Instruction
PROMPT: Imagine you are talking to a friend and trying to explain the Chalcedonian definition (see below). Explain what it means using common words (i.e. without using words like "hypostatic union" or "communication of the attributes"). Use analogies, metaphors or examples as well as drawing directly from Johnson's chapter (reader) to construct a translation. Evaluate briefly (2 sentences) how this definition informs your understanding of the person of Christ. What questions remain?
JOHNSON: Johnson, Elizabeth. “The Humanity of Jesus.” Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1990. (USE THIS)
Chalcedonian Definition: In agreement, then, with the holy fathers, we all unanimously teach that we should confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same Son, the same perfect in Godhead and the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, the same of a rational soul and body, consubstantial with the Father in Godhead, and the same consubstantial with us in manhood, like us in all things except sin; begotten from the Father before the ages as regards His Godhead, and in the last days, the same, because of us and because of our salvation begotten from the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, as regards His manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, made known in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the difference of the natures being by no means removed because of the union, but the property of each nature being preserved and coalescing in one prosopon and one hypostasis — not parted or divided into two prosopa, but one and the same God, only- begotten, divine Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets of old and Jesus Christ Himself have taught us about Him and the creed of our fathers has handed down.