Apostle Creed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Apostle Creed - Essay Example This essay shall list the doctrines contained in the Apostles' Creed, following from which it will discuss both Christology and Soteriology. The determination of the doctrines contained within the Apostles' Creed is dependant upon the prior identification of the Articles contained within it. These articles, totaling twelve, are clearly enumerated prior to each declaration of belief, faith, expressed in the creed: 1. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. 2. And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, 3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, 5. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead, 6. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; 7. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 8. I believe in the Holy Ghost, 9. The Holy Catholic Church; the Communion of saints; 10. The Forgiveness of sins; 11. The Resurrection of the body, 12. And the Life Everlasting. As directly derived from the above quoted articles of the Apostles' Creed, are the Christian doctrines of Theology, Cosmology, Pneumatology Part I, Soteriology Part I, Soteriology Part II, Christ's Physical Resurrection, Eschtatology Part I, the Sovereignty of God, Pneumatology Part I, Ecclesiastology Part I and Ecclesiastology Part I. The ordering of these twelve doctrines corresponds with the ordering of the twelve articles. Christology, of course, is a definitive outcome of the Creed but its complexity is such that it cannot be related to any one single article. As a theological doctrine or area of study within Christianity, Christology is both complex and uniquely important. Concerned with the nature of Jesus, the Christ, Christology is intimately related to articles two and three of the Creed of the Apostles and, to the extent that it may be identified as seminal to the Christian faith, to the entirety of the mentioned creed. The question which Christology simultaneously raises and responds to concerns the nature of Christ and, more specifically, the manner in which the divine and the human can be contained within his person and the way in which these two natures interrelate with one another. Indeed, the interrelationship between the divine and the human in the person of Christ is the primary concern of Christology and given the vastness and complexity of this concern, one notes that its subtopics embrace essential Christian doctrine such as Incarnation, Resurrection and Soteriology, or the salvic work of Jesus the Christ. In other words, Christology may very well be identified as the starting point for both the acceptance and understanding of the Christian theology insofar as its acceptance and understanding signifies the embrace of essential Christian doctrines. As may have been deduced from the preceding, Christology is immediately concerned with questions such as the Trinity, Unitarianism and Binitarianism; that is, questions which relate to the nature of God. Within a Christian theological context, the named doctrine is not simply concerned with the manner in which divine entities interact one with the other, but how the divine and the human can co-exist within the person of Jesus and how they interact with one another within that same person. The importance of Christology derives