Christ-hymn Essay

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The Christ-hymn, or Christological Canticle from Colossians, contains several distinguishing features in its content and structure. One of the most unique elements, which has been a point of contention for Christians, is that the hymn points to Christ’s role in creation (cosmology), and Christ’s role in reconciliation (soteriology). The Canticle can be interpreted to show that Christ serves effectively as a “unifying principle, holding the universe together at its head,” (MacDonald, n.d., p. 65). Christ also holds together the church: positioning Christ clearly as the symbolic head and the Church as the body of Christ (MacDonald, n.d., p. 66). As MacDonald (n.d.) also points out, the cultural and historical context of the Christological Canticle informed some of its more mystical and symbolic dimensions. Extended to the global Christian community, the Christological Canticle from Colossians offers clear focus for how to worship, and particularly, how to worship within a Christian community. The hymn clearly underscores the ongoing sociological and psychological importance of communal worship, of ritual, of a vibrant social life guided by Christ and imbued with the Holy Spirit.



Changes to social norms and culture have also altered the meaning and function of the Christological Canticle. Secularism and the shift away from ritual and communal worship have rendered the hymn almost irrelevant, or at least peripheral in some circles.

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Yet it is important to return to the Christological Canticle to provide meaning, focus, and ethical vision for all Christian communities. It is not so much that the sufficiency of Christ as God’s agent of creation and reconciliation is challenged, and more than the ritual dimension of the symbolic enactment of Christ’s sacrifice has been called into question. As Bergant (n.d.) points out, the hymn specifically focuses on Christ’s divinity, exalting Christ to the important cosmological and soteriological roles. Paul offers insight into the future formation of Christian theology and cosmology, allowing for a sophisticated understanding of the meaning of Christ’s mission. One must therefore return again and again to passages like these to reinvigorate understanding of the cosmic Christ.



Christ is presented as part of the architecture of the cosmos, as that which holds both macrocosm and microcosm together. Responding to challenges to the efficacy of the Christological Canticle requires a more in-depth and sensitive reading of Colossians, without even the need for comparing the hymn to other Pauline passages. For Christ is not….....

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References

Bergant, D. (n.d.). Preaching the New Lectionary.

MacDonald, M.Y. (n.d.). Colossians and Ephesians.

Pilch, J.J. (n.d). The Cultural World of the Apostles. Collegeville: Liturgical Press.

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