Christology

WHAT IS IN A NAME?
This course introduces biblical, historical and philosophical contributions with the
aim of setting up a systematic Christology: which finds its primal interpretative key in
the resurrection of the crucified Jesus and his presence

Willian Wrede and Moltmann writes: The Messianic secret of Jesus Christ
O’Collins: The Messianic mystery of Jesus Christ
A secret can be revealed once and for all; a religious mystery invites a lifetime of
reflection in which there can never be a definitve statements and truly final conclusions.
Every significant affirmation always calls for further qualifications, explorations, and
additions.
Richard Rohr: mystery is not something you cannot understand – it is something that
you can endlesslyt understand. There is no point at which you can say, “I’ve got it.”
Always and forever mystery gets you!
I. Christology reflects the person, the being and the activity of
Jesus of Nazareth

A. Quest for historical Jesus

There are so many other things which Jesus did. If they were
all to be recorded in detail, The Gospel of John ends: I suppose
that the world itself could not contain the books that would be
written. (John 21:25)
B. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and philosopher Lucian
of Samosata and the Babylonian Talmund say:
Jesus was put to death by crucifixion under the Roman
Prefect Pontius Pilate during the reign of the Emperor
Tiberius; some Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were
involved in the execution; his followers called him
“Christ” and regarded him as the divine founder of a
new way of life.
C. St. Paul’s writings were before the Gospel:
1. Jesus was born Jew (Gal 3:16; Rom 9:5),
2. a descendant of King David (Rom 1:3),
3. exercised a ministry to the people of Israel (Rom 15:8),
4. forbade divorce (1 Cor 11:23-5);
5. died by crucifixion (Gal 2:20; 3:10; 1 Cor 1:23; Phil 2:8)
6. Risen from the dead, he appeared to Cepahs (Peter), the twelve,
over 500 followers, James ( a Christian leader in Jerusalem), and
Paul himself (1 Cor 15:3-8; 9:1 and Gal 1:12,26)
II. Why is experience important?
Experience is the basis of theology/Christology;
it is the basis of kerygma or proclamation;
It is the basis of belief;
experience triggers belief.
Why is it that the Christian message is a foreign language to
many? Why is it the Jesus as the Christ is disregarded by
many? The answer is experience and meaning.
The issue today is no longer this or that truth, but the ability to
believe that comes from experience: experience as a dimension of
faith; experience as a dimension of mystery.
Dogmatic theology is being re-framed as not only a set of
doctrines handed down from one generation to the other but
something that one experiences and that experience is confessed
in the context of a community.
A. Mythical: a very ancient religious idea of the human race and interprets in a
new and critical way through the lens of the experience of faith.
Psalm 14.1 “Only the fool says in his heart there is no God. Comes from an
experience
Wisdom 13:1-5 “All men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature… for
from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception
of their Creator.”

NT “the world as it presents itself to human beings in their everyday experience

becomes an image of the reign of God.” Examples: mustard seed, the yeast, the
parables.
Through the parables of God’s reign, the world at last acquires its definitive
meaning
B. Faith in the bible/ revelation of God in the course of
salvation history is not a blind venture, not an irrational
feeling, not an uncalculated option and certainly not an
sacrificium intellectum.
Faith can and must give a rational account of itself.
Believers are called upon to explain to all men for the
hope which they have.” 1 Peter 3:15
Faith seeking understanding is born out of a particular experience
both personally and in the community.

Can we know God? Yes through experience. Is it enough to

experience? No, reflection of experience is necessary. Experience
is a parable that needs decoding, interpretation and explanations.
Revealed to the childlike: Mt. 11:25 ““I praise you, Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from
the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
C. Analogy or metaphorical language. Metaphorical
Theology. Sally McFaque
*Metaphors “to carry across,” to get from one place to
another
*Life is a poetry, not a prose. It is a life-story not a dead
history. Fiction is the light through which we tell the
truth or for truth to triumph over chaos, we write
fictions. Myths deeper and wider than plane history.
OT and NT’s revelation regarding creation and salvation,
are to be interpreted according to their inherent unity and
their reciprocal correspondences (analogy). Biblical
revelation is to be interpreted in the light of reality and in
view of it; it must demonstrate its internal intelligibility by
continuing to be a prophetic interpretation of reality.

