The cosmic Christ is a view of

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Diff ...

which emphasises the extent of Jesus Christ's concern for the cosmos. The biblical bases for a cosmic Christology is often found in Colossians, Ephesians, and the prologue to the gospel of John.

Early church

Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the de ...

(c. 130 – c. 202 AD) offered one of the earliest articulations of a cosmic Christology in his ''

Against Heresies ''Against Heresies'' (Ancient Greek: Ἔλεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως, ''Elenchos kai anatropē tēs pseudōnymou gnōseōs'', "On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis"), some ...

''. In his theory of

atonement Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ...

, Irenaeus speaks about how all of humanity was created good but tainted by sin, but that all of creation was " recapitulated" and restored under the new headship of Christ. This "cosmic" Christology would be a dominant view throughout much of the

patristic period Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...

, as well as within

Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent an ...

, while alternative positions began to arise during the medieval period.

Modern ecotheology

In the modern period, a renewed interest in the cosmic Christ would arise among a number of Western scholars interested in developing an ecotheology.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philo ...

was among the first to speak again of a cosmic Christ in the 1920s and 1930s. He understood the

Incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

as bringing the historical Christ into the material world and, through

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

, leading all of creation towards perfection in the Omega Point. Later scholars, such as

Joseph Sittler Joseph Andrew Sittler (September 26, 1904 – December 28, 1987) was an American Lutheran minister and theologian who taught at Maywood Seminary, eventually merged into the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and the Lutheran School of Th ...

, Matthew Fox, Richard Rohr and Jürgen Moltmann, would likewise speak about the need to reclaim a cosmic Christology to speak about Christ's concern for creation.

Asian contexts

The cosmic Christ has also been of particular interest amongst Asian Christians. This was particularly poignant through debates that arose from the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

meeting in New Delhi in 1961, when the Indian Paul D. Devanandan argued from that a cosmic Christ united all things to himself; this, he claimed, included non-Christian religions. This would continue to be asserted by South Asian Christians such as

M. M. Thomas Madathilparampil Mammen Thomas (1916—1996) was an Indian Christian theologian, social thinker, and activist. He served as Governor of the Indian State, Nagaland (1990–1992), and as the Chairperson of the Central Committee of World Council of ...

from India and D. T. Niles of Ceylon as a rationale to dialogue with and work together with other religions. In China, it has been suggested that a cosmic Christology has been present in the early 20th century, among figures such as

T. C. Chao Tzu-ch'en Chao (; 1888–1979), also known as T. C. Chao, was one of the leading Protestant theological thinkers in China in the early twentieth century. Life Chao was born on February 14, 1888, in Xinshi, Deqing County, Zhejiang, China. ...

and

Y. T. Wu Y. T. Wu or Wu Yao-tsung (; 4 November 1893 – 17 September 1979) was a Protestant leader in China who played a key role in the establishment of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Wu also played an important role in the theology of K. H. Tin ...

. The cosmic Christ has also been important for later Chinese Christians affiliated with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in the 1980s and 1990s. For instance, K. H. Ting used the cosmic Christ as a basis for Christians to work with communists, and

Wang Weifan Wang Weifan (; 1927–2015) was an evangelical Christian leader of the state-sanctioned Protestant church of mainland China, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. He was well-loved as a preacher, theologian, and devotional writer. Biography Wang We ...

offers an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

version of the cosmic Christ to work with non-Christians.

References

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