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JESUS – GOD AND MAN. By Wolfhart Pannenberg. London: SCM Press, 2002. Pp.

xxvi + 472. £14.99

Wolfhart Pannenberg’s book, Jesus – God and Man, is one of the most excellent
contributions in the history of modern existentialist christologies. In this book, Pannenberg
believes that Christians know and discuss about God only as he has been revealed in and
through Jesus. Hence, “theology and Christology, the doctrine of God and the doctrine of
Jesus as the Christ, are bound together” (p.xxviii). He tries to locate his Christology
between two polar ends in the history of Christology. The first is the view that has arisen
out of the illuminist rationalism of the modern era, which holds that Christ is only human
and that his being, life and mission had no messianic or divine significance. Therefore, the
proponents of this view insist that that the task of Christology is to search for the historical
Jesus. The second is the view that does not see any need in going back to the historical
Jesus. What matters for theologians of this group, like Bultmann, is the Church’s kerygma
about Christ. For them, the task of Christology is to investigate how the Church’s
preaching about Christ challenges Christians to a life of commitment in faith.
Pannenberg’s Christology, therefore, stands between historical and kerymatic Christology.

In seeking to take this middle position, Pannenberg decided to start from the
historical Jesus and moves forward to prove his divinity and his relation to the Father
therefrom (Christology “from below”). This is because it is in it that one discovers the
decisive factor in Jesus’ life and proclamation upon which faith is founded. Thus, he
succinctly states: “Christology is concerned, therefore, not only with unfolding the
Christian community’s confession of Christ, but above all with grounding it in the activity
and fate of Jesus in the past. The confession of Christ cannot be pre-supposed already and
simply interpreted” (p.10).

Now, though Christology must begin with the man Jesus, “its first question has to be
that about his unity with God. Every statement about Jesus taken independently from his
relationship to God could result only in a crass distortion of his historical reality. The
modernistic presentation of Jesus at the height of the quest of the historical Jesus offers
enough examples of this” (p.19). In trying to investigate the basis of Jesus’ unity with God
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“from below,” most groups have taken the lead from the claim to authority in Jesus’
proclamation and work. But there is no reason for the assumption that the foregoing taken
by itself justified faith in Jesus. On the contrary, everything depends upon the connection
between Jesus’ claim and its confirmation by God. God’s confirmation of Jesus’ pre-Easter
claim happened in Jesus’ resurrection. However, the verisimilitude of Jesus’ resurrection
as a historical event has been seriously argued and debated. For Pannenberg, the
resurrection of Jesus would be designated as a historical event “only if one examines it in
the light of the eschatological hope for a resurrection from the dead, then that which is so
designated is a historical event, even if we do not know anything more particular about it”
(pp.94-5). At this juncture, a problem crops up because the significance of Jesus’
resurrection was originally bound to the fact that it constituted only the beginning of the
universal resurrection of the dead and the end of the world. Again, Pannenberg rightly
noted that the delay of the end events, which now amounts to almost two thousand years,
is not a refutation of the Christian hopes and of revelation as long as the unity between
what happened in Jesus and the eschatological future is maintained.

Having stated this, he turns to examine the Christologies of the Church on the basis
of Jesus’ unity with God as shown in his resurrection. An impasse becomes manifest here:
Jesus’ unity with God himself was expressed in different ways in primitive Christianity,
not only in a multiplicity of traditional titles, but also in such a way that these titles were
connected with definite events in Jesus’ destiny to be the future, eschatological Son of
God. Now, did Jesus become the Son of God only at his baptism, or through the particular
event of transfiguration, or through his resurrection, or that he already was the Son of God
from the beginning, from his birth or even as a pre-existent being before his earthly birth?
Can a material relationship among all these conceptions be shown? In Pannenberg’s view,
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the decisive point in the history of Jesus’ relation to
God. Nevertheless, this does not imply that Jesus received divinity only as a consequence
of his resurrection. Jesus did not simply become something that he previously had not
been; rather, his pre-Easter claim was confirmed by God in his resurrection. This
confirmation, the manifestation of Jesus’ “divine Sonship” by God, is the new thing

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brought by the Easter event. However, as confirmation, the resurrection has retroactive
force for Jesus’ pre-Easter activity, which taken by itself was not yet recognizable as being
divinely authorized. How, now, did Jesus, exalted through the resurrection from the dead,
become the pre-existent divine being descending from heaven? According to Pannenberg,
in view of God’s eternity, the revelatory character of Jesus’ resurrection means that God is
always one with Jesus, even before his earthly birth. Jesus is from all eternity the
representative of God in the creation. Were it otherwise, Jesus would not be in person the
one revelation of the eternal God.

Having established Jesus’ divinity, Pannenberg sets out to establish also the basis
and significance of Jesus’ humanity. Responding to views that hold Jesus’ humanity as a
myth, he avers, “If Jesus lived at all, if his existence is not to be counted as a matter of
spiritistic mysticism, then he was a man like us. The only question is where the uniqueness
of this man in distinction from other men is to be seen” (p.207). What constitutes Jesus’
uniqueness is that in him that which is man’s destiny as man has appeared for the first time
in an individual and thus has become accessible to all others only through this individual.
In this light, the essence of man becomes revealed through Jesus, the Son of God, in a
twofold way: “first, through Jesus’ deeds in that Jesus grants or promises community with
himself and thus participation in eschatological salvation; second, in Jesus’ fate insofar as
man’s destiny in the resurrection life has been revealed in Jesus himself” (p.211).