Grace presupposes nature; faith presupposes reason;

“divinization grounds itself in humanization”
III. God’s revelation presupposes a subject capable of
hearing, understanding, and making a free decision.
This is what constitutes experience.
Like all other knowledge, the knowledge of God
requires a basis in experience.
“God created man to know, to love, to serve and to be
with him forever.”
"In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh
that the mystery of man truly becomes clear." GS 22
E. Experience and faith are multi-layered:

1. personal experience of life

2. methodically disciplined experience of modern experimental sciences

3. everyday experience in a secularized world

4. devotional experience and the faith experience as mystical

5. practical experience in politics for example.

6. Imported experience/vicarious experience.

F. Faith is muti-layered as well:
1. the act of faith. In believe in… (the surrender, the
obedience…)
2. the content of faith (the contents at sync with the
world outside)
The relation between faith and experience:
1. Rom 10.17 “Faith comes from hearing”
2. “Modern definition, “Faith is an expression of religious experience.”

Faith finds expressions particularly in knowledge which

is never acquired with the mind alone but mediated
through the whole of existence and through the
existential center, the heart of man. (Mystics:
knowledge of God is an experiential knowledge of God)
We never experience reality in itself, we always experience it as something
that has a specific meaning for us; objective experience and interpretation of
experience can never be completely separated.
The German word to experience is erfahren which means to journey. An
experienced man is not only one who know the path but walked the path, a
well-travelled man. Latin experiential from the word peritus, the man who
through experimentation, trial or error, has piled up, as it were, insights within
his own person
It is not a valid refutation to say that God cannot be affirmed as he cannot be
experienced objectively because he cannot also be denied objectively. We
cannot experience God as he is but in so many way manifests himself in
varying modes.

One cannot encounter God and remain a distant spectator, for God lays total
claim to the person. In the language of the bible: the experience of God takes
place in the heart, that is in the core or center of the human person.
Experience must neither be reduced into something objective nor
subjective as it includes both: objective contact and subjective
feeling. Experience arises from the interplay of objective reality and
subjective intercourse with the environment. Experience is
inseparably a being affected by reality and an interpretation of this
contact through words, images, symbols and concepts. It is a
dialectical structure or a reciprocal interaction between the person
and the world.
IV. Jewish Matrix
*A Christology that ignores or plays down the Old
Testament can only be radically deficient.
A. Christ
1. St. Paul repeated calls Jesus “Christ” in a way that dominated the Christian
world within 25 years after the death of Jesus. It has almost lost its original
meaning as “anointed one” and was used more or less as a second (personal)
name. (1 Thes 1:1, 3; 5:23, 28) 1 Cor. 15:3)
2. In Pre-Pauline literatures, Christ has gotten a corporate signification
B. Septuagint; Christos Χρίστος (Chrístos) or ‫( ָמשִׁי ַח‬Messiah)
1. Saul (1 Sam 10:1), David (2 Sam 2:4; 5:3), and Solomon (1
Kings 1:34) The King is the Lord’s Anointed
2. The practice of the King’s anointing extended to the service
for ordination of the Aaronic priesthood. The high priest’s head
is anointed with oil (Ex. 29:1-9; Lev. 4:3,5,16; 6:22; 16:32)
3. Prophets could be considered anointed by God even if no
actual rite was mentioned. Elijah was commanded “to anoint”
Elisha (1 Kings 19:16, 19). “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me…”
OT’s anointed provided the matrix of recognizing in Jesus
the munus triplex (triple office)
The theme of Christ’s triple office was developed by John
Calvin (1509-64), and many protestant scholars, John Henry
Newman (1801-90) and Vatican II (Lumen Gentium 34-36)
OT expectations of an anointed was nurtured at Qumran hopes for
distinct priestly Messiah alongside a kingly Messiah.

Expectations involved the coming of the end-time, a prophet like

Moses. John’s gospel associates the prophet and the king.

The end-time is replete with suffering; or at least preceded by a

suffering servant.
4. The Hight Priest
*Levitical Priesthood was set apart to offer sacrifice and mediate
in a cultic way between God and human beings.
A. Christ was seen as a sacrificial victim particularly in the
paschal Triduum.
B. In the letter to the Hebrews: there was a intimate analogy and
contrast between the role of the Jewish priesthood on the day of
Atonement (Offering and Obedience)
Christ is the most heavy-laden of all human words. None has become so soiled,
so mutilated… Generations of people have laid the burden of their anxious
lives upon this word and weighed it to the ground; it lies in the dust and bears
their whole burned. The races of people with their religious factions have torn
the word into pieces; they have killed for it and died for it, and it bears their
fingermarks and their blood. They draw caricatures and write, “Christ”
underneath; they murder one another to say, “in Christ’s name.” We must
esteem those who interdict it because they rebel against the injustice and wrong
which are so readily referred to ‘Christ’ for authorization.