Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Communication of properties

Because Christ is one person, what is true of either nature can be said of the one Christ — God was crucified, the man Jesus upholds the universe.

Latin, 'communication / sharing of the idioms (properties)'.

'They crucified the Lord of glory' (1 Cor 2:8); 'the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood' (Acts 20:28).

Cyril of Alexandria's insistence on the single subject; formalised after Chalcedon. Luther pressed it further (a real sharing of properties between the natures) than the Reformed, who limited it to the person.

Guards the truth that it is really God the Son who lived, suffered, and died — not a separate human person.

Lutheran and Reformed Christology differ on how far the properties are shared (behind the 'extra Calvinisticum' debate).

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.