Thomas Gaston - Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology

In this presentation from the 2024 UCA UK International Conference, Thomas Gaston argues that ancient Dynamic Monarchians held that Jesus was a miraculously conceived man who, after his resurrection, ascended to heaven and to divine authority, as opposed to being an eternal divine Person who became human. Far from being a phenomenon that appeared only in isolated cases in the third century, Dynamic Monarchianism was a tradition that existed from the earliest days of Christianity and was part of the Christian mainstream until the emergence of newer Christologies led to it being regarded as heretical.

Thomas Gaston holds a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Oxford, a Masters in the History of Christianity from the University of Birmingham, and a degree in Philosophy from the University of Warwick. He specializes in historical Christology, early Christianity, and biblical interpretation. He is also the author of Historical Issues in the Book of Daniel (Paternoster, 2016) and many articles on Christian theology and history which have appeared in academic journals. Gaston is a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers and is a senior manager at Wiley. He lives in the United Kingdom.

[Gashinshoutan]

A reversion to the Christianity of the original apostles understandings would be ideal. However, given how many denominations there already are in Christianity today, it's not an easy path.

[ManlyServant]

is it visible that people starts leaving trinitarianism?, as for me, i didnt see it yet, but maybe in an unknown statistics (i heard most evangelicals in survey believed Jesus is God creation and less than God, that would make most american christian a subordinationist unitarian, which most of these christian are wordly so we cant really be so proud about it)

[eliasarches]

I’ve explored a little bit the claim that Jesus had no préexistence and the arguments seem implausible - a bit of a stretch really. Funny how our position on that question results in a rather different picture of Jesus, in that it fails to acknowledge Jesus heavenly position and activity (prior to coming to earth). I am sceptical that dynamic monarchianism would have been more widespread than Arianism (for lack of a better word) since préexistence is at the very least the common sense reading of scripture - the word personified vs as a sort representation. Not enough scripture compared with scripture is at the heart of the argument - scripture illuminates the question

[chasingthemessiah]

I'm an Adoptionist who believes in the Virgin Birth (just not insemination by a God-seed), so why am I not included as a Dynamic Monarchianist?

[andre_theist]

Joh 8:58 & Joh 20:28. This Christology is the soonest, cause it is from God Incarnate himself

[polemeros]

Gosh, being a Christian of any kind among contemporary UUs is like being a trade unionist among Bolesheviks.