Author: Rev. prof. Ioan G. Coman (Theological Institute of Bucharest)
Keywords: Christology, Redemption, Holy Councils, nature, names, divinity, theosis
Abstract:
The present article represents a consistent contribution in the field of Christology and Patristics. Basically, he writes about the saving work of Christ our God. The core subject is the Incarnation. Interestingly, he begins his study with a focus on The Names of Christ and their Meanings (ch. I), as these names have the ability His identity, His work and the other implications of Incarnation; He continues with several other chapters as: a. The Causes of Incarnation b. The General Christology of the Fathers and Ecumenical Councils (3rd, 4th, and 6th); The Relationship between the Divine and the Human (nature, will, natures of the Christ Hypostasis), c. The Chalcedon Formula and the Sense of Incarnation: A New Creation. Ch. II. Incarnation, Expression of the Divine Love towards Man, who is the Image of God. III. The Consequences of the Incarnation. IV. Nature-Creation – a Universe under the Consequences of Incarnation. 1. The Unity of Nature-Creation or that between the Human and Nature. 2. The Creative Logos and His Energies. 3. The Logos Fullness. V. History along the New Creation. VI. The New Impulse in the Progress of Humanity. VII. The Church and Her Head: Christ. VIII. The Christ of the Holy Fathers and the Contemporary Christianity. What strikes the reader today is the author capacity to make a coherent Christological synthesis. Father Ioan Ghe. Coman was maybe the best Patrologist the Romanian ever had, also the author of a huge treatise of Patrology, which unfortunately he did no manage to finish. Though a little outdated, his article may be considered a small introduction in the field of Christology, or the Fathers’ phronema, that few Christians today can pretend to possess. These somehow old teachings of the Church can offer us a better understanding of what is authority, of what means to decide what is true and what is not. If the anarchy is what dominates the world today is due to a lack of authority on all social fields. There cannot be any “truth”, of any kind, that can pretend authority in some matter if does not have as its philosophy, law or way of life the synergy between divine and human, which proved its first power in Christ, the Son of God.
(Republished from Ortodoxia XVIII (1966), nr. 4, pp. 495-513)
Pages: 27-48