At this juncture, Pannenberg entered the insuperable problem of the doctrine of the
two natures. From the very beginning Christian theology has been forced to say that Jesus
is both truly God and, at the same time, truly man. What constitutes the real distinction
between the two-sided statement vere deus, vere homo concerning the one man Jesus? The
doctrine about the two natures does not take the concrete unity of the historical man Jesus
as its given point of departure, but rather the difference between the divine and the human,
creaturely being in general. Various attempts were proffered towards resolving this
dilemma. The two cardinal ones are: Antiochene Christology and Alexandrian Christology.
However, the two attempts historically proved implausible and none was fully adopted by
the Church.
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For Pannenberg, this dilemma results from a Christology which begins with the
assertion of incarnation in order to attain, by argument, the unity of the man Jesus with the
eternal Son of God. This is because the incarnation “is itself an expression of this unity,
which must be explained and established on other grounds” (p.367). Furthermore, “the
unity of the man Jesus with the eternal Son of God results rather only by the way of a
detour.... It is a detour by way of Jesus’ relation to the ‘Father’ i.e. to the God of Israel
whom he called Father. Only the personal community of Jesus with the Father shows that
he is himself identical with the Son of this Father” (p.382). From the perspective of Easter
Jesus is revealed as the one obedient to the Father in his mission and Fate, and as such he
is the revelation of the Father, and as the revelation of the divinity of the Father is himself
one with God and thus himself belongs inseparably to the essence of God. Thus is he Son.
The designation of Jesus as “Son” is justified only as a statement about the whole of the
course of his existence. But within the course of his life, this fact is apparent only from its
end. If one neglects this distinction, the full humanity of Jesus’ earthly way is lost from
view. Thereby, the man Jesus indirectly shows himself to be identical with the existence of
the Son of God. His humanity is not synthesized with a divine essence, but it involves two
complementary total aspects of his existence. Nevertheless, with the special relation to the
Father in the human historical aspect of Jesus’ existence, his identity in the other aspect –
that of the eternal Son of the eternal Father – is given. “Thus the perception of Jesus’
eternal Sonship as dialectically identical with his humanity is based noetically upon the
particularity of just this human being in his relation to the divine Father; ontologically, the
relation is inverted, for the divine Sonship designates the ontological root in which Jesus’
human existence connected with the Father and nevertheless distinguished from him, has
the ground of its unity and of its meaning” (p.385).

While one cannot fail to laud Pannenberg’s genius in this book, it must be admitted
that the tendency to equate a Christology that starts from history with theology is not
altogether a healthy development. Often, such a Christology ends up developing
theologies that are constructs of human reason. Furthermore, the pivotal function which
resurrection plays in his scheme is problematic. If his Christology is that which is found

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within the process of divine revelation, it should be progressive rather than retrogressive.
The resurrection, thus, should not be the decisive point of manifestation of the deity of
Christ but the climatic point. It could be noticed, also, that Pannenberg was a child of the
existentialist system. He consciously omits the Passion and the Cross. His Christology
could not demonstrate how Christ’s divinity would be revealed in the assault of the cross.
So he prefers to locate such a father/son relationship in the triumph of the story of the
resurrection than in the scandal of the passion and cross. Unfortunately, here he misses the
kernel of Christianity by a leap. In fact, even though the value of the cross was confirmed
by the resurrection, it is by the cross that Christ relates himself to the will of God. It is
because of this that the Church persistently talks of the Paschal mystery as the passion,
death and resurrection. It is a single reality that is at the same time a continuum that cannot
be separated.

All in all, Wolfhart Pannenberg is really a household name in dogmatics. He


masterfully wrote Jesus – God and Man in a lucid but erudite mode with sustained
arguments. No one will read Jesus – God and Man without having awe for the refined and
fine mind of the author. His characteristic way of stating, in brief, the theory he is about to
expound in a particular chapter aids a lot in comprehending the book. Save for few
delicate topics, like his views on Mary’s virginal birth and Jesus’ meritorious freedom, his
thoughts were quite orthodox. One expresses nothing but admiration in Pannenberg’s style
of highlighting a theological problem, bringing in various authors’ view on the particular
issues, countering them where necessary, and then resolving the problem. Furthermore, an
unusual consistency and coherency ran through the work. In fact, Jesus – God and Man, in
words of critics, is a “must” for all serious students in contemporary theology.

JESUS OF NAZARETH. By Pope Benedict XVI. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Pp. xxvi
+ 355. U.S. $24.95.
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Perhaps, as an allusion to the rich and scholarly content of Jesus of Nazareth, the
Pope in his very first sentence in the “Forward” remarked that the book has had a long
gestation, which started when he was growing up in the 1930s. This book is an attack
against an extreme type of modern historical exegesis which in its search for the historical
Jesus denies the divinity of Christ and can only grant that Christ is God if such a claim
would be taken as a latter interpretation of the post-resurrection Christian community. The
Pope lauded the remarkable achievements and contributions of historical-critical
scholarship in making the life of Jesus of Nazareth very accessible to the modern mind;
yet, he lamented gravely that “it led to finer and finer distinctions between layers of
tradition in the Gospels, beneath which the real object of faith – the figure of Jesus –
became increasingly obscured and blurred” (p.xii). Furthermore, as historical-critical
scholarship advanced, it culminated in this bizarre conclusion: the faith in the divinity of
Jesus was only a later result of the believing community. This impression has by now
penetrated deeply into the minds of the Christian people at large. This is a dramatic
situation for faith, because its point of reference is being placed in doubt: Intimate
friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends, is in danger of clutching at the thin
air.

