Knowledge of Christ

[1] In the 20th century, the interplay between the two concepts was epitomized in the title of a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar: "Does Jesus Know Us?

In Philippians 3:10 Paul uses the Greek verb gignoskein (γιγνώσκω) which implies "personal knowledge", rather than an intellectual understanding.

[8] The Protestant Reformation placed more emphasis on knowing Christ through scripture than by sharing his sufferings or through Holy Communion.

[10] Luther's great collaborator, Philipp Melanchthon was critical of the approach of Thomas Aquinas and scholastic Christology.

[13] For Luther's contemporary, Ignatius of Loyola, the ability to know Christ could be improved through specific forms of meditative exercises.

Loyola's Spiritual Exercises require about 30 days of Christian meditation, contemplation and mental imagery, with the goal of knowing Christ more intimately and loving him more ardently.

This style of mystical prayer and contemplation continues to be used in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as a spiritual practice that facilitates the knowing of Christ.

[15][16] In the Catholic tradition, saints beside Ignatius of Loyola have suggested prayer and contemplation on scripture as a path to knowing Christ better.

[18] During the Apostolic Age, it was common in the Jewish tradition to assume that prophets in general had special illuminations, which later came to be called "infused knowledge" in Christian theology.

Cyril of Alexandria argued that it was "without doubt" that Christ did know the hour, but was emphasizing this from a passing human perspective.

[24] Writers on church history from as early as Louis Ellies du Pin in L'histoire de l'Eglise (1712) have also noted the role of Mark 13:32 in the controversies surrounding Arianism.

[27][28] In the 13th century, in Summa Theologiæ, Saint Thomas Aquinas undertook a systematic analysis of the knowledge of Christ.

[31] The Catechism of the Catholic Church (item 472) states that because Christ was endowed with true human knowledge, this could "increase in wisdom and in stature" because it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time.

[35] Calvin takes Luke's statement that the infant Jesus "grew in wisdom" to show that the pre-existent God the Son was "willing ... for a time, to be deprived of understanding,"[36] This view is followed by many Evangelical Protestants today.

Referring to Mark 13:32 Orthodox theologian Sergei Bulgakov summarized the Orthodox position by stating that the passage does not preclude the possibility of Christ knowing the hour, but he may know it in a form that can not be communicated to the Apostles as humans, because human consciousness is not capable of understanding that class of event.