Theology beacon dictionary of theology
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- Christology of the Later Fathers.
- I ICON, ICONOCLASM.
- A History of the Christian Church
- WORSHIP, DECALOGUE, ICON (ICONOCLASM), COVETOUSNESS, IMAGE. For Further Reading: Clarke, Christian Theology, 210; Fallows, ed.
- ACCOUNTABILITY, LIGHT, KNOWLEDGE, OBEDIENCE, CARNAL MIND. For Further Reading: Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 17:31, 33;
- GOD, THEISM. THEISTIC PROOFS, REVELATION (SPECIAL), For Further Reading: Knudson, The Doctrine of God; Miller, Karl Barth, 49-94.
- MIND OF CHRIST CHRISTLIKENESS, IMITATION OF CHRIST, DIVINE IMAGE, MAN. For Further Reading: Blackman, A Theological Word Book of the Bible
- Encyclopedia Americana
- The Imitation of Christ;
HYPOSTASIS. The Greek word hypostasis may be translated by the words "nature," "substance," or "essence." It describes those characteristics which make something what it is, or its essence, as distinct from its existence, or that it is. A way to understand the concept is by distinguishing between "appearance" and "reality." Hypostasis (from the Greek word hyphistasthai— to stand under) describes that which stands under the appearance, i.e., the reality. In Heb. 1:3 it is declared that Christ is the image of the Father's hypostasis (hupostaseds). In other words, Christ clearly shares in the divine substance. The Greek words in Heb. 1:3 state that Christ is the "char-akter of his hypostasis." Charakter here means that Jesus "bears the very stamp of his nature" (rsv). The substance of God is not an appearance but is really in Christ. This is what Jesus was teaching when He declared: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9, rsv). In Christian theology the path to full clarification of hypostasis is quite ambiguous. The Chalcedonian Creed described the Trinity by the terms "one essence [ousia] in three hypostases [hypostaseis]." In the Nicene Creed (a.d. 325) these two terms were used synonymously, meaning "being" or "nature." The work of the Cap-padocian Fathers was important in giving the two terms somewhat distinct meanings. With Basil of Caesarea ousia indicates the universal and hypostasis the particular. "One essence in three hypostases" when translated into Latin becomes "one substance in three Persons." It is legitimate to translate hypostasis into "persons," but it does not simplify the formula. The formula conveys first the unity of the Godhead. The ousia is identical in each Person, e.g., the goodness of the Son and Spirit is the same as the Father's. When the Father acts, the Son and Spirit are acting jointly. But, second, the formula suggests a distinction, using the term "Persons." In this distinction between the persons the Cappadocians and Chal-cedon are biblically sound. It remains necessary to recognize that the distinction does not mean separateness, but the diversity which is in the essential Deity. The "hypostatic union" means that Jesus Christ may be really united to flesh while remaining equal with God. See CHRIST, CHRISTOLOGY, TRINITY (THE HOLY), HYPOSTATIC UNION. For Further Reading: Hardy, ed., Christology of the
See CHRISTOLOGY, HYPOSTASIS, CHRIST. W. Stephen Gunter
In a.d. 717 Leo III (ruled to a.d. 740) came to power as emperor and restored to considerable strength the crumbling Byzantine Empire (Eastern Empire). As part of his restoration program Leo promoted an iconoclastic policy by banning the veneration of religious pictures. But protest against the use of icons in worship did not begin with Leo. The see of Constantinople (the ecclesiastical center of the Eastern church) was in constant contact with Moslems, Jews, and Monophysites. All of these, for differing purposes, were opposed to the use of icons. They exterted considerable influence in the Eastern Empire. The iconoclastic efforts of Leo would help to unite many important elements of the citizenry under his rule. He also wished to make himself master of the church and to destroy the power of the monks who were the champions of the icons. In 725 Leo forbade the use of icons in worship, and the result was a religious revolt led by the monks and the common people. They resisted in defense of the freedom of the church and the veneration of images. The decree was enforced by Leo's use of the army. It is also probable that Leo and at least some of his iconoclastic successors to the throne were motivated by theological considerations. The use of icons had hinted of idolatry to many sensitive Christians from the earliest days of the Church. John of Damascus, one of the great theologians of the Eastern church, was a champion of those who resisted the iconoclastic movement. In his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, he argues that since the invisible and formless God took visible form in the true man Jesus Christ, the use of images is not only permissible but also a great help, especially to illiterate Christians for whom the written word was not an aid in worship. After more than 100 years of controversy and political intrigue, icons were finally restored in a.d. 842 under a woman regent, Theodora. The Eastern church still celebrates that restoration