 Christology is composed of two words:

Christos meaning literary anointed one,

namely, Christ. It is a Greek word but
translated from Hebrew mashiach
designating purely Hebrew concept
messiah.
 Logos is a Greek word, discourse or
treatise about something, in this case
Christ. Thus Christology is ‘Christ-talk’,
‘Messiah-talk’.
 Christology is the systematic study of
the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth.
What is the task of Christology?
 The task of Christology then is to
articulate an appropriate, intelligible
and coherent interpretation of the
person and work of Jesus of Nazareth
that is meaningful and life-giving
manner.
 Adequate Christology should be
historically informed, scripturally
based and anchored in the life
experience of the living tradition of
the Church.
Two Approaches to Christology
 Christology from above (Katabatic)
and Christology from below
(Anabatic).
 Christology from above (High).
Cfr. John 1:14 “The Word was made flesh
and lived amongst us”. Associated with
school of theology in Alexandria and its
Logos-Sarx Christology
 Christology from below (Low).
Cfr. genealogy of Jesus can be found in
Matthew 1:2-16 and Luke 3:23-38.
Christology starts with the “historical”
Jesus.
 Two dimensions of Christology

a) The quest for the Historical Jesus.

b) The Quest for Jesus of Faith.

 There are five phases of historical Jesus
- First Phase - Herman Samuel Reimarus
(1694-1768) and D. F. Strauss (1808-
1874).
Jesus Preaching vs Apostle’s faith
- Second Phase - Heinrich Julius
Holtzmann (1832-1910). Holtzmann
took the Gospel of Mark and its turning
point in Mark 8; as a biography of Jesus.
 - Third phase: collapse of the quest
for historical Jesus.
 Personal perspective(s) (Projections)
 Form Criticism - Not biographies
 Historical Construction - faith
cannot be built on the constantly
shifting ground of historical
research.
- Fourth Phase – “authentic Jesus
Tradition” the “New Quest” of the
Historical Jesus is possible by
excluding Judaistic tendencies.
‘criterion of difference.’
 Independent of christological titles
such as son of God, Son of man or
Messiah, etc.
 Fifth Phase – ‘new quest’
 The ‘new quest’ preferred ‘orthodox’
sources.
 The sociological interest replaced the
theological interest, and the concern
to find Jesus’ a place in Judaism
replaced the demarcation of Jesus
from Judaism.
- Social history = continuity pre and
post Easter Jesus.
- He is a founder of “a renewal
movement” within Judaism.
- Attention to non canonical sources,
namely, logia sources. E.g. The Gospel
of Thomas – independent of the
Synoptic.
- This means that multiplicity of
pictures of Jesus must be explained
independently of the limits of the
canon.
Are they to be preferred to the
Canonical Sources?