Adoptionism

Adoptionism is a minority Christian belief that Jesus was born merely human and that he became divine—adopted as God's son—later in his life. By these accounts, Jesus earned the title Christ through his sinless devotion to the will of God, rather than be his pre-existent status as the eternally begotten Son of God.

Adoptionists typically portray either Jesus' baptism or his resurrection, or both, as the key moment(s) in the process of his divinization. Adoptionism arose among early Christians seeking to reconcile the claims that Jesus was the Son of God with the radical monotheism of Judaism, in which the concept of a trinity of divine persons in one Godhead was unacceptable. Adoptionism was common before it was first declared heresy at the end of the second century, and persisted for several more centuries.

Some scholars see adoptionist concepts for example in the Gospel of Mark and in the Epistle to the Hebrews 1:5 ("Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," see also Acts 13:33). Adoptionism, however, contradicts the identification of Jesus as the divine Logos, as put forth in the Gospel of John (1:1).

Adoptionism was condemned by the church as heresy at various times, most explicitly at the First Council of Nicaea, which set for the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and identifies Jesus as eternally God.

Adoptionism and Christology

Adoptionism is one of two main forms of the doctrine which has come to be known as monarchianism, the other is modalism, which regards "Father" and "Son" as two aspects or modes of the same Being. Adoptionism, also known as dynamic monarchianism, denies the pre-existence of Jesus as the Christm although it does not necessarily deny his ultimate divinity. In adoptionism Jesus became divine at some point during his earthly life.

Adoptionism was one position in a long series of Christian disagreements about the precise nature of Christ, a subject known in theology as Christology. In the developing dogma of the Trinity, adoptionism represented an attempt to explain the relationship between Jesus of Nazareth, and God the Father, while maintaining Christianity's monotheism.

History of adoptionism

In The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture Bart D. Ehrman argues that the adoptionist view may date back almost to the time of Jesus and this view is shared by many other scholars. In academic circles some consider both Paul the Apostle and the Gospel of Mark to have adoptionist Christologies, although they differ in that Paul is generally said to have placed the adoption at the Resurrection while Mark places it at Jesus' Baptism (orthodox Christianity would accept neither of these interpretations as accurate). In the 2nd century, adoptionism was one of two competing doctrines about the nature of Jesus Christ, the other (as in the Gospel of John) being that he pre-existed as a divine spirit (Logos).

Historically, there were three waves of Adoptionist speculation if we exclude the hypothetical beliefs of the primitive church that cannot be determined with certainty. The first, which dates from the 2nd century, differs significantly from the subsequent two (dating respectively from the 8th and the 12th century), which follow the definition of the dogma of the Trinity and Chalcedonian Christology.

Second century: pre-Nicene Christology

The first known exponent of Adoptionism in the second century is Theodotus of Byzantium. He taught that Jesus was a man born of a virgin according to the counsel of the Father, that He lived like other men, and was most pious; that at His baptism in the Jordan the Christ came down upon Him in the likeness of a dove, and therefore wonders (dynameis) were not wrought in Him until the Spirit (which Theodotus called Christ) came down and was manifested in Him. The belief was declared heretical by Pope Victor I.

The second-century work Shepherd of Hermas also taught that Jesus was a virtuous man filled with the Holy Spirit and adopted as the Son. While Shepherd of Hermas was popular and sometimes bound with the canonical scriptures, it never achieved canonical status.

In the 3rd century, Paul of Samosata, Patriarch of Antioch, promoted adoptionism. He said Jesus had been a man who kept himself sinless and achieved union with God. His views, however, did not neatly fit in either of the two main forms of Monarchianism.^{[citation needed]}

Eight century: Hispanicus error

The second movement of adoptionism, called Hispanicus error, in the late 8th century maintained by Elipandus, bishop of Toledo in the Caliphate of Cordoba and by Felix, bishop of Urgell in the foothills of the Pyrenees; Alcuin, the leading intellect at the court of Charlemagne was called in to write refutations against both of the bishops. Against Felix he wrote:

"As the Nestorian impiety divided Christ into two persons because of the two natures, so your unlearned temerity divided Him into two sons, one natural and one adoptive"

Beatus of Liébana, from the Kingdom of Asturias, also fought Adoptionism, which was a cause of controversy between Christians under Muslim rule in the former Visigothic capital of Toledo and the peripherical kingdom. The doctrine was condemned as heresy by the Council of Frankfurt (794).

12th century and later: neo-adoptionism

A third wave was the revived form ("Neo-Adoptionism") of Abelard in the 12th century. Later, various modified and qualified Adoptionist tenets of some theologians from the 14th century. Duns Scotus (1300) and Durandus of Saint-Pourçain (1320) admit the term Filius adoptivus in a qualified sense. In more recent times the Jesuit Gabriel Vasquez, and the Lutheran divines Georgius Calixtus and Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch, have defended the Adoptionists as essentially orthodox.

See also

• Adoptivi
• Arianism
• Binitarianism

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume IV, 1882. OCLC 4306917

External links

All Links Retrieved November 7, 2007.

• Adoptionism in Catholic Encyclopedia www.newadvent.org.
• Adoptionism in Christian Cyclopedia www.lcms.org.
• Chapter XI. Doctrinal Controversies www.ccel.org.
• Christ Apostolic Temple, Inc. Fellowship (CATIF) www.christapostolictemple.org.

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