Communicatio Idiomatum, by Richard Cross

 

Fran D. Villegas FRANK J. SHEED, THEOLOGY AND SANITY, page 183: “The very heart of the doctrine of the Redemption is that the human acts of Christ were the acts of a Person who was divine… Everything that Christ did and suffered and experienced was done and suffered and experienced by one who was God. […]

 

Communicatio idiomatum

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Communicatio idiomatum (Latin: communication of properties) is a Christological^[a] concept about the interaction of deity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. It maintains that in view of the unity of Christ's person, his human and divine attributes and experiences might properly be referred to his other nature so that the theologian may speak of "the suffering of God".^[2]

The germ of the idea is first found in Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 100) but the development of an adequate, agreed technical vocabulary only took place in the fifth century with the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon twenty years later and the approval of the doctrine of the hypostatic union of the two distinct natures of Christ.^[3] In the sixteenth century, the Reformed and Lutheran churches disagreed on this question.^[4]

The philosopher J. G. Hamann argued that the communicatio idiomatum applies not just to Christ, but should be generalised to cover all human action: "This communicatio of divine and human idiomatum is a fundamental law and the master-key of all our knowledge and of the whole visible economy."^[5]

Developments in the Patristic period

When the question as to how deity and humanity could be combined in the Saviour was investigated in depth, two schools of thought emerged: one associated with Alexandria and the other with Antioch. Alexandrian thought drew heavily on Platonism and was markedly dualist, while its biblical exegesis was mystical and allegorical.^[11] Its Christology has been labelled the Word-flesh model. It took no real account of a human soul in Christ, but viewed the incarnation as the union of the Word with human flesh, thus drawing on the platonic concept of the human being as a soul which inhabited an essentially alien body. Antiochene thought was based far more on Aristotelian principles and its biblical exegesis tended to be literal and historical thus taking the genuine humanity of the Saviour very seriously. The traditional label for this second type of Christology is Word-man: the Word united himself with a complete humanity, i.e. soul plus body, which did justice to the genuinely human being described in the Gospels. The Antiochene-style Christology stresses the distinction of natures and therefore a more tightly regulated communication of properties; while the Alexandrian-type Christology underscores the unity of Jesus Christ and therefore a more complete communication of properties.^[12]Ignatius of Antioch emphasised both the oneness of Christ and the reality of his two-fold mode of existence: "There is one physician, composed of flesh and spirit, generate and ingenerate, God in man, authentic life from death, from Mary and from God, first passible then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord",^[6][7] but he uses phrases like 'the blood of God', 'the suffering of my God' and 'God ... was conceived by Mary';^[2] Tertullian (c. AD 200) stated that the saviour was composed of two 'substances' and the human substance was in every respect genuine. He was the first theologian to tackle the question of the relationship between them; each preserved its particular qualities but Christians observe "a twofold condition, not confused but conjoined, Jesus, in one Person at once God and man".^[8][9] On the whole he referred what the one person experienced to the appropriate substance, but at times uses phrases such as "God was truly crucified, truly died".^[10] thus anticipating the communicatio idiomatum.^[9]

Lutheran–Reformed debate

Further information: Scholastic Lutheran Christology

Notes[edit]Reformed and Lutheran Christians are divided on the communicatio idiomatum. In Reformed doctrine, the divine nature and the human nature are united strictly in the person of Christ. According to his humanity, Jesus Christ remains in heaven as the bodily high priest, even while in his divine nature he is omnipresent. This coincides with the Calvinistic view of the Lord's Supper, the belief that Christ is truly present at the meal, though not substantially and particularly joined to the elements (pneumatic presence). Lutherans, on the other hand, describe a union in which the divine and the human natures share their predicates more fully. Lutheran scholastics of the 17th century called the Reformed doctrine that Christ's divine nature is outside or beyond his human nature the extra calvinisticum. They spoke of the genus maiestaticum, the view that Jesus Christ's human nature becomes "majestic", suffused with the qualities of the divine nature. Therefore, in the eucharist the human, bodily presence of Jesus Christ is "in, within, under" the elements (sacramental union).