as the Feast of Orthodoxy. See worship, idol (idolatry), mariolatry. For Further Reading: Qualben, A History of the Christian Church, 152 f, 258 f; Heick, A History of Christian Thought, 2:247ff. albert L. truesdale, Jr. IDEALISM. See realism IDOL, IDOLATRY. The English word "idol" is a transliteration of eidolon, the Greek term for "image." Specifically, it denotes the image of a god which is an object of worship. Also the term may refer to any material symbol of the supernatural which is worshipped. Idolatry refers to idol or image worship. Wiley defines it as "the paying of divine honors to idols, images, or other created objects, but may consist, also, in excessive admiration, veneration or love for any person or thing" (Wiley, CT, 3:39). In the OT the term may signify the worship of foreign false gods, whether by means of images or otherwise. However, such gods were generally represented by concrete images. Idolatry in the OT also may refer to the use of symbols in the worship of Yahweh, Israel's true God. All such practices were specifically forbidden in the Decalogue (Exod. 20:3-5); and the numerous Hebrew words appearing in the OT translated "idol" in English all express either the falseness (eleel, Lev. 19:4; Ps. 96:5), the emptiness and vanity (hebel, Jer. 2:5, niv; cf. KJV) of idolatry; or they show the shame (bosheth, Jer. 11:13), the contempt (ghillovleem, Ezek. 30:13), the terror and dread (mipletseth, 1 Kings 15:13) godly men felt toward it. In the NT idolatry is further used figuratively to indicate too great obsession with any object less than God. In this connection Rom. 1:25 points out God's displeasure in the preoccupation with the material benefits of creation
See WORSHIP, DECALOGUE, ICON (ICONOCLASM), COVETOUSNESS, IMAGE. For Further Reading: Clarke, Christian Theology, 210; Fallows, ed., The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopaedia, 2:847-50; IDB, 2:673-78; Wiley, CT, 3:39. Armor D. Peisker IGNORANCE. Theologically this term has had a lengthy history. Thomas developed an extensive system of levels of ignorance. The purpose, of course, was to determine which kinds of ignorance were culpable and which were innocent. The elaborate Catholic system allows for five classes of ignorance with several subclasses within each. The issue hinges upon the activity of the will in the thought and activity process. If a person does not know God's direction on a certain issue and has not purposefully propagated his lack of knowledge through neglect or refusal to listen, that ignorance is innocent (Luke 12:48; John 9:41; 1 Tim. 1:13-14). If the person has been exposed to knowledge of the issue, however, and fails to recognize it because it would interfere with his thoughts or plans, he is responsible for his ignorance (John 9:41). The practice of refusing God's instruction is referred to often in Scripture as hardening the heart. It is of serious concern to note that the fuller the revelation denied, the greater the guilt and punishment (Matt. 10:15; 11:20-24). Thankfully, however, it is God who determines the culpability of our ignorance rather than man. See ACCOUNTABILITY, LIGHT, KNOWLEDGE, OBEDIENCE, CARNAL MIND. For Further Reading: Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 17:31, 33; New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967 ed. D. Martin Butler ILLUSIONISM. Illusionism is an evaluation of theism which asserts that the reality of God as claimed by theists is an illusion. According to this position, the true locus of "God's existence" is in the human mind and in its religious imagination. Hence, there is no objective reality to God. What is taken to be His objective reality is but an image that man, the true creator of God, projects and 271 solidifies in ritual and doctrine. To this projection is attributed powers far superior to anything man is willing to claim for himself. The result of this illusion is that "God" becomes the "creator." This evaluation of theism is generally common to most forms of 19th- and 20th-century atheism. The first systematic statement of illusionism was made by Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72), German philosopher of religion and theologian, and lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. He was a student of Hegel, but he went beyond Hegel by denying the reality of God. Philosophies of religion similar to Feuerbach's may be found in Karl Marx (1818-83); Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), the pioneer sociologist; Sigmund Freud (1856-1939); Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who believed that "the death of the idea of God" was the most profound and fundamental truth about the modern world; and numerous present-day humanists such as Julian Huxley, Kai Nielson, and Paul Kurtz. Although there are significant differences among these thinkers, there is common agreement among them that there is no corresponding reality to the theist's language about the reality of God. A. C. Knudson (1873-1953), a Christian theologian and philosopher of religion, discusses and critiques illusionism in Present Tendencies in Religious Thought and The Doctrine of God. In the latter volume he lists three types of illusionism: psychological, sociological, and intellectualistic. In addition to Feuerbach, he names as representatives of the first type the Greek philosopher Lucretius (95-55 b.c.), who thought the basis of religion to be fear, and Freud, who viewed religion in part as the result of a distorted sexuality. Karl Marx is named as the primary sociological illusionist. