Seminary Paper: Adoptionism

I just handed in a paper in History of Christian Thought on "Adoptionism," a heresy that arose in the ancient church (and several times since). Adoptionism supposes that while the divine part of Jesus was always with God (begotten), Jesus' human side was "adopted" by God, thus making him fully human and fully divine. For several reasons, this was rejected by the church through the centuries, not the least of which is the difficulty of talking about two natures in one person.

I trace several historical occurances of adoptionism, and end with a discussion of how adoptionism is important today. Particularly, I argue, adoptionism is a response to the question of how grace encounters the human life, and as such it might have some redeeming qualities.

If you're interested, you can read it here: Adoptionism: Ancient Heresy, Postmodern Possibility