Lonergan (Works vol 8) has this peculiar trio of theses about the NT teaching on Jesus.
1. Jesus is true man.
2. Jesus in many ways participates in what is divine.
3. Jesus is true God.
My first thought on seeing this was, what's the deal with thesis 2? Why bother including it?
1. Jesus is true man.
2. Jesus in many ways participates in what is divine.
3. Jesus is true God.
My first thought on seeing this was, what's the deal with thesis 2? Why bother including it?
As he defines his terms, though, Lonergan fills out thesis 2 (multipliciter divina participare) with all this; Jesus performs miracles, calls forth supreme love for himself, takes away sins, judges eternally, rules over all, preexists, takes part in creation.
If you've read much early high Christology lit, you recognize this list. These are commonly named as constituting biblical monotheism: one God creates, judges, is worshiped, etc. Jesus does these things, so he is included in the identity of the one God.
But then it's interesting that Lonergan unpacks thesis 3 by saying that "true God" means "God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, the beginning & the end." Taken together, thesis 2 seems functional, while 3 seems to be the explicit identity claim, or ontological.
This is the 1950s. Finally, it's worth emphasizing that Lonergan's goal in presenting these 3 theses is to say what the NT says. That is, he intends this as descriptive biblical theology, and he hasn't even gotten to the conciliar doctrine yet.
I appreciate the way these 3 theses take in a lot of NT phenomena on their own terms (using the very loose "participates in the divine") and also assert true divinity straightforwardly.
