A Christologically Conditioned Theanthropology Revealed at the Cross

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The theology of the cross reveals that God isn’t a philosophical Monad, or some pure being up yonder. The theology of the cross reveals that God in Christ is humble enough to define His being by concretely becoming flesh and blood humanity, such that we might share with Him who He has always already freely chosen to be: God not without us, but with us (Immanuel), in and by the assumed and vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ. And yet, His being, even in His humiliation as a human, becomes the image within which we are created and recreated, just as the Lamb πŸ‘ of God was slain before the foundations of the world. In other words, our humanity, as some sort of abstract entity doesn’t circumscribe His in Christ, but His for us, in the Ξ΅αΌ°ΞΊα½ΌΞ½ τοῦ θΡοῦ (image of God), His humanity circumscribes ours; His humanity is the humanizing humanity whereby a fallen humanity escapes an eternal dissolution into nothingness, and instead realizes what in fact it means to be genuinely human: viz. to live, by grace, in the triune fellowship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3 thoughts on “A Christologically Conditioned Theanthropology Revealed at the Cross”

  1. Hi Bobby, I am not very familiar at all w/ the things you are talking about here. However, I have taken a course with John Behr once. His writing seems quite related to your topics. He might be a great conversation partner.

  2. Hi “K”

    I have listened to many lectures and read books by Behr. Indeed, there is a Patristic (or even “Eastern”) impulse to what I’m getting at here. But mostly what I am doing is echoing Barth and Torrance insofar as they echo someone like Athanasius et al. But yes, perceptive of you! And where did you take this course with Fr Behr?

  3. Well put! (In light of the self-focused glorification of the individual ‘man’ (anthropos) in this present age, and the dearth of materials concerned with accurately conveying a biblically-framed anthropology (circumscribed, as you’ve said, by God’s humanity in Christ), I always welcome that breath of the Spirit’s life and light that shines for us with the glory of the true image we bear.

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