The Mystery of Christ in You: Christology, Anthropology, and Participation in Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley

Abstract

The subject of Christological approaches to theological anthropology has been a renewed area of study for biblical and theological scholarship in recent years. While Marc Cortez (Wheaton College) has been leading much of the contemporary dialogue, the subject is not necessarily new. In some ways, this renewed approach takes its cue from Karl Barth, who responded to the problem of modernist visions of anthropology that were primarily concerned with the human person and their faculties apart from doctrines of God and Christ. Much of this Christological emphasis appears in Barth’s constructive views, examining the human person in reference to Christ as the fullest depiction and example of the human person. Thinking about theological anthropology from the lens of Christology, however, is not a modern invention; examples of thinkers who develop their reflections on what it means to be human in relationship to Christ’s humanity are extensive. In this thesis, I will argue that John Wesley and Thomas Aquinas provide a systematically coherent and mutually beneficial theology of the imago Dei that thoughtfully addresses the believer’s creation in the image of the Trinity and their growing participation in the image through their graced pursuit of Christ, who is their exemplar and their end. Together, Wesley and Aquinas demonstrate a Christ-centered vision of theological anthropology that would be intelligible to one another and should be intelligible and applicable to contemporary audiences. The goal of this thesis will be to demonstrate the relationship between anthropology and Christology in the theological writings of John Wesley and St. Thomas Aquinas, to explore avenues of further ecumenical dialogue on personhood, and to investigate how these two thinkers imagine the mystery of Christ in the believer who bears the image of God.