Bibliographic information:
Theodore Zachariades, “Διπλην Επαγγελιαν in Athanasius’s Christology: A Methodology to Counter Kenotic Notions of the Incarnation” in American Theological Inquiry, vol. 5, no. 1 (January 2012): 55-77.
Description:
Description:
The thesis of this paper is that Athanasius advocates a “double account of the Savior” approach to explaining the Person of Jesus Christ, which may be utilized to offer an alternative Christology to those encountered in Kenotic (Gess, Thomasius, Feenstra, etc.) and Sub-kenotic (Hawthorne, Erickson, etc.) proposals. This specific Christological methodology is bound up in his exegetical procedure, which is grounded in the “Scope of Scripture” as he sees it, and as such serves evangelicals well.
A test case for examining one’s conception of the incarnation is the doctrine of omnipresence in relation to the incarnate Christ. Athanasius affirms the ubiquity of the incarnate Lord as a part of his overall portrait of Jesus Christ. By following the approach of Athanasius, one may legitimately embrace a Christology that discounts all types of kenotic understanding. This procedure will directly challenge views defended in various evangelical Christologies that distinguish between possession and use of the so-called relative attributes of deity, including omnipresence.
A final suggestion that results from this historical consideration is that the “double account” of the person of Christ is necessary to Chalcedonianism, and therefore challenges advocates of Christologies, which desire to remain faithful to the Chalcedonian definition, to abandon kenoticism in all its forms.
Publisher:
American Theological Inquiry (website: http://www.atijournal.org/)