From this background, the Pope hopes to counter these foregoing implications of the
conclusions of historical-critical scholarship about Jesus. He hopes to rediscover the real
Jesus in the light of his communion with the Father, which is the true centre of his
personality. However, beyond contemporaries who have also taken this route, like
Schnackenburg, he believes that the details of the real historical Jesus recorded in the
Gospel are not the dubious insertions of the proclamations of the early Christian
community. In so doing, the Pope asserts his trust that the Gospel can render the real Jesus:
“The main implication of this for my portrayal of Jesus is that I trust the Gospel” (p.xxi).
Having stated this, he goes on to categorically state the import of his work: “Of course, I
take for granted everything that the Council and modern exegesis tell us about literary
genre, about authorial intention, and about the fact that the Gospels were written in the
context, and speak within the living milieu, of communities. I have tried, to the best of my

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ability, to incorporate all of this, and yet I wanted to try to portray the Jesus of the Gospels
as the real, ‘historical’ Jesus in the strict sense of the word” (pp.xxi-ii).

From the Gospels, the Pope firmly stated, Jesus is the only true revealer of the
Father (God), because he is the only one who has seen the Father (cf. Jn.1:18). To
expatiate on this foregoing point, he contrasts Jesus with Moses, the greatest prophet of
the Old Testament, of whom it was reported in Deut. 34:10: “And there has not arisen a
prophet since in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.” Earlier in the same
book, Moses prophetically consoled the Israelites thus: “The Lord your god will raise up
for you a prophet like me from among you” (Deut.18:15). In the bid to understand what
Moses meant by a prophet like me, the Pope drew out the most distinctive character about
the figure of Moses: “... whom the Lord knew face to face.” Yet, there is a limit to Moses’
intimacy with God. When Moses asked God, “I pray thee, show me thy glory” (Ex.33:18),
God refuses his request: “You cannot see my face” (Ex.33:20). This shows how far Moses’
intimacy with God can go: “You shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen”
(Ex.33:23). This request, which was refused Moses can be granted only to the Son: “No
one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has
made him known” (Jn.1:18). It is in Jesus that the promise of the new prophet is fulfilled.
“What was true of Moses only in fragmentary form has now been fully realized in the
person of Jesus: He lives before the face of God, not just as a friend, but as a Son; he lives
in the most intimate unity with the Father” (p.6).

Therefore, the Pope went further to draw the implications of this unity of Jesus with
the Father in his life and teaching. For him, Jesus’ teaching is not the product of human
learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from
“face-to-face” dialogue – from the vision of the one who rests close to the Father’s heart.
It is the Son’s word. Without this inner grounding, his teaching would be pure
presumption. From here, the Pope went on to demonstrate how this inner grounding and
unity of Jesus in the deep communion with the Father was manifested throughout his
major events as recorded in the Gospels. During his baptism, the Father himself acclaimed
Jesus as his only begotten-Son. Jesus’ Sonship was also very manifest in his temptations
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and his proclamation of the Kingdom of God. Cross-dimensional reading of the Gospel
will show that Jesus himself is that Kingdom of God which he preached. In the Sermon of
the Mount, Christ’s position of authority vis-a-vis the Torah alarmed the Jews, because he
did what was reserved only for God. And, it is only God who can do what Jesus Christ has
just done: “You have heard that it was said..., but I say to you....” Moses brought the Old
Law, now, Jesus – the new Moses – brings the New Law, which is not meant to abolish the
old but to perfect and fulfil it to the fullest. Furthermore, in the Lord’s Prayer, the
character of the new religion instituted by Christ becomes evident: invitation to share in
the Sonship of Jesus Christ. The Jews revere and respect God, but none dare address him
as Father, as Abba, only the Son can do this; it is only the Son who comes to reveal the
Father can invite us to address God as Our Father. This novel and original concept of
Sonship ran through Jesus’ choice of his apostles, which he did after having communed
with the Father in the mountain, the messages of his parables, the principle images of
Jesus in John’s gospel, to Peter’s confession at Ceasarea Philippi and the Transfiguration
of Jesus at Mount Tabor. Finally, Jesus’ divine Sonship was shown very brilliantly in the
various self-declarations of his identity, especially under these three basic terms: “Son of
Man,” “Son” and “I am he.”

The fundamental, focal question that reverberated throughout the work was: “Is
Jesus Christ really God and not one of those enlightened individuals that history
occasionally witnessed. The Pope dramatically demonstrated this in the dialogue between
Jesus and the Rabbi Neusner. The latter followed and agreed with Jesus’ teachings until the
point when Jesus asserted himself to be God. For the Pope, this is the decisive point in the
contemporary world. Today, many accept Jesus’ teaching as inspiring but shrink back at
his claim of unity with the Father. At best, the historical-critical scholarship projects that
Jesus’ claims of being of God in the Gospel were just the latter developments of the early
believing Christian community. They try to demonstrate that the historical Jesus never
understood nor proclaimed himself as one with God. In addition to the numerous proofs
and convictions in the pages of his work, the Pope strongly asserts there are direct
declarations of Jesus’ unity with God in the Gospels which were original only to Jesus

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himself, without any former appearance in the contemporaneous Jewish milieu. Among
others, these three stand prominent: “Son of Man,” “Son (of God)” and “I am He”: “All
three of them bring to light Jesus’ originality – his newness, that specific quality unique to
him that does not derive from any further source. All three are therefore possible only on
his lips – and central to all is the prayer-term “Son,” corresponding to the “Abba, Father”
that he addresses to God. None of these three terms as such could therefore be
straightforwardly adopted as a confessional statement by the “community,” by the Church
in its early stages of formation” (p.354).

