The Collaborative International Dictionary
Christology \Chris*tol"o*gy\, n. [Crist + -logy.] A treatise on Christ; that department of theology which treats of the personality, attributes, or life of Christ.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1670s, from Christ + connective -o- + -logy.
Wikipedia
Christology (from Greek Χριστός Khristós and , -logia) is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus as recorded in the canonical Gospels and the epistles of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature and person of God the Father. As such, Christology is concerned with the details of Jesus' ministry, his acts and teachings, to arrive at a clearer understanding of who he is in his person, and his role in salvation. The views of Paul the Apostle provided a major component of the Christology of the Apostolic Age. Paul's central themes included the notion of the pre-existence of Christ and the worship of Christ as Kyrios ( Greek: Lord).
The pre-existence of Christ became a central theme of Christology. Proponents of Christ's deity argue the Old Testament has many cases of Christophany: "The pre-existence of Christ is further substantiated by the many recorded Christophanies in the Bible." "Christophany" is often considered a more accurate term than the term " theophany" due to the belief that all the visible manifestations of God are in fact the preincarnate Christ. Many argue that the appearances of " the Angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament were the preincarnate Christ. "Many understand the angel of the Lord as a true theophany. From the time of Justin on, the figure has been regarded as the preincarnate Logos."
Following the Apostolic Age, the early church engaged in fierce and often politicized debate on many interrelated issues. Christology became a major focus of these debates, and every one of the first seven ecumenical councils addressed Christological issues. The second through fourth of these councils are generally entitled "Christological councils", with the latter three mainly elucidating what was taught in them and condemning incorrect interpretations. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 issued a formulation of the being of Christ — that of two natures, one human and one divine, "united with neither confusion nor division". Chalcedonian Christianity - Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and many Protestant Christians - continue to advocate this doctrine of the hypostatic union. Due to politically-charged differences in the 4th century, schisms developed, and the first denominations (from the Latin, "to take a new name") formed.
In the 13th century, Saint Thomas Aquinas provided the first systematic Christology that consistently resolved a number of the existing issues. In his Christology from above, Aquinas also championed the principle of perfection of Christ's human attributes. The Middle Ages also witnessed the emergence of the "tender image of Jesus" as a friend and a living source of love and comfort, rather than just the Kyrios image. Catholic theologian Karl Rahner sees the purpose of modern Christology as to formulate the Christian belief that "God became man and that God-made-man is the individual Jesus Christ" in a manner that this statement can be understood consistently, without the confusions of past debates and mythologies.
Usage examples of "christology".
On the other hand, no direct and natural relation to the world and to universal history could be given to the Adoptian Christology, which was originally determined eschatologically.
Moreover, the revelations of God in the Old Testament made by Theophanies, must have seemed, because of this their form, much more exalted than the revelations made through a man raised to power and glory, which Jesus constantly seemed to be in the Adoptian Christology.
They either comprise statements which are borrowed from the Adoptian Christology, or they testify in an unreflective way to the Dominion and Deity of Christ.
Only one work has been preserved entire which gives clear expression to the Adoptian Christology, viz.
This designation was used by the representatives of the Adoptian Christology only after they had expressed their doctrine antithetically and developed it to a theory, and always with a certain reservation.
I take no note of the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, out of which one can, of course, beautifully verify the strict Modalistic, and even the Adoptian Christology.
Even the later school of the Adoptians in Rome, and the later Adoptians in general, were forced to assume a divine hypostasis beside the Godhead, which of course sensibly threatened their Christology.
Christology by that of the Valentinians and Basilidians, that is, by the scientific one that had preceded it.
The characteristic of the Gnostic Christology is not Docetism, in the strict sense, but the doctrine of the two natures, that is, the distinction between Jesus and Christ, or the doctrine that the Redeemer as Redeemer was not a man.
Wherever the Logos Christology had been adopted the future of Christian Hellenism was certain.