These revision notes for the new OCR Religious Studies A level cover different ideas about the person of Jesus. They discuss Jesus as the Son of God, as a teacher of wisdom and as a (political) liberator including ideas from a variety of scholars. They are detailed and are to an A* standard.
Historical The works of Suetonius, Tacticus, Pilny the Younger and Josephus could all refer to Jesus.
Sources However, only the gospels suggest he is divine
The Gospels Tell the story of Jesus' life. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are very similar. John is quite different
Jesus as the The Bible refers to Jesus as God incarnate and God's only son
Son of God
SoG It's believed Jesus had God's divine knowledge because they exist as a hypostatic union,
Knowledge of Christ is both fully human and fully God, indivisible, 2 natures, united in one person. He,
God therefore, has a unique and close relationship with God
SoG Jesus as Jesus has to be diving because only God has the power to save and to overcome evil.
God and Jesus also has to be human so he could suffer, die and be resurrected. However, if Jesus
Human is fully human he would be corrupted by our sinful nature. Most Churches today agree
that Jesus and God are one being (homousians)
SoG He suggested that the human mind and soul was replaced with a divine one but this has
Apollinaris been rejected as heresy for suggestion a 'half-salvation'
SoG Jesus' He suggests Jesus had a genuine human consciousness with an unknown future ahead
self- of it because if he had awareness of all time his life could hardly be called human. He
knowledge - suggests that Jesus had a human self-consciousness on the surface with a diving one
Karl Rahner deep within which allowed him to teach about death, sin, salvation and God's love
SoG Jesus' Argued that Jesus knew he had a unique relationship with God and had a mission of
self- salvation for others and points to the difficulties of knowing how much Jesus knew
knowledge - because he left no writings of his own
Gerald
O'Collins
SoG Miracles Jesus' birth is believed to be a miracle itself with the immaculate conception. Jesus could
do things only God could do suggesting his divinity e.g. walking on water and calming
the weather, healing a blind man and feeding 5000
Hume's He argued that because we have no present-day, direct experience of miracles
objections to ourselves we cannot trust the accounts in the gospels.
miracles Miracles are of necessity very rare and improbable; it is much more probable that the
historical testimony is false than the miracles actually happened; therefore a wise man
will not believe the historical testimony to the miracle since the testimony is insufficient to
establish a miracle (Ockalms Razor)
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; the laws of nature are derived from our
uniform experience of what always happens; by definition then, miracles can never
happen
SoG Miracles Suggested that the miracles can be interpreted as having a spiritual or metaphorical
- Edward meaning. Perhaps Jesus is a source of calm in daily life and he can heal the 'blindness' of
Schillebeeckx those who are blind to the truths of God
SoG Miracles Points to the fact Jesus healed many people and reunited the socially excluded and
- N.T.Wright ritually unclean back into a relationship with God and that was his purpose for the
miracles. In this way, Jesus is able to gather the community of all Israel for the forgiveness
of sins
SoG Paul argues that Jesus has to have resurrected otherwise all his teaching would have
Resurrection - been in vain, sins would not have been cleansed and everyone would die. Christian faith
Paul without the resurrection is impossible for Paul
SoG Without the resurrection, Jesus would not have endured let alone to modern-day
Resurrection -
E.P. Sanders
SoG Without belief in the resurrection, the Christian Church would not have developed
Resurrection -
N.T.Wright
SoG Argued that Jesus' rising from the dead vindicates his certainty in the future kingdom of
Resurrection - God. The preaching and miracles of Jesus were met with apparent defect but the
Gerald resurrection demonstrates their power
O'Collins
SoG His unconditional love and as a granted of new life. It also revealed the purpose of Jesus'
Resurrection - life
what does it
show about
God?
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