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Applying this to the Incarnation of Christ, the basic stuff is Jesus of Nazareth, a fully human man, who slept, cried, sweated, urinated, sneezed, laughed, sang, … The formal cause, or pattern, is found in the concept Word, or Logos, which can be rendered in Ancient Greek “word, thought, reason, reasoned principle.” This Word is Energy-within-God, God-Creating, God-ing, Divine Reason, Living Truth, All-Potentiality. This is Wisdom, the formless Dynamic Truth within God manifesting in form, patterned on the teaching of the prophetic Word and the manifesting, co-eternal-with-Creator Wisdom (Gk. Sophia) of the Hebrew Scripture (cf. Proverbs 1.1ff). The union of this formlessness, Logos, with form, Jesus of Nazareth, creates the synthesis Jesus Christ. The Creator is the Godhead, as distinct from manifestations of “Father” or “Son” or “Spirit.” Christ, initially a cultural-bound term, denoting the expectation of a Judaism-bound Messiah, is opened, through the pattern of the universal Logos, to be a Universal agent whose end is the bringing to full union with God-In-Love of all creatures, all Creation, as we see in Romans 8.22-24.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? (ESV)
Thus, the Christ-Event entails both the preexistence of Christ, as Word, the manifestation of the Word in time, and the Purpose within and outside time.
Therefore, Jesus Christ is the defining Person and Fact of contemplation for the Christian. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of opposites in a synthesis including form, formlessness, agency, and purpose, in one single Whole. Jesus Christ is the Synthesis of eternity and time, immateriality and materiality, father and mother, god and goddess, spirit and person, beginning and end, …
Again utilizing Aristotle, Jesus Christ is of one Substance, or Essence, with the “Father,” according to the Church. The Nicene Creed reads:
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being (Gk. homo-ousian, “one Essence, Substance”) with the Father.
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In this statement the Church implies the sacramental quality of the fleshly body of Jesus. Implied is, even more, the sacramental, or Grace-bearing, aspect of all Nature. Therefore, the body of Jesus Christ becomes a symbol of the sacramental Cosmos, a Universe, or One Verse, providing many means of access to the Creator.
However, the Nicene Creed, or any Creed, as well as all Confessions of Faith, being statements of propositional reason, cannot define the Mystery. They are important, for they point to Reality. They are best read with a poetic perspective, more as logical art, reasoned play with words. They point to a faith that opens again and again into more questions, more paradoxes, more efforts at synthesis, and, finally, into praise, wonder, trust, and openness to experience the Truth in response of Love to Love. Indeed, celebration, jubilation, as well as reasoned reflection and awed Silence are responses to the Mystery, while propositions must bow in speechlessness before the immediacy of the Word-Among-Us.
For many years I resisted reciting creeds. I came up a rebel Protestant, associated with what could be called the radical branch of the Reformation. We refused to acknowledge any creed. We were non-creedal, while some other Christian communions were called creedal. But, see, here again is the emergence of opposites, creedal and non-creedal. Now, I find myself seeing value in both positions, and that brings me into a middle position of appreciating creeds for what they can and cannot provide. That middle position can be called acreedal. I see the value of creeds, however, I do not see any creed as defining the faith of the Communion I am servant in, the United Methodist Church.
So, now, I can utilize creeds within worship. And, I can see these creeds as ushering me, among and with others, into a Mystery. I can see the creed as a human effort to frame Formlessness in union with form. I can experience the creed as a means to connect to the living Faith, past, present, and future, and as a means to help keep me stay in organic fellowship with the larger Christian Communion, guarding against my running off into private thoughts and personalized speculations. As well, the creeds give me a symbol system and vocabulary to help others connect to the Mystery, and creeds remind me that spirituality is grounded in body, earth, sky, and community.
So, today, we can rejoice in the attempts of the creeds to voice for us a synthesis whereby we can better appreciate the Mystery. And, we can see in the creeds the struggle of sincere, devout persons to articulate the Christ-Event in a manner that, likely, has sacramental and cosmological significances beyond where they were able to see. With our growth in understanding the Universe, is our growth, likewise, in understanding and appreciating the Christ-Even and the Christo-Form of history.
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