Actually, in Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI has done a lot to bridge the gap
between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. One significant fact from this critical
work is that the author intends to beat his opponents in their own field. He approaches the
verdict in Christology by historico-critical exegesis from a historical point of view and yet
grasps what eluded the historic-critical exegetes – the duty of the Son of man. However, it
is at this decisive point that the Pope’s loophole became obvious: the evidence and
authority of the Pope seems not fully capture the length and breadth of the liberal thesis
and agenda. The point is that not even the Gospels are free from the attack of historico-
critical exegetes. This is largely because, for the historico-critical exegetes, the Gospels do
not present an objective history one can rely on. They feel that the Gospels are articulated
statements of the Church that has a historical structure that is aimed at proving the divinity
of Christ and the messianic vision of Christ’s mission. This is the point the Pope did not
actually grasp; otherwise, it is either that he would not have used the Gospels as his
authority or that he would have attended to a more basic issue in proving the historical
basis of the Gospels’ claim on Jesus Christ.

Finally, it must be noted, according to the Pope, that “this book is in no way an
exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my personal search ‘for the face
of the Lord.’ Everyone is free, then, to contradict me. I would only ask my reader for that
initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding” (p. xxiii-xxiv).

“The Emergence of African Theologies.” By Justin S. Ukpong in Theological Studies,


Vol. 45, no. 3 (September 1984): 502-529.
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Contextualization of theology has, within the last few years, become a major
theological orientation of contemporary age whether in the North Atlantic region or in the
South. It is within this framework that three major theological currents have emerged in
Africa in the last two decades. The first and oldest of these is African inculturation
theology, simply referred to as African theology. Briefly stated, this theology is an attempt
to give African expression to the Christian faith within a theological framework. The
second is South Africa black theology. This takes after the American black theology and
aims at relating the gospel message to the social situation of segregation and oppression in
which the blacks in South Africa find themselves. The third is African liberation theology,
which is becoming very popular in most parts of Africa. There are three sub-currents in
this theology. One is based on the indigenous socioeconomic system, the second takes
after the Latin American model, and the third involves a combination of elements from
both approaches. They seek genuine human promotion in the context of the poverty and
political powerlessness of Africa, and take the form of Christian reflection within the
context. These three theologies are based on three different issues which, though separate,
are nevertheless related: the issue of culture for African inculturation theology, and the
issue of colour for South African black theology, and the issue of poverty for African
liberation theology. According to Ukpong, many authors in discussing African theology
consciously or unconsciously tend to take one or other of these issues as basic and then
attempt to integrate the other issues into the framework elaborated for the basic issue.
However, these approaches are inadequate for articulating the different concerns raised by
these three strands of African theology and the Christian response to them. Consequently,
Ukpong approached these issues by acknowledging each of these issues as different in
nature from the others and as such, demand a different theological approach. At the same
time, he recognised also that these issues and the theologies based on them are seen to be
interrelated. Before carrying out the foregoing, he highlighted the factors that made these
African theologies possible at the time they appeared.

Firstly, he noted the cultural factor: African inculturation theology, being a


phenomenon of the Christian religion in Africa, is a function of the process of the

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interaction over the years of African traditional religion and culture with Christianity
presented through European culture. This interaction has produced two things: the
selection and integration of elements from both sides as well as cultural tension. Secondly,
the historical factor: the history of Christianity is replete with milestones of inculturation,
which can be interpreted as supporting the drive for inculturation theology in Africa.
Thirdly, the socio-political factor: During the colonial era African culture suffered disdain
at the hands of the colonizers. After independence, however, an all-out attempt was made
to reaffirm its identity and integrity, as true selfhood was seen to include cultural identity.
The wave of this cultural revival did not leave Church practices unscathed. There was a
great desire, among African intellectuals particularly, to show a positive attitude towards
and an appreciation of African culture. The same philosophy also inspired the search for
political and economic identity expressed in liberation theology. Black theology of South
Africa arises, too, from a reactionary sentiment and has as its point of departure the social
discrimination practiced against the blacks in that country. Fourthly, in the light of the
contributions from the social sciences, culture came to be defined in terms of differences
in existing societies rather than in terms of one society taken as a paradigm. Researches
along this line have led to the realization that African culture has a great potential in the
process of evangelization. This was the beginning of African theology. Finally, the
theological factor: the theology of the Second Vatican Council has influenced the rise of
African theologies. The entire orientation of the Council was marked by an updating of the
Christian life in all its forms. This alone was enough to inspire in African theologians a
certain questioning and creativity as to the mode of presentation of Christianity in Africa,
including the presentation of theology.

That the above three theologies are different on the basis of the issues they treat
seems clear enough from the foregoing discussion. But they are also related. This is
because all these issues have to do with the fundamental concepts of freedom and life.
Negatively put, these issues express reactions to negations of freedom and of life’s
meaningfulness at different levels of the African’s existence. Positively, they articulate
certain phases in the process of Africa’s search for freedom and for meaning in life.

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African theologies have a basic feature with other third world theologies, which are
distinguished from traditional Western theology: they are a response, in the spirit of the
gospel, to the cultural, religious, social, economic, and political concerns of the different
Third World peoples. Furthermore, African theologies do not oppose but complement
Western theology. Western theology is basically an attempt to give a systematic
presentation of Christian doctrine. It treats, therefore, of the basic Christian concepts,
beliefs, and doctrines and presents these in terms of a human thought-system. African
theologies are also concerned with the presentation of the basic Christian faith. However,
they differ significantly from Western theology because they have as their basic constraints
an African world view, an African religious thought-system, and an African way of
apprehending reality. These theologies naturally depart in context from the traditional
Western theology. They are situational theologies. From this, according Ukpong, it is clear
that while African theologies are new ways of doing theology, they are not opposed to
Western theology; they are meant to complement it.

