Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: chl@cs.man.ac.uk (Charles Lindsey) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: How does the Godhead function? Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 90 05:01:50 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Dept. Of Comp Sci, Univ. of Manchester, UK. Lines: 26 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In Our Moderator (replying to Joe Saladino) writes: >[I would object to the concept -- which your comments might suggest -- >that Jesus had superhuman power but abstained from using it. But surely Jesus had these powers, and spent 40 days wrestling with the problem of whether he should use them. He concluded (as if had to if all that has followed is to make sense) that he should not, i.e. that he should do no more than any human could in principle have done. [My reading was that the miracles Jesus was tempted to do would have been done by the power of God working through him, not by any intrinsic power. The concept that Jesus did not have the normal human limitations is a heresy, called Docetism -- the doctrine that Christ was not human, but merely seemed to be. I'm reluctant to make final judgements, as the line between orthodoxy and Docetism is one on which there is some legitimate room for disagreement. But I believe your comment is -- at least by the criteria of mainstream Catholic and Protestant theology -- heretical. Note that the doctrine of the Incarnation says that Christ had two natures, human and divine. Of course with respect to his divine nature, he had the full power of God, since he was God. But I think you were talking about Jesus' human existence, and thus were positing superhuman powers for his human nature. Perhaps someone from a more conservative tradition would also care to comment. --clh]