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) represents the third type. He viewed man's intellectual development as beginning with theology, growing up through metaphysics, and finally maturing in positivism, where God is no longer needed for human self-understanding. Karl Barth's theology was in many respects an attack on illusionism and on all forms of theology in which God seems to be but an exaggerated reflection of man, where thinking about God is governed by thought about man. The place to begin a critique of Feuerbach and all forms of illusionism, Barth said, is to realize that Feuerbach has accurately, even if unwittingly, described the fruit of man's efforts to grasp God through his own religious efforts or imaginations. Religion, as man's own creation, is an attempt to shape God in man's own image, and is the cardinal evidence of the Fall. 272 IMAGE—IMAGINATION The gods produced by religion are in fact illusions, products of man's alienation from the God of whom the Bible speaks, who alone is the Holy One. He alone is Sovereign Creator, Redeemer, and Lord of history. Knowledge of Him comes through His saving acts and His self-disclosure in Jesus. This knowledge refutes man's idolatrous projections and confirms that God cannot simply be explained by man's own ideas, as the illusionists claim. The God of the Bible is the Wholly Other God. Before Him we would all pass away were it not for His creative love for us. Justification by grace through faith means the end of idolatry, the absolute end to god-making, and the reign of the free, eternal, and gracious God who became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. This God is certainly not of man's own making, as Isaiah and Jeremiah's scorn for idolatry clearly shows (Isaiah 40; Jeremiah 10). See GOD, THEISM. THEISTIC PROOFS, REVELATION (SPECIAL), For Further Reading: Knudson, The Doctrine of God; Miller, Karl Barth, 49-94. Albert L. Truesdale, Jr. IMAGE. The word "image"—commonly understood to mean a likeness of one person or thing to another, or a reflection or representation of such—appears numerous times in the Bible. In the OT it is the English translation of a dozen or so Hebrew terms. Most of them refer to material representations of something, usually an idol. Tselem is used when referring to personal likenesses. Examples are in Gen. 1:26-27; 5:3. The NT Greek word translated "image" (except in Heb. 1:3) is eikdn. "God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1:27) is particularly significant. The divine image in man is not physical, for God is a Spirit without physical form. But that very spiritual nature He has shared with man. Indeed, spirituality is one aspect of the divine image which theologians have chosen to consider under the heading of the natural image of God. It is that quality which makes man unique among and superior to all other earthly creatures, giving him capacity to commune with and fellowship with his Creator. Other elements of the natural image of God are immortality and intelligence. As a spiritual being, man is immortal. An ancient Jewish scholar stated it: "God created man to be immortal... an image of His own eternity" (Wisdom, 2:23). Man's intellectual powers, reflecting the Creator's, enable him to know, to reason, to imagine, to remember, to judge, and to will (Col. 3:10). The natural image of God—referring actually to the elements of human personality and selfhood—is the basis whereby man may bear the moral image of God. Man was created upright (Eccles. 7:29). It is true that through his disobedience man lost that original holiness; but with the power to choose, he may accept the divine provision of God in Christ and be restored. Therefore, the apostle Paul could declare that believers may "be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:29; cf. Eph. 4:24). And God further intends that those who have thus come to bear His moral image should grow and mature, ever coming to bear more of His likeness "till we all come . . . unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). Today the term is popularly used in reference to one's reputation or name: how one is perceived by others. To have a "good image" is to be well thought of. This contemporary concern can lead to mere window dressing, But it can also prompt Christians to be aware of the impression their appearance and conduct will have on others (Prov. 22:1; Acts 6:3). See MIND OF CHRIST CHRISTLIKENESS, IMITATION OF CHRIST, DIVINE IMAGE, MAN. For Further Reading: Blackman, A Theological Word Book of the Bible, 110-11; Purkiser, ed., Exploring Our Christian Faith, 212-15. ARMOR D. PEISKER IMAGINATION. Imagination means "creative ability: ability to confront and deal with a problem; resourcefulness" (Webster). Imagination is also said to be "the reorganization of past