Ukong has really done some noble work here that demands much praise.
Nevertheless, the aforementioned African theologies are at the same time assumed to be
Christian. In my view, what the three strands of African theology set out to achieve are not
in consonance with the modus operandi of theology in the Christian sense. Theology
should be a discourse on God and his relationship with man. But what is set here as
African theology can best be classified as theories of liberation and inculturation, but
never theology, especially in the Christian milieu. African theology can emerge when
African gods and religious objects are brought to the level of critical approach.

“The ‘Incarnation’ of the Holy Spirit in Christ.” By David Coffey in Theological


Studies Vol. 45, no. 3 (September 1984): 464-488.

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Orthodox Christian faith understands the high point of God’s presence to man in
terms of “incarnation” i.e. the assumption of a human nature by God the Son, who had
existed from eternity in the divine nature. Faith further understands this presence of God
as radiating out from the Incarnation and being shared in by all who make the submission
of faith through Christ. This is accomplished through the Holy Spirit, who, also existing
from eternity, is now sent by Christ to men and women, to unite them to himself and
ultimately to the Father. According to Coffey, “this entry of the eternal spirit into God’s
plan of salvation happens through Christ and in dependence on him.” (p.466) Therefore,
he calls it an “incarnation” of the Holy Spirit in Christ. In the light of the above, he aims to
explore the nature of this “incarnation” of the Holy Spirit. To do this he took the
Christology of Rahner as his point of departure. Rahner’s basic Christological insight rests
upon his philosophical and theological anthropology: philosophical anthropology because
he understands human nature in terms of transcendence; and theological anthropology
because he sees the term of this transcendence, which is realized perfectly only in the case
of Jesus, as hypostatic union with the divine Son. For Rahner, the incarnation of God is the
unique, supreme, case of the total actualization of human reality, which consists of the fact
that man is in so far as he gives himself up. Consequently, he draws two cardinal
implications: first, the divinity of Christ is not something different from his humanity; it is
the humanity, i.e. human nature at the peak of its possibility, which is the achievement of
God’s grace, to which the human efforts of Jesus are subordinated. Second, to say that the
divinity of Christ is his humanity is not to say that the divine person of the Son comes to
perfect expression in the human nature of Christ. It is only to say that he comes to the most
perfect expression of which humanity is capable, which is different from the expression
which he has in his divine nature in the eternal Trinity.

Rahner’s Christology made it possible for Coffey to understand the divinization of


the humanity of Christ as the work of the Holy Spirit. In the one act of nature and grace
the humanity of Christ was created by the triune God and so radically sanctified by the
Holy Spirit, sent thereto by the Father, that it became one in person with the eternal Son,
and so Son of God in humanity. This theology of Incarnation, with its central role for the

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Holy Spirit, does not harmonize with the doctrine of the immanent Trinity in which the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The solution lies in recognizing that
tradition offers not just one but two models of the immanent Trinity. Though the second is
far less well known that the first. The first had to do with the processions themselves and
the second with the manner of the processions. It is with the second model of the Trinity
that Coffey’s theology of Incarnation harmonizes. Accordingly, the Holy Spirit is the
mutual love of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is not the result or term of this
mutual love; He is the love itself. The Holy Spirit is an operatio subsistens, and in this
respect is to be contrasted with the Son, who is the subsistent term of an immanent
operation in the Trinity. Coffey calls this model of the Trinity the ‘bestowal model’
because according to it, the Holy Spirit, as mutual love of the Father and the Son, is the
love which the Father bestows on the Son and the answering love which the Son bestows
on the Father. This model stands in distinction to the “procession model” in which the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

This love of Jesus for the Father, which is the Holy Spirit, is infinite. Yet, given that
even the actualization of the infinite divine Sonship in humanity is not just possible but
verified in the case of Jesus, this love is not beyond the obediential potency of human
nature. In Jesus there was a progressive actualization of the divine Sonship. This does not
mean that God underwent change in Himself. It means rather that the humanity of Christ
had a normal history of development from birth through death. In this growing maturity it
became an ever more apt medium for the actualization of the Divine Sonship. Parallel to
the progressive actualization of the divine Sonship, there was a progressive actualization
of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ transcendental love of the Father. Hence, as love follows
knowledge, with the dawn of consciousness in Jesus, the Holy Spirit, as his transcendental
love of the Father, began to assume the characteristics of his very personal and individual
love of God, and this process continued throughout his life, coming to its completion in his
death. But further when Jesus died he was admitted to “the beatific vision.” In his case this
can only mean that the direct presence of the Father, which he experienced throughout life,
was now apprehended with full intellectual clarity. This means that the Holy Spirit, as

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Jesus’ transcendental love of the Father, become fully “incarnated” in his human love,
since his love must follow the new intellectual presentation of its object. Here, then, we
have the perfect “incarnation” of the Holy Spirit in Christ. It is the incarnation of divine
love in human love.

Consequently, two things from the Scriptures are now explained. First, the Holy
Spirit bears the Christological character or impress. The Spirit touches us first as the
fraternal love of Christ, and in its unitive character unites us with him, so that with Paul
one can say “Christ lives in me” (Gal.2:20). Second, one can now understand why the
sending of the Spirit on the Church after the death of Jesus presents not just a factual but a
necessary sequence, for it depends on his attainment of the beatific vision. For this the
Holy Spirit has to be seen as the return of the Father’s love by Jesus and his sending of the
Spirit upon the Church as the obverse of this love.

Coffey wrote like a master in the field. His work, however, has a bent towards the
rejection of the mystery of the distinct persons of the Trinity as held by the Catholic
Church. The ‘bestowal model’ which he employed implicitly denied personhood to the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was presented merely as the operatio subsistens, a term which
he used to explained the manner of processions in the immanent Trinity. The Church, on
the contrary, holds that the three persons of the Trinity are distinct and equal. Furthermore,
he opined that there was a progressive actualization of the Holy Spirit in Jesus as he was
growing up. This reached its apogee with Jesus’ admission into the beatific vision. This
raises serious question about Jesus’ eternity. With the admittance into the beatific vision,
did he acquire a knowledge which he never had before or which he had forgotten, as in the
Plato’s ‘world of Forms’?

