divine Father and Son are the same essence for all eternity and the Arian viewpoint (also called the homoiousian viewpoint), which is that while both Father and Son are divine, they are eternally separate entities (Binns, 2002, p
Although Christendom is now so divided by sects and practices that even the idea of Christendom is barely sensible any more, there are strong convergences among Christian scholars about the most important current debates over the nature of Christ. According to theologian Karl Rahner, modern Christology should and must focus on a clear understanding of the ways in which "God became man and that God-made-man is the individual Jesus Christ," an understanding that will be agreed-to by all members of the Christian community (Rahner, 2004, p