Discuss about the Christological Focus of Christian Identity.
Christological focus is the study of Christian divinity and it is mainly concerned about the ontology of the Jesus. These things are recorded in the Canonical Gospel, which is known as the trinity of Christianity, and in the epistles of New Testament, which was written after the Old Testament[1]. The prime consideration in the ontology of Jesus includes his relationship with the God the father, details of his ministry, his teachings and actions, his role in salvation and his persona as a person[2]. Paul’s Corinthian plays an important role in this scenario as his central theme included the presence of Christ and his worship as Lord. The foremost contribution made by the apostolic age is the contribution of Paul. According to this, Jesus is referred as Pre-existed lord[3].
The scripts of Paul identify Jesus with the word Lord almost 230 times and expresses that a true Christian will always confess Jesus as the true lord. Furthermore, the identity of Christian is determined with complete surrender to the God or the pre-existing Lord. This Apostle Paul’s Doctrine of union with God is very central to the identity of Christians and upon understanding; it provides proper framework for the pastoral ministry[4]. This essay is going to describe the theological formation of Christian identity with reference to its worship, ministry, community and mission. After that, it will discuss the use of Corinthian correspondence in Christian identity and testimony. Later the essay will discuss the epistemological and hermeneutical issue arising in the interface between Paul’s Corinthian writings and Christian identity.
To understand the identity of Christianity through the lens of theological understanding has a far-reaching implication for the Christian living. It needs proper and complete determination to God, however, the modern churches are only eager to produce ‘instant Christians’[5]. The Paul’s Doctrines are the scriptures of Christianity and the entire Christianity depends on these scriptures heavily as according to many, it is first one of the Christian trinity and the teachings of Jesus has been mentioned in the Pauline Christianity. The concepts of salvation and resurrection was understood by the Paul correctly which is reflected in his writings.
Modern Christian worships, culture, mission and ministry are completely inspired with the Pauline Christianity and the effects are visible evidently. The theological formation of Christian identity is implied by several factors that prove that Christianity is not something, which can be acquired by birth; it can only be acquired through devotion, compassion and love towards the humankind[6]. Christian identity surpasses all natural bonds. The identity of a Christian is not determined by his cast creed, Jewish or Greek origin, gender or state, but the relation of the individual with the church defines it with incorporation of baptism (Gal 3:28). As Jesus said that if someone is worshiping Jesus alone without his brother, sister, wife, father or mother then he cannot be the descendants of Jesus. In Christian identity, people cannot think always about their family or their rights, they have to think about the humankind first, then their church community, their family and finally for themselves[7]. Hence, the Christian identity is much bigger than that of the individual identity in Christianity. People still follow these sayings of Jesus and their worship skills define that. The cultural influence of Christian identity is evident through their believe in the love of God. The concept of love of God mentioned in the new testament of the Bible and it states that love of God is the ultimate form of the compassion for humankind. People love their family, friends, relatives and other is a limited form of love. This love is not described as the love for god. Patriotism, Filial piety, ethnic pride is different aspects of the human identity and these factors of human aspects need to be comprehended with the love of god. This describes the Christian culture as mentioned by the Jesus in the Bible[8].
Mission and Ministry are different aspects of Christian identity related to the church. According to the writings of Paul, the mission and ministry are the ways to spread the statements of Jesus throughout the world. the Jesus accepted death to remove all the sorrow, and evil of the humankind and demonstrated that each person living on the earth are his descendants and therefore, to make every ethnic background his disciples, the mission and ministry of Jesus was created. The earthy ministry of the God is continued through the missionaries. God wanted to bring every person on the earth closer to him and therefore he send Jesus Christ to send people to the church, which the ministry of god. This ministry has been mentioned in the Pauline Christianity and states that the God loves the way people worship him with unity and shows love towards one another[9]. Furthermore, Ministry also decided about the environment of church and describes that the environment should be spiritual edification and in this environment, the disciples are taught, believers are grounded and taught about the Christian practices (Rom. 12:6, 1 Cor. 12:14-31).