“The Vocation of the Theologian.” By Mary Ann Donovan in Theological Studies, Vol.
65 no. 1. (March 2004): 3-22.

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Before this contemporary era, the study of theology and the vocation of theologians
were reserved in the Church. Then, theologians were bishops, priests and religious. The
vocation of the theologian in the Church then was very clear. His vocation is to pursue in a
particular way an ever deeper understanding of the word of God found in the inspired
Scriptures and handed on by the living tradition of the Church. The theologian does this in
communion with the magisterium, which has been charged with the responsibility of
preserving the deposit of faith. Today, however, society, culture and worldview are
changing very swiftly. Significantly, nowadays, theologians are as often lay as clerics. The
vocation of the theologian seems to be blurred. The fact that theologians are increasingly
lay, that their preparation for their work is predominantly academic, and that theological
work is increasingly done outside institutions which are juridically controlled by the
Church pose a potential threat to faith and suggest a re-examination of this vocation of the
theologian.

As a historical theologian, Donovan thinks that an investigation in the history of the


theological vocation, and the impact in it of recent developments in theology, may shed
light on the joy and hope to be found in following such a call. Before Vatican II,
theologians were mainly bishops and the vocation of the theologian was still within the
cloister of the Church, it has not yet been secularized. This is why Vatican II reserves a
great significance on the common theological vocation of laymen and clerics. In the
Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, the council rooted the infallibility of the
magisterium in the entire people of God: “The whole body of the faithful who have
received an anointing which comes from the holy one cannot be mistaken in belief. It
shows this characteristic through the entire people’s supernatural sense of the faith [sensus
fidei] when, ‘from the bishops to the last of the faithful’ it manifests a universal consensus
in matters of faith and morals.... The people unfailingly adhere to this faith, penetrates it
more deeply through right judgement, and applies it more fully in daily life” (LG no.12). It
is, therefore, the entire people, united with the bishops, who “cannot err in matters of
belief.” However, the last sentence quoted summarizes not only the task of the whole
people, but equally, if not indeed especially, the task of the theologian – “the people

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unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply through right judgement, and
applies it more fully in daily life.” Much of this text can surely be understood as applicable
to the theologian’s work.

Furthermore, the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes no.44 states that the
purpose of the work in which theologians are to engage is in relation to the Word of God,
the revealed truth. Gaudium et spes no.62 noted the evident fact that harmonizing culture
with Christian thought can be difficult, but stresses that, far from having the faith, the
difficulties can “stimulate a more precise and deeper understanding of that faith.” In this
light, the council exhorts theologians to be ready to respond to new problems from
researches and discoveries in various disciplines that have important bearing on life itself.
They are also asked to find new ways to present their teaching, ways that will at one and
the same time respect the limits of their science, and the situation of their students. In
pastoral care, theologians are asked to make use not only of theological principles but also
of the findings of secular sciences, especially psychology and sociology, to assist others to
come to a more mature faith life. All of this calls for collaboration with experts in many
fields. Gaudium et spes encourages such work in the hope that theologians will then be
able to present the Word in a way more suited to our contemporaries.

On another note, the document expresses the explicit hope that more of the laity
would become theologians. This move is a clearly intentional shift in direction considering
the long history of fear of lay theological teaching. The laity has responded well to this
call and their presence as theologians faces the Church with a new situation and challenge.
In no. 62 of Gaudium et spes, the council concludes that theologians should be accorded a
lawful freedom of inquiry, of thought, and of expression for the proper exercise of their
vocation. However, the revised Code of Canon Law qualifies this freedom in Canon 218
by adding “...while observing the submission due to the magisterium of the Church.” How
the theologian can enjoy academic freedom while giving appropriate submission to the
magisterium had been hotly debated. Surely, to insure sound teaching is a primary
episcopal responsibility. Yet, since teaching is the primary gift of the theologian, it is
inevitable and necessary that the two offices relate to one another. It is the same Holy
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Spirit that endows the people of God with the teaching office exercised by the hierarchy,
and also bestows the vocation of the theologian on others for the better service of the one
same people of God. Hence, fundamental contradiction between the two cannot continue,
because the Spirit cannot and does not work against Itself.

But, in Donovan’s view, disagreements continue to arise. They are unavoidable.


God’s gifts pour into the Church both through office-holders and through members who
hold no office. Only God, the gift-giver, knows where these gifts are leading. Rahner
suggested that the only thing capable of bringing unity to the Church on the human level is
love, that “love which allows another to be different, even when it does not understand
him.” Conclusively, Donovan firmly stated that when it comes to testing the validity of a
gift, office-holders should not extinguish the Spirit, but should test all things and hold fast
to what is good. This is because history is already replete with attempts made by some
office-holders to thwart the work of the Spirit. Nevertheless, she admonishes that every
charism involves suffering because it is painful to fulfil the task set by the gift and, at the
same time, to endure the opposition of another within the Church. Such is the anguish and
joy in following the vocation of a theologian.

Donovan raised a very topical issue here. Yet, it must be noted that the freedom
which she is seeking to the theologians is not a feasible one. This is because the vocation
of the theologian could not be likened to those of other secular sciences. Though theology
is not being read and taught by many of the laity, and even outside the institutions
governed by the Church, the fruits of these are, in the final analysis doled out to the
members of the Church. Therefore, the Church reserved the right to vouch for the safety of
the faith of her members. Theologians may be free to think and inquire about whatever,
but not so free to express whatever strange doctrines they deem fit because the recipients
of these doctrines are adherents and members of the Church.

