Theology Proper

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Theology Proper is the study of God in a Christian Trinitarian system, and includes the study of the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology) and the study of Jesus Christ (Christology). The term Theology (lit. 'God-word') is popularly described as 'talk about God' or God-talk, but is usually used in the generic sense to describe religious studies. Theology Proper may thus be considered the sub-discipline of theology which deals specifically with the being, attributes and works of God. As the Christian conception of God is triune, trinitarian theology is considered to be an undertaking of Theology Proper.

[edit] Topics Pertaining to Theology Proper

• Apophatic Theology
• Cataphatic Theology
• Christology
• Divine Simplicity
• Eternality
• Godhead (Christianity)
• God the Father
• Immutability
• Impassibility
• Kenosis
• Monotheism
• Omnipotence
• Omniscience
• Ontology
• Pneumatology
• Prescience
• The Transcendentals
• Trinitarian Theology
• Theodicy
• Theosis

SIMULSUBSTANTIATION [in contraddistinction to "transubstatiation" and "consubstantiation"]:

[edit] SIMULSUBSTANTIATION

the Evangelical Lutheran understanding of the manner in which Christ's very Body and very Blood are present in the Church catholic's celebration of the Eucharist

Some major divisions within visible Christendom [Roman & other 'Catholic' communions] assert that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist by way of the "transubstantiation" of the Body of Christ with the bread, and the Blood of Christ with the wine; the result being that in the Eucharist the Bread and Wine become the very Body and very Blood of Christ with the very substance of the bread and the wine, thereby, permanently changed.

Others imagine the Lutheran confession to be that Christ is present in the Eucharist by means of the "consubstantiation" of Christ's true Body and the "bread" and Christ's true Blood and the "fruit of the vine." However, the Lutherans who confess the Book of Concord of 1580 to be a true exposition of the Word of God believe that indeed, the bread and the wine in the celebration of the Eucharist in the Church indeed does become the very Body and the very Blood of Christ, however, not to the destruction of the bread and the wine, but indeed is simul-substantially present in the Eucharist, the very Body and the very Blood of Christ--the same Body and Blood Christ that was in the arms of Mary, Who died on the Cross, Who ascended into heaven--that same Body and Blood is truly present hidden behind the masks of bread, and the wine, even as St Paul says, "the bread . . . is communion with the Body of Christ." And the "Cup which we bless is communion with the Blood of Christ." Hence, the Lutheran confession of the manner of Christ's Presence in the Lord's Supper is by means of "similsubstantiation," or adverbially expresed, Christ's very Body and very Blood is truly present [[similsubstantially]] with the bread and the fruit of the vine

The Lutheran Confessions, the Book of Concord, does not use this word to describe its beliefs. The use of this word, therefore, does not represent Lutheran thought or theology.