The Corinthian correspondence of Paul’s study is one of the important parts of the new testament of the bible and deals with several central issues, which is related to the Christian identity and Christian faith. Therefore, these facts can help to understand the theological and practical aspects of Christian identity[10]. Corinth was one of the prosperous and major cities back in ancient world and therefore, Paul decided to stay here for 18 months, when he was on his missionary mission and was spreading the sayings of Jesus in the entire world. However, the visit did not go well and circumstances made that painful. Finally, Paul decided to write a painful letter, instead of visiting the place once again. The letter is called as the painful letter where he describes that the Corinth was a place where no one was following rules or looking after each other. This painful ministry has been mentioned in the Pauline Corinthian as Corinthian correspondence[11]. Paul wrote the problems of the churches and their solution through the statements of the Christian Gospel in the Corinthian 1 and in the second part of it, he mentioned about the nature of Paul’s new agreement ministry and the grace of giving. These statements affect the Christian identity drastically. From these learning’s, it was understood that the ritual is critical for the formation of Christian identity. The people at Corinth were not sure about what they are and from where they belong. The tradition of worship is very important according to the Corinthian correspondence. This sorrowful writings and letter of Paul provide the people of Corinth with an opportunity to boast against those who boast again in the shallow features of persona[12]. In the scriptures, Paul describes two resources by referring to the death and the glory of the ministry of the God. The importance of this correspondence is its effect on the mindset of the people of Corinth at that time. Due to the Painful letter, people of Corinth started taking minimal step towards the formation of newer ministry in their churches and changed the way they used to worship Jesus. This way the correspondence of the Corinthian helped the people of Corinth to turn from the Pagan to the full-fledged believer of the God.
Epistemological or philosophical issues related to the writings of Paul have been written in languages, which is difficult to understand. This is of very importance, as the task, which has been done by Paul, was very difficult. Greeks had their own literature, way of living, philosophy, tradition, opinion and the Gods. The places Paul visited during his first Corinthian were Rome, Greece, Corinth, Galatia and the people over here were Pagan and not believer to the philosophy of God[13]. Paul helped them to understand the real view and forced them to change the ministry of churches so that they can come closer to the Jesus. For instance, the Greek people believed in death and believed in reincarnation, however, Paul influences them to think appropriately to death as Gain and life as Jesus. The hermeneutical thought of the Paul’s writing or the inner meaning of his scriptures that helped to change the mindset of the Greeks are-
Actual wisdom is cross-centered. The wisdom is versed five times in the first three verses. The view of wisdom has to be clear to be wise and practice if for the entire life. This wisdom is not related to the humankind; however, it is the wisdom that has been spread by the God himself. The God spread this wisdom[14]. Love of the God was focused in this scriptures and Paul believed that this eternal love stays despite of all the odds happened against the humankind. Further, the writings of Paul demonstrate the wisdom of God as eternal, beneficial, Supernatural, spirit directed and eternal. Paul’s epistemology of Christianity and his conflict with the Jerusalem is not much known, however according to the scriptures, Paul never materialized the facts and messages of God to influence people. The modern day Christian identity, their beliefs, their worship pattern and their socializing rituals are the examples of the part of Paul’s writing and scriptures. The concept of Love of God due to which, they worship God in a unity, socialite to spread their love to the humankind and think about others before themselves define their hermeneutical view of life and Jesus. Paul’s articulate of kerygmatic epistemology matches with the Gospel and the acts that define the source of Jesus ministry and proclamation to the Holy Spirit. Post resurrection appearances of Jesus and its linkage to the community have been mentioned in the New Testament writings[15]. On the other hand. Christian philosophy got inspired from that of the Greek philosophy and the words Paul used in his scriptures cannot be overlooked. These words helped him to spread the talking of God to convert in the Greek speaking gentile words. These words are difficult to understand in the modern world as the present Christian world has become instant Christian and has detached itself completely from the world of Paul and his wisdom. However, the philosophy is still a way to help the dilemma of humankind and affects them positively. This way the epistemological view and hermeneutical view of Paul’s Corinthian and the Christian identity is linked[16].
In the conclusion, it can be said that in the dominant interpretation of Antioch incident Paul’s Christianity has been mentioned as different from that of the peter and Jewish Christianity. The prime source for this development was the New Testament that acts as the foundation of the Christian writing. The Christological Issues that affected the Christianity were Person of Christ, Nativity and the holy name, resurrection and crucifixion and others. In these scriptures, the relationship of God and his son Jesus has been mentioned with the origin of Christianity and its consequent evolution over the centuries. This study had explored the Christian identity and its evolution in correspondence with the ancient ontological evidence available on Jesus Christ, his worship and the beginning of Christianity. The approach of Paul Corinthian to Christianity had been the most popular school of thoughts as it reflects the essence of Christian identity wonderfully. The Pauline school of thought has described Christianity by a religious belief that is not acquired by blood or fate, according to his ideology of Christianity, a Christian identity is incomplete without true spiritual connection with Lord Jesus and his doctrines. In addition, a true connection with lord himself and his believes can only be acquired through complete surrender and devotion. However, as the centuries passed the meaning identity has contorted drastically and has morphed into an extended orthodox community of instant Christians. An in this path of evolution the true essence of Christianity characterized by love and kindness has been compromised somewhere along the only. The only hope for restoring the rightful path for Christianity can only be facilitated though reviving the core believes of Christianity, love, mercy and kindness, so that it can replace the hatred, greed and animosity that rules the mankind in the current time and age.