“Toward Full Communion: Faith and Order and Catholic Ecumenism.” By Jeffrey
Gros in Theological Studies Vol. 65, no. 1. (March 2004): 23-43.

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At the time of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church launched on a
renewed self-understanding of herself as Church and its relationships to other churches
and ecclesial communities. She has moved irreversibly into the path of dialogue with other
Christians with the goal of the restoration of full visible unity. In pursuing this goal, the
Catholic Church encourages collaboration, spiritual solidarity, common witness and
mission as well as careful dialogue to resolve those elements that still divide the churches.
The most widely known results of these dialogues are the bilateral agreements that have
involved the Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformation Churches on key issues such as
justification, Christology, the Eucharist, and ministry. These dialogues and proposals
between two church bodies provide careful and measured steps toward that visible unity to
which the Churches are committed together. However, a forum for multilateral dialogue in
the Faith and Order movement also exists and encompasses the full range of Pentecostal,
Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Catholic, and Evangelical churches. Thus, Gros reviews
the contribution of this latter dimension of the Catholic ecumenical program.

The movement that encouraged the return to the Christian sources and a revaluation
of the divisions in Christianity are rooted in the 19th century. Before that, Catholic scholars
had been drawn, from time to time, to a reconsideration of other churches. In 1919, Pope
Benedict XV met with a Faith and Order delegation, but declined to permit Catholic
participation in the organization. The 1928 encyclical of Pius XI, Mortalium animos, set a
negative tone to Catholic approach to Faith and Order and ecumenical work in general,
until practically the eve of the Vatican II. The threat of indifferentism and relativism
plagued Catholic leadership. The Holy Office, by 1950, acknowledged that the ecumenical
movement derives from the aspiration of the Holy Spirit while reasserting Catholic
exclusivist claims. On the eve of the council, Catholics were present at the 1957 North
American Conferences on Faith and Order as well as the 1960 World Council of Churches
meeting. Many of the observers sent to represent their churches at Vatican II were from the
Faith and Order movement. In 1968 the Holy See joined the Commission on Faith and
Order and appointed official representatives. From this period onwards, some observers

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have claimed that Catholic collaboration reflects a firmer commitment than that of many
full member churches of the World Council.

Various elements of internal renewal laid the ground work for the entry of the
Catholic Church into the Faith and Order discussions. Vatican II opened the way for
dialogue and encouraged it as the method to move toward that unity for which Christ
prayed and to which the Catholic Church is committed. The commitments of the council
and subsequent reaffirmations by Popes have not allayed all fears of the “return” motif in
Catholic ecclesiology. However, after Vatican II, the Pontifical Secretariat for Promoting
Christian Unity quickly laid out principles of dialogue. These principles follow closely the
experience gained in the Faith and Order Movement. Initially, the approach of Faith and
Order was in comparing and contrasting positions on the sacraments, formulations of the
faith, and contrasting positions on the sacraments, formulations of the faith, and
ecclesiology. Nevertheless, at Lund in 1952, a shift occurred from the earlier comparative
ecclesiology approach to a Christocentric methodology with a strong emphasis on the
common sources of Scripture and Tradition. The second methodological consideration that
needed to be clarified was the distinction between convergence and consensus. Both are
not synonymous. On the one hand, consensus means that sufficient agreement has been
reached so that a doctrinal issue, such as justification, is no longer church dividing. On the
other hand, convergence provides a framework of agreement within which more work is
necessary for full unity to be achieved. The third methodological consideration that
emerges is that of “reception.” As trust builds and common programs of dialogue become
possible, the ‘dialogue of love’ passes to the ‘dialogue of truth.’ The third phase occurs
when churches move from dialogue to evaluation and action, the reception stage.

Now, what are the theological contributions of Faith and Order movement on the
pilgrimage toward visible unity? Faith and Order movement have awakened in the
churches the desire and need for koinonia ecclesiology, for a full communion in faith.
Also, it has contributed towards this full communion in faith by its theological proposals
on the Tradition and its articulation in a common expression of the Apostolic Faith.
Furthermore, the most widely known work of the modern ecumenical movement is the
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contribution to convergence in the churches’ understanding of baptism, Eucharist, and
ordained ministry. These efforts enabled a deepening of convergences. Bilateral dialogues
can build on these convergences producing sufficient consensus for specific churches to
act toward full communion. Finally, the question of authority may be the most challenging
doctrinal issue in the ecumenical movement. For the moment, ‘patient and fraternal
dialogue’ are offers from Faith and Order. Vatican II’s promise of ecclesiological renewal
by return to the sources, openness to ecumenical dialogue and attentive listening to the
signs of the times has been productive for the renewal of all Christians, Catholics
included. The work of Faith and Order has been a key component of this expansive
program. Scholarly work on both sources and new contexts will surely serve the unity of
the Church in its task of renewing the human community.

The aim of Faith and Order movement is, indeed, a heroic one. It is a response to
the prayer of Jesus Christ, ‘that they may be one.’ Yet, the pertinent question here is
whether the aim of this movement is a feasible one, especially with the Catholic Church.
Anyone who knows the Catholic Church well will easily acknowledge that she believes
that she is the authentic and correct Church founded by Christ. As she enters into dialogue
with other Churches, she usually does same in order to make her truth evident to these; in
order to bring them from dim light to the full-blossom light in a way. She is not too ready
to compromise her doctrine and faith just to be in communion with one Church or the
other. She sees herself as the guardian of the truth founded by Christ. In this light, then,
one seriously doubts the physical possibility of the efforts and purpose of the Faith and
Order movement. Will the Church forgo her revered Sacraments or will she compromise
the supremacy of her Roman Pontiff? In fact, what does she go into dialogue to achieve, if
not to win other to her side? From this vantage point, it can be quickly grasped that the
purpose of the Faith and Order movement is a physical impossibility.

