(49) Christians, he argues, accept too many doctrines that are contrary to nature and reason, such as the Trinity, Christ's
hypostatic union, the Eucharist, and the Resurrection.
I'd be in the club-and I'd be doing my theology paper about the
hypostatic union of Christ.
The hylomorphism of Aristotelian natural philosophy, for example, was adopted by the medieval theologians to help them explore the nature of the sacraments and the
hypostatic union. This did not mean that the Church adjudicated the truth or falsity of the Aristotelian insight, since that is not her concern.
The Unity of Christ is a historical-theological study of Patristic Christology, which focuses on how the early church Fathers established an authoritative theological tradition, particularly in light of the difficulties and controversies around the
hypostatic union of humanity and divinity in Jesus Christ.
Multiple missions of the Spirit are less an issue, because the terrestrial mission does not involve the temporal effect of
hypostatic union and so can more easily be understood to occur in multiple modes.
Other themes follow the traditional Orthodox theological perspective, as, for example, trinitarian theology, human beings created in God's image and likeness or the Chalcedonian dogma about
hypostatic union. The Holy Trinity is the starting point for anthropology as the basis of equality of people and genders.
The topics include the Dutch origins of Van Til's appraisal, Barth on the
hypostatic union, the problems of universalism, and an engagement between Bath and radical orthodoxy.
"Christ is to be adored by angels and men, but that to him as man angels and men are subject, and must recognize his empire; by reason of the
hypostatic union Christ has power over all creatures.
Littlejohn argues that "the theological agenda which de Lubac advanced resonated deeply with that of Mercersburg." Common elements included: "a decisive turn back to patristic sources, an emphasis on the inherently social character of the Church, as opposed to the modern conception which sees it as a mere collection of individuals, a call to hold visible and invisible together as two aspects of a single church, with an appeal to the
hypostatic union as the foundation of this unity, a focus on the Eucharist as that which constitutes the Church, and an attempt to describe the Church as a supernatural body that fulfills nature, rather than a supernature alongside or against nature" (148-49).
Let's let our tongues roll over terms like
hypostatic union, homoousious, and heresy.