Thank you for your thoughts on Christ’s yoke, which is His meekness and humility toward God. It brings our souls to rest. Our slavery to God is easy and light, in contrast with slavery to sin which brings us unrest (cf. 1Peter 5:5-7; Philippians 4:6-7; James 4:5-10).
Acknowledging our distance from God can be harmful when it leads to functional deist beliefs and practices so we have to be careful to strike a balance
Sure. Balance is key. I think the issue these days is that we don't acknowledge that distance anymore. We view God as one being among many and one that is naturally accessible, that is, we are able to get to God of our own ability. It seems we need to strike a balance between the Pelagianism of natural access and the Deism of an absent God. Humility places us where we need to be.
I think you are referring to what I would call the ‘Buddy Christ’ heresy and I see what you mean but I find people who have a ‘Buddy Christ’ view often have a deist view of the Father.
Yes, I'd agree with you on that. It comes from a fundamentally low-Christology that sees Christ as a human person who happens to also be divine instead of a divine person who assumes a human nature to His divine person. This leads to that distant Father who is no more than a clockmaker who creates us and lets us go. There is a, perhaps unconscious, separation of the Trinitarian Godhead.
I agree and I think it’s interesting how you order that because I agree - modern Christology sees Christ as human first and divine second where as if we go back in time the order would have been reversed, Christ was divine first and human second. There is a whole study to be done here into how this has impacted the liturgy etc. It was interesting last night at RCIA that all the focus was on Our Lords sacrifice to the Father but I can’t remember anything being said until I mentioned the wider liturgy and how we empty ourselves out in order to be worthy about our sacrifice to Him. Ultimately this is reflected in the Evangelium book which really simply talks about His sacrifice, even the section on Liturgy mentions worship but not our sacrifice to Him of praise, worship and obedience. I think low Christology is the established modernist norm.
Yes, it certainly is the popular approach these days. It has caused a deep misunderstanding of the faith because of it. Like you rightly pointed out, it stretches into other facets of the faith, like the liturgy. It feeds the buddy narrative. It distances the Father, and to a degree, the Spirit as well. It causes more subtle heresies like Christ not knowing He was the messiah or that the Baptism in the Jordan was an awakening for Him, to creep into popular belief. It is a huge problem these days.
The church has always taught that the human nature of Christ subsists in the divine person. It has no existence apart from the Divine person of the Son. This is the beginning point of all Christology.
Thank you for your thoughts on Christ’s yoke, which is His meekness and humility toward God. It brings our souls to rest. Our slavery to God is easy and light, in contrast with slavery to sin which brings us unrest (cf. 1Peter 5:5-7; Philippians 4:6-7; James 4:5-10).
Acknowledging our distance from God can be harmful when it leads to functional deist beliefs and practices so we have to be careful to strike a balance
Sure. Balance is key. I think the issue these days is that we don't acknowledge that distance anymore. We view God as one being among many and one that is naturally accessible, that is, we are able to get to God of our own ability. It seems we need to strike a balance between the Pelagianism of natural access and the Deism of an absent God. Humility places us where we need to be.
Thanks for reading!
I think you are referring to what I would call the ‘Buddy Christ’ heresy and I see what you mean but I find people who have a ‘Buddy Christ’ view often have a deist view of the Father.
Yes, I'd agree with you on that. It comes from a fundamentally low-Christology that sees Christ as a human person who happens to also be divine instead of a divine person who assumes a human nature to His divine person. This leads to that distant Father who is no more than a clockmaker who creates us and lets us go. There is a, perhaps unconscious, separation of the Trinitarian Godhead.
I agree and I think it’s interesting how you order that because I agree - modern Christology sees Christ as human first and divine second where as if we go back in time the order would have been reversed, Christ was divine first and human second. There is a whole study to be done here into how this has impacted the liturgy etc. It was interesting last night at RCIA that all the focus was on Our Lords sacrifice to the Father but I can’t remember anything being said until I mentioned the wider liturgy and how we empty ourselves out in order to be worthy about our sacrifice to Him. Ultimately this is reflected in the Evangelium book which really simply talks about His sacrifice, even the section on Liturgy mentions worship but not our sacrifice to Him of praise, worship and obedience. I think low Christology is the established modernist norm.
Yes, it certainly is the popular approach these days. It has caused a deep misunderstanding of the faith because of it. Like you rightly pointed out, it stretches into other facets of the faith, like the liturgy. It feeds the buddy narrative. It distances the Father, and to a degree, the Spirit as well. It causes more subtle heresies like Christ not knowing He was the messiah or that the Baptism in the Jordan was an awakening for Him, to creep into popular belief. It is a huge problem these days.
The church has always taught that the human nature of Christ subsists in the divine person. It has no existence apart from the Divine person of the Son. This is the beginning point of all Christology.