References
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Anderson, Paul N., Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher, eds. John, Jesus, and History, Volume 2: Aspects of Historicity in the Fourth Gospel. Vol. 2. Society of Biblical Literature, 2015.
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Schreiter, Robert J. Reconciliation: mission and ministry in a changing social order. Orbis Books, 2015.
Gardner, Paul Douglas. The Gifts of God and the Authentication of a Christian: An Exegetical Study of 1 Corinthians 8-11: 1. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017.
Doty, William G. Letters in primitive Christianity. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014.
Duff, Paul B. Moses in Corinth: the apologetic context of 2 Corinthians 3. Brill, 2015.
Chung, Paul S. Hermeneutical Theology and the Imperative of Public Ethics: Confessing Christ in Post-Colonial World Christianity. Vol. 2. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013.
Petersen, Paul, and Ross Cole, eds. Hermeneutics, Intertextuality and the Contemporary Meaning of Scripture. Vol. 1. ATF Press, 2013.
Moser, Paul K. “New Testament Apologetics, Arguments, and the End of Christian Apologetics as We Know It.”.” Philosophia Christi2 (2015).
De Wet, Chris L. “Paul and Christian Identity-Formation in John Chrysostom’s Homilies De Laudibus Sancti Pauli Apostoli.” Journal of Early Christian History2 (2013): 34-46.
D’Costa, Gavin, and Ross Thompson, eds. Buddhist-Christian dual belonging: affirmations, objections, explorations. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
Han, Kyongkuk. An Investigation of the Potential of Traditional Korean Narrative as a Model of Contextual Preaching for the Korean Protestant Church. Diss. 2014.
Henry, John Paul. “Can a narrative approach to Paul’s epistles help to enrich scriptural engagement in contemporary ecclesial settings?.” (2015).
Kirk, JR Daniel. Jesus Have I Loved, But Paul?: A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline Christianity. Baker Academic, 2012.
Baker, Coleman A. “Social identity theory and biblical interpretation.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 42.3 (2012): 129-138. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146107912452244
Anderson, Paul N., Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher, eds. John, Jesus, and History, Volume 2: Aspects of Historicity in the Fourth Gospel. Vol. 2. Society of Biblical Literature, 2015.
Klink III, Edward W., and Darian R. Lockett. Understanding biblical theology: A comparison of theory and practice. Zondervan, 2012.
McGrath, Alister E. Christian theology: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
Doohan, Helen. Paul’s Vision of Church. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2016.
Banks, Robert J., Bernice M. Ledbetter, and David C. Greenhalgh. Reviewing Leadership (Engaging Culture): A Christian Evaluation of Current Approaches. Baker Academic, 2016.
Schreiter, Robert J. Reconciliation: mission and ministry in a changing social order. Orbis Books, 2015.
Gardner, Paul Douglas. The Gifts of God and the Authentication of a Christian: An Exegetical Study of 1 Corinthians 8-11: 1. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017.
Doty, William G. Letters in primitive Christianity. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014.
Duff, Paul B. Moses in Corinth: the apologetic context of 2 Corinthians 3. Brill, 2015.
Chung, Paul S. Hermeneutical Theology and the Imperative of Public Ethics: Confessing Christ in Post-Colonial World Christianity. Vol. 2. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013.
Petersen, Paul, and Ross Cole, eds. Hermeneutics, Intertextuality and the Contemporary Meaning of Scripture. Vol. 1. ATF Press, 2013.
Moser, Paul K. “New Testament Apologetics, Arguments, and the End of Christian Apologetics as We Know It.”.” Philosophia Christi17.2 (2015)
De Wet, Chris L. “Paul and Christian Identity-Formation in John Chrysostom’s Homilies De Laudibus Sancti Pauli Apostoli.” Journal of Early Christian History 3.2 (2013): 34-46.
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