1. ^ The adjective Christological can be used in two different ways. Here it is used in the narrow sense as defined in this sentence. It can also be used for the much wider range of doctrines which were traditionally labelled the "Person and Work of Jesus Christ".^[1]

References

1. ^ McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology. Blackwell. p. 345.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines. A & C Black (1965) p.143
3. ^ Christie, Francis (April 1912), "Luther and Others" (PDF), The Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge University Press, 5 (2): 240–250, doi:10.1017/S001781600001347X, ISSN 0017-8160, JSTOR 1507428
4. ^ Carson, Ronald (September 1975), "The Motifs of Kenosisand Imitatio in the Work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with an Excursus on the Communicatio Idiomatum", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Oxford University Press, 43(3): 542–553, doi:10.1093/jaarel/xliii.3.542, ISSN 0002-7189, JSTOR 1461851
5. ^ Hamann, Johann (2007), Haynes, Kenneth (ed.), Writings on Philosophy and Language, Leiden: Cambridge University Press, p. 99, ISBN 978-0-511-34139-7, retrieved 2012-12-06
6. ^ Letter to the Ephesians, 7
7. ^ Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines A & C Black (1965) p.143, quoting Eph 7,2
8. ^ Contra Praxeas, 27
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines. A & C Black (1965) pp.151,2, quoting Adv. Prax. 27 & c. Marc. 2.27
10. ^ De Carne Christi, 5.2
11. ^ Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (1974). "Alexandrian Theology" and "Antichene Theology". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12. ^ Need, Stephen (April 1995), "Language, Metaphor, and Chalcedon: A Case of Theological Double Vision", The Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge University Press, 88(2): 237–255, doi:10.1017/S0017816000030327, ISSN 0017-8160, JSTOR 1509887

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Amazon Link

Richard Cross, Communicatio Idiomatum

Communicatio Idiomatum: Reformation Christological Debates

Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology

by Richard Cross

December 3, 2019

• Offers a radical reinterpretation of the debates between Lutheran
• and Reformed theologians on the question of the Incarnation

• Provides close attention to the semantics and metaphysics
• adopted and/or presupposed by the various theologians

• Situates the Reformation debates in their Medieval context

This study offers a radical reinterpretation of the sixteenth-century Christological debates between Lutheran and Reformed theologians on the ascription of divine and human predicates to the person of the incarnate Son of God (the communicatio idiomatum). It does so by close attention to the arguments deployed by the protagonists in the discussion, and to the theologians' metaphysical and semantic assumptions, explicit and implicit. It traces the central contours of the Christological debates, from the discussion between Luther and Zwingli in the 1520s to the Colloquy of Montbeliard in 1586.

Richard Cross shows that Luther's Christology is thoroughly Medieval, and that innovations usually associated with Luther-in particular, that Christ's human nature comes to share in divine attributes-should be ascribed instead to his younger contemporary Johannes Brenz. The discussion is highly sensitive to the differences between the various Luther groups-followers of Brenz, and the different factions aligned in varying ways with Melanchthon-and to the differences between all of these and the Reformed theologians. By locating the Christological discussions in their immediate Medieval background, Cross also provides a comprehensive account of the continuities and discontinuities between the two eras. In these ways, it is shown that the standard interpretations of the Reformation debates on the matter are almost wholly mistaken.

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Wikipedia [Excerpt: Intro] - John Duns (c. 1265/66 – 8 November 1308),[9] commonly called Duns Scotus (/ˈskoʊtəs/ SKOH-təs, Ecclesiastical Latin: [duns ˈskotus]; "Duns the Scot"), was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher, and theologian. He is one of the three most important philosopher-theologians of Western Europe in the High Middle Ages, together with Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham.[10] Scotus has had considerable influence on both Catholic and secular thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the "univocity of being", that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued for the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Duns Scotus was given the scholastic accolade Doctor Subtilis ("the Subtle Doctor") for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993.

Books By Richard Cross

https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Cross/e/B001HMTS6W?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1606143985&sr=1-2

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The Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus

The period from Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus is one of the richest in the history of Christian theology. Cross aims to provide a thorough examination of the doctrine in this era, making explicit its philosophical and theological foundations.

Duns Scotus (Great Medieval Thinkers) 1st Edition

The nature and content of the thought of Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308) remains largely unknown except by the expert. This book provides an accessible account of Scotus' theology, focusing both on what is distinctive in his thought, and on issues where his insights might prove to be of perennial value.

Duns Scotus’s Theory of Cognition

Richard Cross provides the first complete and detailed account of Duns Scotus's theory of cognition, tracing the processes involved in cognition from sensation, through intuition and abstraction, to conceptual thought. He provides an analysis of the ontological status of the various mental items (acts and dispositions) involved in cognition, and a new account of Scotus on nature of conceptual content. Cross goes on to offer a novel, reductionist, interpretation of Scotus's view of the ontological status of representational content, as well as new accounts of Scotus's opinions on intuitive cognition, intelligible species, and the varieties of consciousness. Scotus was a perceptive but highly critical reader of his intellectual forebears, and this volume places his thought clearly within the context of thirteenth-century reflections on cognitive psychology, influenced as they were by Aristotle, Augustine, and Avicenna. As far as possible, Duns Scotus's Theory of Cognition traces developments in Scotus's thought during the ten or so highly productive years that formed the bulk of his intellectual life.

