Christology and Related Topics

An Eastern Christian icon depicting Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

Christianity

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Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Crucifixion, representing the death of Jesus on the Cross, painting by Diego Velázquez, c. 1632.

The Law and the Gospel by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1529); Moses and Elijah point the sinner to Jesus for salvation.

The Trinity is the belief that God is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.

Midnight Mass at a Catholic parish church in Woodside, New York City, U.S.

Show on the life of Jesus at Igreja da Cidade in São José dos Campos, affiliated to the Brazilian Baptist Convention.

An early circular ichthys symbol, created by combining the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ into a wheel, Ephesus, Asia Minor.

The Bible is the sacred book in Christianity.

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, the largest church in the world and a symbol of the Catholic Church.

The 7th-century Khor Virap monastery in the shadow of Mount Ararat; Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as the state religion, in AD 301.

The Monastery of St. Matthew, located atop Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq, is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence.

Kadisha Valley, Lebanon, home to some of the earliest Christian monasteries in the world.

Christendom by A.D. 600 after its spread to Africa and Europe from the Middle East.

An example of Byzantine pictorial art, the Deësis mosaic at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, where he preached the First Crusade. Illustration by Jean Colombe from a copy of the Passages d'outremer, c. 1490.

Martin Luther initiated the Reformation with his Ninety-five Theses in 1517.

Michelangelo's 1498–99 Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica; the Catholic Church was among the patronages of the Renaissance.

A depiction of Madonna and Child in a 19th-century Kakure Kirishitan Japanese woodcut.

A Christian procession in Brazil, the country with the largest Catholic population in the world.

Trinity Sunday in Russia; the Russian Orthodox Church has experienced a great revival since the fall of communism.

The global distribution of Christians: Countries colored a darker shade have a higher proportion of Christians.

Pope Francis, the current leader of the Catholic Church.

St. George's Cathedral in Istanbul: It has been the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople whose leader is regarded as the primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, the seat of the Ethiopian Orthodox.

A 6th-century Nestorian church, St. John the Arab, in the Assyrian village of Geramon in Hakkari, southeastern Turkey.

Saint Mary Church; an ancient Assyrian church located in the city of Urmia, Iran.

A 19th-century drawing of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the Aaronic priesthood from John the Baptist. Latter Day Saints believe that the Priesthood ceased to exist after the death of the apostles and therefore needed to be restored.

Unitarian Church of Transylvania in Cluj-Napoca.

A copy of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas, a famous Christian apologetic work.

Christians fleeing their homes in the Ottoman Empire, circa 1922. Many Christians were persecuted and/or killed during the Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, and Assyrian genocide.

Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple; countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink

Nations with Christianity as their state religion are in blue

Links between interdenominational movements and other developments within Protestantism

Historical chart of the main Protestant branches

The Cenacle on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, claimed to be the location of the Last Supper and Pentecost.

A folio from Papyrus 46, an early-3rd-century collection of Pauline epistles

The Church of the East split after the Council of Ephesus (431) and Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon (451) over differences in Christology, while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054), especially over the authority of the bishop of Rome.

Saint George's Cathedral, Istanbul, Turkey

Eastern Orthodox Church

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Second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members.

Christ Pantocrator, sixth century, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai; the oldest known icon of Christ, in one of the oldest monasteries in the world

Emperor Constantine presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and baby Jesus in this church mosaic (Hagia Sophia, c. 1000)

An icon of Saint John the Baptist, 14th century, North Macedonia

Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

Hagia Sophia, the largest church in the world and patriarchal basilica of Constantinople for nearly a thousand years, later converted into a mosque, then a museum, then back to a mosque.

The baptism of Princess Olga in Constantinople, a miniature from the Radzivill Chronicle

Latin Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Orthodox controlled Byzantine Empire, in 1204.

Timeline showing the main autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches, from an Eastern Orthodox point of view, up to 2021

Canonical territories of the main autocephalous and autonomous Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions as of 2020

Percentage distribution of Eastern Orthodox Christians by country

Our Lady of Tinos is the major Marian shrine in Greece.

The Theotokos of Vladimir, one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of the Virgin Mary

Last Judgment: 12th-century Byzantine mosaic from Torcello Cathedral

David glorified by the women of Israel from the Paris Psalter, example of the Macedonian art (Byzantine) (sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance)

Chanters singing on the kliros at the Church of St. George, Patriarchate of Constantinople

An illustration of the traditional interior of an Orthodox church.

