Bible Stories

The traditional Christian doctrine of the incarnation, that is Christ was God made man, has recently been increasly questioned. The modern ‘Christian can no longer believe, literal fact, some say, that Jesus is God. The doctrine of the incarnation may be valuable as myth’, which expresses the Christian’s attitude to Christ in embolic way, but it is not rally true. They also argue t we lose nothing essential Christianity if we abandon belief.

The main areas of debate are these:

• The New Testament evidence. Did the first ‘Christians believe that Jesuswas God? Some would want to no. They claim thathistorical study of the New Testament shows that early Christian beliefs about Jesus eloped slowly. Belief in his divinity emerges, if at all, y in the latest New Testament writings. Some of them speculate that the idea of incarnation was borrowed from the Samaritan religion or frompopular Greek religion.

Many scholars contest these conclusions. The historical fence is complex and can be interpreted in many ways. And way why should it be thought so surprising that a full of in Jesus‘ incarnation should take some years to develop? A doctrine is not wrong simply because it took a 3ration of mature reflection to reach its full statement. The question is whether the raw material exist in the Gospels t belief that Jesus is God-become-man. The answer is they do.

• Differences of culture.Modern Christians live in a different world from that of the early church. Ideas which made sense in the culture of the ancient world no longer make sense in our modern culture. Some claim that the doctrine of the incarnation is one such idea. It was a natural and appropriate way of expressing Christian faith in the culture of the fourth and fifth centuries. We in the twentieth century must find other ways appropriate to our own culture.

But was this belief so easy to hold in the context of ancient Greek and Roman culture? The theologians of the early church maintained it because they thought it essential to Christianity. And to do so they had to challenge some common non-Christian assumptions about God and humanity held in their day. Perhaps modern theology must do the same. If the modern man in the street finds the incarnation incredible, this may be because he does not believe in a God who involves himself in the world. Christianity invites him to believe in such a God, without whom there would be no gospel. For that purpose the idea of God becoming man is vital. In any case, we cannot simply change what is true to suit what people want to hear.

• Does it make sense?Does the doctrine of the incarnation make logical sense? Some have argued that the union of God and man in one person is an unintelligible idea. It is sometimes compared with the idea of a square circle. Because the definitions of a square and a circle contradict each other, the combination ’square circle‘ cannot mean anything.

One result of the debate has been to show that this argument cannot be pressed. We can give clear-cut definitions of ’square’ and ‘circle‘ and so be sure that they contradict each other. We cannot do the same for ‘God‘ and ‘man‘. If our definition of God implies that he cannot become man, then the definition may be wrong.

• Other religions.The doctrine of the incarnation means that Jesus is the only man who is, in a genuinely historical sense, God incarnate. He is therefore unique among the religious leaders of the world. It is held that this view is an obstacle to open dialogue between Christianity and other religions. It prevents us from recognizing other religions equally as ways of salvation.

This issue is itself a large area of debate. For many Christians concerned with inter-faith dialogue, the uniqueness of Jesus is a central Christian belief which it is vital to contribute to the dialogue. Christianity is not the only religion which makes claims contradictory of other religions. Dialogue is based on an openness to truth wherever it may be found, not on an elimination beforehand of everything that may cause offence.

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