experiences into novel combinations." Man puts old elements into new formations and thus creates new concepts. This capacity is part of the image of God in man. In imagination the mind passes through four overlapping stages: (1) Preparation: thought on the subject—usually prolonged; (2) Incubation: the materials lie back in the mind; (3) Illumination: the creative idea suddenly emerges; (4) Verification: the idea is given tangible form, e.g., in a poem, a sermon, a Kingdom plan. A second meaning, obsolete today, occurs frequently in the Bible. Imagination is "a plotting or scheming, especially of evil" (Webster). "They ... have not obeyed my voice . . . but have walked after the imagination of their own heart" (Jer. 9:13-14). Even in these contexts the term is often morally neutral. The prophet must qualify the word to express his meaning, as in "the imagination of their evil heart" (3:17; 11:8; et al., italics added). In the NT Paul describes men who "became IMAGO DEI—IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 273
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened" (Rom. 1:21). The natural image of God was corrupted by the carnal spirit and by evil acts. But depraved imagination can be transformed when yielded to God. "Present all your faculties to Him ... be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds" (Rom. 12:1-2, Weymouth). When the cleansed, creative imagination reflects on things of God, innovative progress comes to the kingdom of God. "Whatever is true . . . whatever is just . . . whatever is gracious . . . think about these things" (Phil. 4:8, rsv). See mind, man, divine image.
The notion that the essence of Christianity is to be found in the imitation of Christ has a solid basis in the Gospels, particularly in such passages as Mark 8:31-38 and Luke 9:23-27, 57-62, where Jesus indicates that His disciples should follow His own example of cross-bearing. In the Early Church, such summonses were perceived as a literal call to martyrdom. The Gospels, however, are not the only biblical source of the imitatio Christi ideal. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13 and 2 Cor, 13:3, 5 suggests that the following of Jesus by His disciples is not so much a literal imitation of the historical Jesus but the operation of the Holy Spirit in bringing Christians into conformity with the total self-abandonment and other-love of Jesus. The Middle Ages, with its twin emphases on mysticism and monasticism, conceived of the imitation of Christ, for the most part, as a literal reproduction of the life of the historical Jesus. This can be seen most clearly in the works of Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, and the liturgy of the Mass with its enactment of the "stations of the Lord's life." This emphasis on literalness, however, is not to be found in the greatest medieval if not the greatest work of all time on imitatio Christi, Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. While Thomas is certainly mystical in his understanding of following Christ, he is also profoundly biblical in his portrayal of Christian imitation as requiring the personal discipline and self-resignation of redemptive servanthood in conjunction with God and for man (e.g., chap. 12). Since the Reformation there has been a substantial degree of reinterpretation of the idea of imitatio Christi. Luther, for instance, though greatly admiring the works of many of the medieval mystics, gradually became convinced that the believer's attempt to literally replicate the conditions of life of the historical Jesus perverted the doctrine of grace and established a doctrine of works which led to the belief that man through his own efforts could follow Christ. Luther thus preferred to talk about conformity to the image of Christ rather than the imitation of Christ. The concept of a literal emulation of the historical Jesus has encountered a further difficulty in the development of 20th-century biblical studies. Many NT scholars have been convinced that it is impossible to recover a sufficiently accurate and detailed picture of the historical Jesus to make an exact imitatio Christi possible. However, we know, from the Gospel record, enough about Jesus' life to understand what is intended by His call to discipleship. Jesus calls His disciples to follow Him in cross-bearing servanthood in perfect love (Matt. 5:48). His teaching and Paul's understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit seem to provide a model of imitatio Christi which suggests that imitation of Christ is essentially a discipleship brought about both through the disciple's willing acceptance of the demands of following Christ and the Holy Spirit's enabling grace which allows the disciple to approximate the full measure of Christlikeness. Christlikeness in this sense is thus a perfect love toward God and man dependent upon both the disciple's continual willing and God's constant working. See discipleship, cross-bearing, image. For Further Reading: Kempis, The Imitation of Christ; Kierkegaard, Training in Christianity; Luther, Commentary on Galatians; Tinsley, The Imitation of God in Christ.
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