Shards of pottery vases on the street, after being thrown from the windows of nearby houses. A Holy Saturday tradition in Corfu.

Eucharistic elements prepared for the Divine Liturgy

The wedding of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Eastern Orthodox subdeacon being ordained to the diaconate. The bishop has placed his omophorion and right hand on the head of the candidate and is reading the Prayer of Cheirotonia.

The consecration of the Rt Rev. Reginald Heber Weller as an Anglican bishop at the Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, with the Rt. Rev. Anthony Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church and Saint Tikhon, then Bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska (along with his chaplains Fr. John Kochurov and Fr. Sebastian Dabovich) of the Russian Orthodox Church present

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 2014

The Constantinople Massacre of April 1821: a religious persecution of the Greek population of Constantinople under the Ottomans. Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople was executed.

The Pan-Orthodox Council, Kolymvari, Crete, Greece, June 2016

Patriarchate of Peć in Kosovo, the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate

Traditional Paschal procession by Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church

Greek Orthodox massacred during the Greek Genocide in Smyrna in 1922.

Before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church of the East also shared in this communion, as did the various Oriental Orthodox Churches before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, all separating primarily over differences in Christology.

Oriental Orthodox Churches

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Distribution of Oriental Orthodox Christians in the world by country:
Main religion (more than 75%)
Main religion (50–75%)
Important minority religion (20–50%)
Important minority religion (5–20%)
Minority religion (1–5%)
Tiny minority religion (below 1%), but has local autocephaly

The Oriental Orthodox Churches are a group of Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with a total of approximately 60 million members worldwide.

Jesus

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Jesus (c.

Counter-clockwise from top-right: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and English transcriptions of the name Jesus

A 3rd-century Greek papyrus of the Gospel of Luke

Adoration of the Shepherds by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

The Circumcision by Giovanni Bellini, ~1500. The work depicts the circumcision of Jesus.

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, by William Holman Hunt, 1860

The Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, 1895

Sermon on the Mount, by Carl Bloch, 1877, depicts Jesus' important discourse

The Exhortation to the Apostles, by James Tissot, portrays Jesus talking to his 12 disciples

Jesus and the rich young man by Heinrich Hofmann, 1889

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Pompeo Batoni depicts the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus told many parables during his ministry.

Jesus cleansing a leper, medieval mosaic from the Monreale Cathedral, late 12th to mid-13th centuries

The Transfiguration of Jesus, depicted by Carl Bloch, 19th century

A painting of Jesus' final entry into Jerusalem, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1897

The Last Supper, depicted by Juan de Juanes, c. 1562

A depiction of the kiss of Judas and arrest of Jesus, by Caravaggio, c. 1602

Ecce homo! Antonio Ciseri's 1871 depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting Jesus to the public

Pietro Perugino's depiction of the Crucifixion as Stabat Mater, 1482

Appearance of Jesus Christ to Maria Magdalena by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, 1835

A 3rd century depiction of Jesus as the Good Shepherd

Judea, Galilee and neighboring areas at the time of Jesus

A 1640 edition of the works of Josephus, a 1st-century Roman-Jewish historian who referred to Jesus.

Baptism in the Jordan River, the river where Jesus was baptized

The Resurrection of Christ from a 16th-century manuscript of La Passion de Nostre Seigneur

The ethnicity of Jesus in art has been influenced by cultural settings.

The Trinity is the belief in Christianity that God is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is depicted with the Alpha and Omega letters in the catacombs of Rome from the 4th century.

The name Jesus son of Mary written in Islamic calligraphy followed by Peace be upon him

The Druze maqam of Al-masih (Jesus) in As-Suwayda Governorate.

Enthroned Jesus image on a Manichaean temple banner from c. 10th-century Qocho

Jesus healing a paralytic in one of the first known images of Jesus from Dura Europos in the 3rd century

The Shroud of Turin, Italy, is the best-known claimed relic of Jesus and one of the most studied artifacts in human history.

Jesus depicted as the liberator of Black slaves, on the masthead of the Abolitionist paper "The Liberator".

Chapters 14–17 of the Gospel of John are known as the Farewell Discourse and are a significant source of Christological content.

Council of Chalcedon

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The fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church.

Spectrum of Christological views in late antiquity

Council of Chalcedon in the Nuremberg Chronicle

Whilst this judgment marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates, it also generated heated disagreements between the Council and the Oriental Orthodox Church, who did not agree with such conduct or proceedings.

