Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DOCETISM

A designation for various views regarding the humanity of Christ that began to manifest themselves in the late 1st century c.e. The term is related to Gk. dokeín, “to seem.” Docetic thought is a by-product of the Hellenistic environment of early Christianity that, philosophically, made a radical distinction between the material and the spiritual, and thus denied that the spiritual Christ actually assumed material human form. With the denial of the Incarnation, it became logically impossible to sustain that Christ experienced genuine suffering and death on the cross, a fact that made irrelevant any discussion of authentic resurrection.

Early forms of Docetism appear to be challenged in the Johannine Epistles, and in the early 2nd century Ignatius attacks this heresy in his letters (Trallians, Smyrnaeans). Clement of Alexandria opposed the doctrine, and Eusebius reports that Serapion denounced the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (ca. 190) for its docetic tendencies.

In current usage the term applies to any christological position that tends to limit or deny the full humanity of Christ.

D. Larry Gregg

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DOCETISM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)