The Physics of Duns Scotus: The Scientific Context of a Theological Vision 1st Edition

Duns Scotus, along with Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, was one of the three most talented and influential of the medieval schoolmen, and a highly original and creative thinker. This book contains detailed discussion and analysis of Scotus's accounts of the nature of matter; the structure of material substance; mass; the nature of space, time, and motion; quantitative and qualitative change; and the various sorts of unity which can be exhibited by different kinds of whole.

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Rev. John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy

Richard  Cross, D. Phil, University of Oxford

Curriculum Vitae

Richard Cross is John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy. He came to Notre Dame in 2007, having been a Fellow of Oriel College in the University of Oxford from 1993 to 2007. He specializes in medieval philosophy and theology, with a particular focus on Duns Scotus. He also works on philosophy and theology in the Patristic and Reformation periods, about on the history and philosophy of disability.

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Spiritual Perception in Medieval Theology with Richard Cross

Nov 19, 2017

Prof. Richard Cross, John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy, Philosophy Department, University of Notre Dame, discusses Thomas Aquinas' theory of perception in application to the question of the apprehension of God. For more information, see Paul Gavrilyuk & Sarah Coakley, eds, The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

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The Difference Between Lutheran and Reformed Christology

Feb 7, 2018

Dr. Jordan B Cooper

This is a clip from a question and answer podcast I recorded in which a brief explanation of differences between the Christology of the Lutheran and Reformed traditions is explained. The full podcast can be found here below on the next video:

Live Q&A Podcast 8/19/2016

398 views•Aug 19, 2016

Dr. Jordan B Cooper

This is a podcast I recorded live on facebook. I answered listener questions about

a number of different issues, such as the office of the ministry, baptism, and more.

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DISGUSTING Things From My Theology Degree

Jul 15, 2019

Am listening to the Cosmic Skeptic re "Thoughts about Christianity and Jesus from the atheist position." These are the kinds of good questions which Christians must answer. Though I don't deny the observations being made I and others have used other platforms other than the (Reformed) Calvinistic Evangelical approach to God, Jesus, and the bible. I have found (process) Open and Relational Theology quite helpful here when based upon Process Theology. - re slater

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CHRIST AMONG THE DISCIPLINES

CONFERENCE NOTES

 https://www.christamongthedisciplines.com/

by R.E. Slater

November 23, 2020

Please note: I write these notes to myself. They are not intended to be exact transcriptions from the speakers themselves. What I have written are not their words but my own thoughts. - res

Please note: All panelists provided textual statements for comments to attendees. These are not allowed to be publically published as they are intended to form to the moment-in-time not replicable beyond the panel discussions themselves as very specific conversations to one another in the AAR setting

Panelist Bios:

Michelle C. Sanchez is associate professor of theology at Harvard Divinity School where she teaches courses on the Protestant Reformations, Protestant theologies, and critical theories of secularization. Her first book, Calvin and the Resignification of the World: Creation, Incarnation, and the Problem of Political Theology came out in 2019 with Cambridge University Press.

Darren Sumner teaches theology and church history as an Affiliate Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, and is the author of Karl Barth and the Incarnation (T&T Clark, 2014). Darren lives in the Seattle area with his wife and three children.

Darrell Cosden (PhD St Andrews) currently serves as Academic Dean and Sr Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji. In 2018 he was a C. William Pollard Research Fellow at the Center for Integrity in Business, School of Business, Government and Economics at Seattle Pacific University. He is a contributing author to a 2018 SCM Press volume edited by R. Keith Loftin and Trey Dimsdale entitled Work: Theological Foundations and Practical Implications with a chapter entitled “Work and the New Creation.” He is author of two books, A Theology of Work: Work and the New Creation and The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work which was listed among the “Books of the Decade” by The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity. Dr Cosden has served as Professor of Theological Studies at Judson University (USA), Lecturer in Christian Belief and Thought at The International Christian College in Glasgow Scotland, and as Professor and Academic Dean at the Donetsk Christian University in Ukraine.

(Author) Richard Cross: He is a John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, a position he has held since 2007. Between 1993 and 2007 he was fellow in theology at Oriel College in the University of Oxford. He has written extensively on medieval philosophy and theology, with a particular emphasis on Duns Scotus, and on the broader history of Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity.

Observation by Michelle Sanchez

see online statement

Observation by Darren Sumner

see online statement

Observation by Darrell Cosden

see online statement

Response by Richard Cross

see online statement