God-man refers to the divine Incarnation as described within various religious faiths including early Roman Catholicism and Christian mysticism. The Incarnation is the belief in Christianity that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel in the flesh Christian Mysticism is traditionally practised through the disciplines of Prayer (including oratio meditation and Contemplation
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Origins
The first usage of the term God-man as a theological concept appears in the writing of the Christian Apostolic Father Origen in the 3rd century A. Origen ( Greek: Ōrigénēs, or Origen Adamantius, ca 185–ca D. : [1]
- "This substance of a soul, then, being intermediate between God and the flesh -- it being impossible for the nature of God to intermingle with a body without an intermediate instrument -- the God-man is born. " [2]
Much is also written of the God-man by the medieval philosopher and theologian Anselm of Canterbury (11th century) in his treatise on the atonement, Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man):
- "If it be necessary, therefore, as it appears, that the heavenly kingdom be made up of men, and this cannot be effected unless the aforesaid satisfaction be made, which none but God can make and none but man ought to make, it is necessary for the God-man to make it. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033 &ndash April 21, 1109) was an Italian medieval Philosopher, theologian, and church official " [3]
- "Therefore the God-man, whom we require to be of a nature both human and Divine, cannot be produced by a change from one into the other, nor by an imperfect commingling of both in a third; since these things cannot be, or, if they could be, would avail nothing to our purpose. Moreover, if these two complete natures are said to be joined somehow, in such a way that one may be Divine while the other is human, and yet that which is God not be the same with that which is man, it is impossible for both to do the work necessary to be accomplished. For God will not do it, because he has no debt to pay; and man will not do it, because he cannot. Therefore, in order that the God-man may perform this, it is necessary that the same being should perfect God and perfect man, in order to make this atonement. For he cannot and ought not to do it, unless he be very God and very man. Since, then, it is necessary that the God-man preserve the completeness of each nature, it is no less necessary that these two natures be united entire in one person, just as a body and a reasonable soul exist together in every human being; for otherwise it is impossible that the same being should be very God and very man. " [4]
The word is also found in religious poetry and essays of the Romantic era. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the An example can be found in the poetry of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
- "The God-man closeth Hell's sad doors, In all His majesty He soars. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer " [5]
Analogous concepts
Hindu and Sufi
According to Indian religious author Meher Baba, the term "God-man" is the closest western equivalent to the eastern concepts of Rasool (Sufi), or Avatar (Vedanta). Meher Baba ( Devanāgarī: मेहेर बाबा) (February 25 1894 Merwan Sheriar Irani – January 31 1969 was an Indian mystic and spiritual In Islam, a rasul ( Arabic: رسول, "messenger" plural rusul) is a Prophet sent by God with a Sufism ( تصوّف - taṣawwuf, Persian: صوفیگری sufigari, Turkish: tasavvuf, Urdu: تصوف Avatar or Avatara (अवतार IAST Avatāra) is often inaccurately translated into English as incarnation Vedanta ( Devanagari: sa वेदान्त Vedānta) is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the Self-realisation [6]
- ". . . the avatar is that highest status of God where God directly becomes man and lives on Earth as God-man. " [7]
Hebrew
Under certain Christian interpretations, the term "messiah" could be viewed as analogous to the concept of the God-man. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth This article is about the concept of a Messiah in religion notably in the Christian Islamic and Jewish traditions However, this is not the accepted view of this Hebrew term within contemporary Judaism. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut
See also
References
- ^ Baldwin, James, Dictionary Of Philosophy And Psychology, 1901. The Incarnation is the belief in Christianity that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel in the flesh Immanence, derived from the Latin in manere "to remain within" refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of the divine as existing and acting within the mind
- ^ Origen, De Principiis, Book II, Chapter VI. On the Incarnation of the Christ, 203-250 A. D.
- ^ Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo, Chapter VI
- ^ Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo, Chapter VII
- ^ Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Thoughts On Jesus Christ's Descent into Hell, 1765.
- ^ Meher Baba, God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose, Dodd Meade, 1955. 2nd Ed. p. 305
- ^ Meher Baba, God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose, Dodd Meade, 1955. 2nd Ed. p. 160
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