The humanity of Jesus Christ is a highly contested topic in Christianity. Was it fallen like ours? Was His human nature corrupt and sinful, inherently and necessarily subject to suffering and death? Did He inherit a fallen humanity? If His humanity was fallen how was He sinless? Did He have human ignorance? In what way was His human will involved in the plan of salvation? What effect did the hypostatic union have on His humanity? Jesus: Fallen? sheds light on these and many other questions pertaining to Christ's humanity, a subject of profound soteriological and anthropological import.
In all the modern confusio of multiple Christs, this study presents the perennial image of the incarnate God- the Theanthropos Christ- not a "mythical" Jesus, but the historic Jesus as witnessed by the sacred word and attested by the patristic consensus. The recent scholastic trend of reducing Jesus Christ to a mere human being is addressed head-on; those who despoil and detach Christ from His divinity in a Nestorianizing way are refuted.
Every serious Christian and student of theology, history of dogma, and Church History who is comfortable neither with liberalism nor fundamentalism, but who is searching for the authentically true teachings of Christianity will find this well-researched study appealing. This pivotal study is the first to address this topic from an Eastern Orthodox perspective, and in this regard it constitutes an important contribution to Christology.
"While the Church addressed the important issues surrounding the Christological controversies through the Ecumenical Synods and the writings of the Fathers, there are many who are still trying to define and even redefine Christ as they would choose to understand Him, His natures, His wills, the hypostatic union, and many of the other difficult theological challenges that once plagued the Church. Fr. Emmanuel Hatzidakis has taken note of these new tensions and has been challenged by the position of theologians, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, who have commented on the person of Christ and His natures... It is with great joy that I invite the students of theology and those who search for Truth to read and drink from the refreshing waters he offers us." -Metropolitan Nikitas of the Dardanelles
Emmanuel Hatzidakis is a priest of the Orthodox Church (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America). He holds an undergraduate degree in Classics from Oberlin College, and has done additional graduate coursework in this field at the University of Chicago. His Masters of Divinity degree is from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts.
