Practicing Christian Doctrine Chapter 7 Analysis

Chapter six of Practicing Christian Doctrine, by Beth Felker Jones, chiefly discusses Christology and the various heresies that have surrounded it over the years. Christology, which is the study of Christ, helps one to learn more about Jesus and his identity and how to live a good Christian life by forming a relationship with the Lord. In order for Christology to work, the person of Jesus must be known and a major idea discussed in this novel is homoousios, Jesus is full and truly God. Two other important characteristics of God found in this chapter are immutability¬¬ and impassibility. Immutability means that God is unchanging and impassibility states that He is never overwhelmed by emotion. The heresies that are discussed include: Apollinarianism, …show more content…
Many people tend to depersonalize the Holy Spirit because it does not sound nearly as relational as Father and Son. However, according to the Nicene Creed, the Spirit does have a relational status because of its eternal relationship with the Father and Son. The Spirit actually proceeds from not only the Father, but from the Son as well and this adds to its relational status. Next, the novel discusses that God is above gender; therefore, it is argued that people need to avoid using masculine terms for God and stop forming images of Him when in fact it is the other way around. Next the book briefly talks about how the Spirit works through people in their lives and how it connects with the physical and religious aspects of humanity. Many Christians are skeptical of spiritual gifts because of various churches, but this Jones argues that they should not be so cautious about these gifts simply because of their need for control. The chapter ends by discussing the Holy Spirit throughout the ages and specific instances of its use in …show more content…
The church is both the body and the bride of Christ; this idea consists of materiality and unity. The church contains four marks and the people must bear these marks of the church both visibly and in the body. The church is one and unified, though this may be hard to grasp considering all the fragments in the church. The church receives holiness, the second mark, because of Christ’s sacrifice. Church is catholic, meaning that it is universal and whole. The fourth and final mark is apostolicity; the church is the same as that of the apostles. The church’s value rests on what God does, not on what people do; Donatist believed the opposite of this to be true. The next big conclusion made is that Christian faith and church are missionary in behavior. The chapter concludes by discussing sacraments, special gifts from God that are visible signs of spiritual grace. Sacramental life in the church is key to the goodness of sacred