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“Is Creation Eternal?” By Ilia Delio in Theological Studies, Vol. 66, no. 2 (June 2005.):
279-302.

The question of whether or not creation is eternal is certainly not a new one. From
earliest times, the idea of an eternal creation was favoured by pagan philosophers and
mystics alike. The Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo was formulated in the second
century to warrant against such an idea and to affirm God’s transcendence. The question
arises anew today in light of the current scientific worldview, marked by evolution, which
has impelled new models of divine action to emerge. For Ilia Delio, though contemporary
models of divine action address the question “how” God creates, and less attention is
directed to the question “why” God creates, yet the philosophical enigma should always
prevail, “why something and not nothing?” Therefore for her, the centre of concern should
be the “why” and not the “how” of creation. She thinks that finding out the “why” of
creation will aid in understanding whether divine action in creation is eternal or not.
Consequently, using Bonaventure’s theology, she argues that divine action occurs within
the context of relationship, grounded in the Trinitarian relationships of the Father, Son and
Spirit.

Delio highlighted creatio ex nihilo and its full import. This doctrine of ex nihilo was
formulated in the second century A.D. and emerged because of the early Church’s battle
against Marcionism and Gnostic dualism, both of which proposed the formation of the
material universe by a demiurge. Creation “out of nothing” has the merit of excluding both
the dualistic idea that matter is eternal, intractable and probably unredeemable and the
pantheistic idea that everything is divine, emanating from the divine Being itself. The term
ex nihilo underscored the idea that God creates a world truly distinct from God himself.
However, the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo posed a problem of an ontological gulf between
God and creatures and, a fortiori, between God and the soul. Athanasius and Cyril of
Alexandria attempted to bridge this gulf by explaining the Incarnation as kenosis, as the
self-emptying of God. This gave rise to Kenotic theology. However, contemporary
theologians are revisiting kenotic theology less in terms of its Christological formula in the
Incarnation than in a Trinitarian understanding of God whereby God empties himself to
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make room for another. An understanding of God as kenotic love gives rise to a view of
divine action that is relational. God could not share love in a finite way if he were not
infinitely communicative within himself. God, therefore, acts not as an actor but as a lover
in relationship. Love not only indicates to us what God is but who God is for us. Since
love can never be isolated or autonomous without in some way sharing itself, Delio argues
that love is the basis of divine action because it is the basis of the Trinity.

The question of divine action is the question of the divine itself. When one speaks
of God’s action, what kind of God is one speaking of? If God is love and if love by nature
involves a relation to another, the highest perfection of love demands that each of the two
persons in love shares that love with yet another. It, therefore, takes three to love. Hence,
the basis of the Trinity for Bonaventure resides not in substance but in the person of the
Father. The Father is without origin and thus the fountain fullness of goodness; thus, the
Father is primal and self-diffusive. It is the person of the Father as self-communicative
love who communicates himself in a personal way to one other, the Son. The love between
the Father and the Son is expressed in the person of the Spirit. The key to Bonaventure’s
Trinitarian theology lies in self-expression. The Father completely expresses himself in
one other than himself, namely, the Son. As the expression of the Father, the Son is Word
or exemplar of all the divine ideas. The Word, therefore, does not exist as a self-sufficient
entity but precisely as the expression of the Father. When one says that “all things are
created through the Word” (Jn.1:3) one is saying that the Father expresses himself in the
Son and this self-expression is the basis of the infinite Word as well as finite existence.

According to Delio, therefore, “God creates because God is freedom-in-love and


desires to share love in a finite way as a more perfect expression of the infinitely fecund
divine life” (p. 295). The integral relationship between the Trinity and creation, seen
through the lens of Bonaventure’s theology, raises the question: “was there ever a time
when creation was not? While it is true that God does not need creation since fecundity is
realized within the Godhead, still without creation there would be no means for God’s
goodness to be expressed. It is only because of creation that God’s goodness is good. In
this respect, God did not “decide” for creation once upon a time. Creation is neither
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chance nor necessity but a fundamental expression of God as love. Here, Delio departs
from Bonaventure, who opposed the eternity of creation. For Delio, creation is eternal
when one considers the primacy of Christ and the self diffusive nature of the love of God
since creation is the infinite expression of God’s love for the Son in a finite way. Thus,
with an air of finality she firmly stated: “Since God’s love is eternal and eternally
expresses itself in a finite other, indicated by the primacy of Christ, we may suggest that
creation too is eternal.... God’s eternal act of love yields to an eternal act of creation. For
God is an outgoing, dynamic, Trinitarian communion of love, and God simply would not
know what to do without a lover who could respond in love not only infinitely but finitely
for that, indeed, is the perfection of love” (pp. 301-302).

Just as it was noted in the beginning, the question about the eternity or temporality
of creation has long occupied the interest of both theologians and philosophers. This goes
a long way to show the gargantuan work done by Delio here. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, she left some questions unanswered. Firstly, though borrowing the theory of the
Trinity of Bonaventure, she indirectly subordinated the Son to the Father, for she believes
that the Son, the Word, is not a self-sufficient entity but exists only as the expression of the
Father. This goes contrary to the Catholic belief about the co-equality of the persons of the
Trinity. Secondly, to consider creation as a necessity emanating from the inner nature of
the Father’s love is to deny God’s freedom to create and to make his a slave of his love.
There is creation because God thought it wise to create or willed to create, not because the
nature of his love compulsively demands creation. At this point, one will not be too quick
to assert the eternity of creation.

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