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Q: Can you help me with this question? "Discuss the growth in awareness that Jesus was God, either in himself or in the thinking of the early Church."
~ Stephanie
Dear Stephanie:
The first part of your question about Christ's "growth in awareness" touches on the Christian belief that Jesus had two natures, a human nature and a divine nature, and therefore also had two intellects. Over the centuries, many great religious thinkers have tried to grasp the mystery of Christ's divine intellect, which had to be omniscient, and its relationship to his fully human intellect, which acquired knowledge through learning and experience, as suggested in the line from Sacred Scripture: "And so Jesus advanced in wisdom with the years..." (Luke 2:52).
In our limited space here, however, we will deal mainly with the clear evidence of Jesus Christ's self-recognition as the Son of God, rather than probe its supposed "growth", except to observe that by the union of his human intellect "to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal." (Catechism: 474). Later, we will take a brief look at "the thinking of the early Church" on the divinity of Christ.
Christ's self-recognition as the Son of God, and awareness of his divine mission , is quite evident from Sacred Scripture. At twelve years old, after being lost for three days and then found sitting among the doctors in the temple, Jesus tells his anxious mother "Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father's affairs?" (Luke 2: 49-50). Later, as a grown man, he comes to the temple again and is questioned by the Pharisees. "Where is this Father of thine?" they ask (John: 8:19), and again, "Who art thou, then?" (John 8: 25), and finally, "Art thou greater than our Father Abraham?" (John 8: 53). Jesus answers: "Before Abraham came to be, I am." (John 8: 58-59) Later again, in reply to the Apostle Philip's request, "Lord, let us see the Father," (John 14:8), Jesus replies: " Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father." (John 14:9)
We can tell from the reaction of the crowds that the people of the time understood exactly what Jesus was saying. " It is because thou, who art a man, dost pretend to be God," they tell him (John10: 33-34), as they threaten to stone him in response to his statement: "My Father and I are one" (John 10:30), just as the Pharisees did when he told them that he pre-existed Abraham. After reading from Isaiah in the synagogue of his home town of Nazareth and declaring: "This scripture which I have read in your hearing is today fulfilled" (Luke 4: 21-22), Jesus is forced to slip away from an angry crowd intent on throwing him from a cliff on the outskirts of the city. Finally, when Jesus was asked by the high priest, "Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed God?" and he replied, "I am," it was then that "they all pronounced against him a sentence of death." (Mark 14: 61-64) From this small sampling of evidence, we can clearly see that Jesus Christ was fully conscious of his divinity; that he recognized himself to be, and openly declared himself to be, the Son of God.
As you may have already discovered, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent source of information on Christ's divinity and on the wonderful mystery of the Incarnation (See especially 430-483). There we learn how, from apostolic times, the Church "has insisted on the true incarnation of God's Son come in the flesh" (Catechism : 465). One of the earliest acknowledgements of Christ's divinity comes from St. Peter himself, our first Pope. When Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say I am?", Peter replied: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus then confirms his divine sonship by telling Peter: "Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jona; it is not flesh and blood, it is my Father in heaven that has revealed this to thee." (Matthew 16: 15-18)
Although the title "Son of God" has roots in the Old Testament, where it was sometimes used as a title for the angels, or even for the Israelites themselves (Catechism: 441), Jesus' response to Peter leaves no doubt that Peter's "Son of the living God" is a declaration of Christ's divinity. This sense of Christ as not simply one of many adopted sons, but as the Father's only-begotten Son in eternity, permeates the work of the sacred writers. We learn in Luke, for example, how Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and was to be known as the "Son of the Most High" (Luke 1: 32); we learn in Mark, the earliest of the gospels, how at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan the heavens opened and a voice declared: "You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased." (Mark 1: 10-12); and we learn in John, how "the Word was made flesh, and came to dwell among us; and we had sight of his glory, glory such as belongs to the Father's only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth." (John 1: 14)
In the early days of the Church, then, there was a basic understanding among believers about the "unique and eternal relationship of Jesus Christ to God his Father." (Catechism: 454). The first controversies regarding the nature and person of Christ came at the end of the1st century, mainly in the Eastern Churches, and arose, not from those who questioned Christ's divinity, but from a group known as the Docetists, who instead denied the reality of Jesus' humanity, regarding his body as a mere appearance. The Docetist heresy was counteracted by the writings of the great Bishop of Antioch, St.Ignatius, who wrote letters to the various churches emphasizing Christ's divinity. "For our God, Jesus Christ, " he wrote, "was conceived by Mary in accord with God's plan: of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit." ( Letters: A.D. 110) The 2nd century also saw the rise of another heresy known as Gnosticism, some of whose adherents also denied Christ's humanity, regarding him as an 'aeon', a sort of particle of the Supreme Being. Again, it was a great ecclesiastical writer, St.Irenaeus of Lyons, who successfully defended Church doctrine against such heretical teachings.
Perhaps one of the most serious challenges to the apostolic teachings came from Arianism, which arose at the beginning of the 3rd century, and concerned the relationship of Jesus to God the Father. Simply put, Arians essentially denied the divinity of Jesus by insisting that he did not exist until he was created, and that as a creature he was subject to change and to sin. After a sometimes bitter struggle, the heresy was held in check, if not completely eradicated - remnants of it were still found into the 7th century - by the Council of Nicaea in 325, which issued the Nicene Creed we still use today in the liturgy. Like all creeds, the Nicene Creed is a formal and official statement of Church doctrine, and seeks to define for all believers the essential unity of the Father and the Son, as seen in the following excerpt taken from the original translation:
"We believe in... One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten as the only-begotten of the Father, that is, from the essence of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, consubstantial with the Father, through Whom (that is, the Son) all things were made, both in heaven and earth."
The disputes over the relationship of the Father to the Son are sometimes known as the "theological controversies". There was also a second series of disputes which arose later over Christ's nature and person, referred to as the "Christological controversies". Today as Catholics we believe Christ to be one person with two natures, a human nature and a divine nature, and that he possessed two wills, human and divine, the one in perfect accord with the other. From the 5th to the 7th century there arose three groups of heretics who challenged this teaching: the Nestorians, the 'two-person' heretics; the Monophysites, the 'one-nature' heretics; and the Monothelites, the 'one-will' heretics. Three Ecumenical Councils were summoned to deal with these errors: Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451) and Constantinople III (680-681). While the Councils were generally successful, certain groups, such as the Copts in Egypt, refused to accept some Council decisions and moved into schism with the Catholic Church, even until the present day.
In summary, belief in the divinity of Christ was present from apostolic times. Although supported by the evidence of Sacred Scripture, this central dogma of the Christian faith had to be defended against false teachings for several centuries. This defence was successfully accomplished through the writings of the Church Fathers, by the decrees of Church Councils, through the declarations of rules of faith, or Creeds, and most of all, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God bless,
Father Norbert