Ecumenical council

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Meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote are convoked from the whole world and which secures the approbation of the whole Church.

Disputes over Christological and other questions have led certain branches to reject some councils that others accept.

The incarnation illustrated with scenes from the Old Testaments and the Gospels, with the Trinity in the central column, by Fridolin Leiber, 19th century

Incarnation (Christianity)

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Belief that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , " was made flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos (Greek for "God-bearer").

The "Heavenly Trinity" joined to the "Earthly Trinity" through the incarnation of the Son - The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities, by Murillo, c. 1677

The doctrine of the incarnation, then, entails that Jesus is fully God and fully human.

Catholic Church

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Largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide.

The first use of the term "Catholic Church" (literally meaning "universal church") was by the church father Saint Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans (c. 110 AD). Ignatius of Antioch is also attributed the earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" (Χριστιανισμός) c. 100 AD. He died in Rome, with his relics located in the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano.

This fresco (1481–82) by Pietro Perugino in the Sistine Chapel shows Jesus giving the keys of heaven to Saint Peter.

The Last Supper, a late 1490s mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci, depicting the last supper of Jesus and his twelve apostles on the eve of his crucifixion. Most apostles are buried in Rome, including Saint Peter.

19th-century drawing by Henry William Brewer of Old Saint Peter's Basilica, originally built in 318 by Emperor Constantine

The Renaissance period was a golden age for Catholic art. Pictured: the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted by Michelangelo

Ruins of the Jesuit Reduction at São Miguel das Missões in Brazil

While, since the 1960s, Pope Pius XII has been accused of not having done enough to shelter Jews from the Holocaust, his defenders claim he secretly encouraged individual Catholic resistance groups, such as that led by priest Heinrich Maier. Maier helped the allies fight against the V-2, which was produced by concentration camp prisoners.

Members of the Canadian Royal 22e Regiment in audience with Pope Pius XII, following the Liberation of Rome in 1944 during World War II

Bishops listen during the Second Vatican Council

Pope John Paul II was credited as a major influence to the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism. Here with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, in 1982.

Francis is the 266th and current pope of the Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City. He was elected in the 2013 papal conclave.

C. 1210 manuscript version of the traditional Shield of the Trinity theological diagram

The Blessed Virgin Mary is highly regarded in the Catholic Church, proclaiming her as Mother of God, free from original sin and an intercessor.

Mass at the Grotto at Lourdes, France. The chalice is displayed to the people immediately after the consecration of the wine.

Baptism of Augustine of Hippo as represented in a sculptural group in Troyes Cathedral (1549), France

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the Eucharist at the canonisation of Frei Galvão in São Paulo, Brazil on 11 May 2007

A Catholic believer prays in a church in Mexico

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece triptych painting of Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick) with oil being administered by a priest during last rites. Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1445.

Priests lay their hands on the ordinands during the rite of ordination.

Catholic religious objects – Holy Bible, crucifix and rosary

East Syrian Rite wedding crowning celebrated by a bishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India, one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the pope and the Catholic Church.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta advocated for the sick, the poor and the needy by practicing the acts of corporal works of mercy.

Pope Paul VI issued Humanae vitae on 25 July 1968.

Before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church of the East also shared in this communion, as did the Oriental Orthodox Churches before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451; all separated primarily over differences in Christology.

Nestorian priests in a procession on Palm Sunday, in a seventh- or eighth-century wall painting from a Nestorian church in Qocho, China

Nestorianism

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Term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings.

Christological spectrum during the 5th–7th centuries showing the views of the Church of the East (light blue), the Chalcedonian Churches (light purple), and the Miaphysite Churches (pink).

An historical misinterpretation of the Nestorian view was that it taught that the human and divine persons of Christ are separate.

Chinese stone inscription of a Nestorian Cross from a monastery of Fangshan District in Beijing (then called Dadu, or Khanbaliq), dated to the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271–1368) of medieval China.

Epitaph of a Nestorian, unearthed at Chifeng, Inner Mongolia

Saint Mary Church: an ancient Assyrian church located in the city of Urmia, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran.

c. undefined 450), who promoted specific doctrines in the fields of Christology and Mariology.

Miaphysitism

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Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine upheld by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which include the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church.

A report on Christology

70 related topics with Alpha

Christianity

Eastern Orthodox Church

Oriental Orthodox Churches

Jesus

Council of Chalcedon

Ecumenical council

Incarnation (Christianity)

Catholic Church

Nestorianism

Miaphysitism