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Notes On Christology

The document summarizes key points from three sources on the figure of Jesus Christ in contemporary Christianity: 1) It discusses the trend to not think of Christ's divinity as something added to his humanity, but that a transcendent humanity fully images God within human limitations. 2) It outlines Bultmann's view that the personal history and character of Jesus is absorbed into his historical significance, so we need only know the "that" of Jesus, not the "what". 3) It describes how early Christians identified Jesus with pre-existing concepts like wisdom and the word, implying a pre-existence that modified his subordinate role in history and led them to read the Old Testament as about Jesus from creation on

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882 views1 page

Notes On Christology

The document summarizes key points from three sources on the figure of Jesus Christ in contemporary Christianity: 1) It discusses the trend to not think of Christ's divinity as something added to his humanity, but that a transcendent humanity fully images God within human limitations. 2) It outlines Bultmann's view that the personal history and character of Jesus is absorbed into his historical significance, so we need only know the "that" of Jesus, not the "what". 3) It describes how early Christians identified Jesus with pre-existing concepts like wisdom and the word, implying a pre-existence that modified his subordinate role in history and led them to read the Old Testament as about Jesus from creation on

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Notes on Christology The Figure of Jesus Christ in Contemporary Christianity by John Macquarrie in Companion Encyclopedia of Theology.

The trend today is not to think of divinity as an additional nature somehow added to Christs humanity or of his humanity as a nature assumed by his divinity, but rather that a transcendent humanity fully images God, to the extent that is possible under the conditions of finitude. P. 934.

So when Bultmann was asked how he could still have faith in Christ when so little is said to be known about him, he could give several answers. One, which might make some appeal to Lutheran, was that since historical research is a work, and faith cannot be built on works, it is a mistake to base faith on historical assertions. Again, if we read the New Testament to learn about our own human existence and the way that leads from an inauthentic to an authentic existence, we need not be too much concerned with the historical or literal accuracy of the stories, provided we appropriate their saving message. Finally, however, this seems to mean that we need not be too much concerned about the person of Jesus Christ himself. Bultmann believed that the personal history and character of Jesus had been absorbed into his historical significance, so that we needed to know only the that (dass) of Jesus, the fact that he lived and gave the message, not the what (was), the content or character of his life. His significance seems to be exhausted in his being the bearer of the message. P. 921.

Jesus in History and Belief, Leslie Houlden

Paul, the earliest Christian writer known to us, already identifies Jesus withwisdom, which, from being an attribute of God, had long been the subject of personifying or mythologizing tendencies in Judaism (Prov 8:22 ff; 1 Cor 1:24). And the Gospel of John identifies him with Gods word, a term which had developed in Judaism along similar lines to wisdom (Ps 33:6; Isa 55:10-11; John 1:1-14). Both ideas carried with them the notion of heavenly existence from the beginning, and, when applied to Jesus, implied a leap forward in the way he was perceived and at least some modification of his subordinate role as an agent of God at a specific time in the course of history, one element (albeit decisive) in a God-centred universe and a God-centred temporal process. It was one thing to apply the language of pre-existence, as it were poetically, to an attribute of God, viewed somewhat anthropomorphically; it was, in its implications and consequences, quite another thing to apply it to a man of known time and place, whose historical identity was subject to scrutiny and assessment. But, in their conviction of Jesus comprehensive function and of his having revolutionized human relations with God in all possible dimensions, Christians speedily took this audacious step. It led them to read even the old Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament) in their own new way; not only as foretelling Jesus physical arrival and subsequent career, but also as recording his presence and interventions in Israels (indeed the worlds) whole story, from creation onwards, often incognito and disguised as Gods angel; so that the Old Testament was, when rightly interpreted, a thoroughly Christian and Jesus-centred book. Thus, when in Genesis 1:26, God says, Let us make man in our own image, it was the pre-existent Christ who was being included in that momentous decision. P. 169.

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