Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology PDF

Christology  Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 http://www.archive.org/details/considerjesuswavOOjohn CONSIDER JESUS  CONSIDER JESUS Waves of Renewal in Christology Elizabeth A. Johnson CROSSROAD NEW YORK ...

Christology  Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 http://www.archive.org/details/considerjesuswavOOjohn CONSIDER JESUS  CONSIDER JESUS Waves of Renewal in Christology Elizabeth A. Johnson CROSSROAD NEW YORK  In Memoriam Virginia Therese Callahan, C.S.J. (1920-1985) A woman of courage and joy who always encouraged questions. This printing: 1999 The Crossroad Publishing Company 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017 Copyright © 1990 by Elizabeth A. Johnson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johnson, Elizabeth A., 1941- Consider Jesus waves of renewal in christology : / Elizabeth A. Johnson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8245-0990-0; 0-8245-1161-1 (pbk.) 1. — History of doctrines — 20th century. Jesus Christ 2. Catholic Church — Doctrines — 20th century. I. Title. BT198.J635 1990 232'.09'045— dc20 89-37282 CIP Grateful acknowledgment is made to Chicago Studies for permis- sion to reprint "Christology and Social Justice: John Paul II and the American Bishops," which appeared in vol. 26 (1987), pp. 155-65.  Contents Preface ix 1. A Living Tradition 1 2. The Humanity of Jesus 19 3. Jesus' Self-Knowledge 35 4. The History of Jesus 49 5. Jesus Christ and Justice 67 6. Liberation Christology 83 7. Feminist Christology 97 8. God and the Cross 115 9. Salvation of the Whole World 129 Afterword: A Living Tradition — Toward the Future 145 Index 147  Preface The chapters in this book originally saw the light of day as lectures. Their first purpose was to present the fundamental rethinking taking place in christology to persons who are actively involved in ministries in the church or who are seek- ing greater understanding of their faith. Given the vital inter- ests of this audience the lectures took on a certain character, seeking to inform about the reams of scholarship pouring forth about Jesus Christ in order to open doors for more effective preaching, teaching, prayer, and pastoral action. It has always been my conviction that nothing inspires a life of vital, active faith so powerfully as an occasional dose of good thinking about the faith, which we call theology. At least it is one of the most effective sources of what the scriptures call paraklesis, or mutual encouragement, and the direction that it can give to effective ministry over the long haul of a lifetime is profound. Cycling these lectures into book form is being done with the conviction that a wider circle of thoughtful believers will find benefit for their lives and ministry in pon- dering recent theological insights into Jesus Christ. It will be noticed that the approach to the subject is taken largely through Catholic authors. At mid-twentieth century when the renewal in Catholic christology can be said to have begun, Catholic unlike Protestant thought was heavily en- trenched in an approach to Jesus Christ through dogma and IX x Preface had remained virtually unscathed by the roiling debates over biblical matters that so influenced Protestant christology. In addition, fundamental differences in theological an- thropology continue to characterize these two streams of Christianity. Thus Catholics started into the renewal process with a different problematic, and have continued with a dif- ferent set of basic assumptions about the relation of God to human beings, especially when it comes to the saving work of Christ. Catholic christology therefore has a distinct tone or flavor, and its story needs to be told in its own way. This is not to say, however, that insights into Christ are restricted to the Catholic community. Far from it! In this area Protestant schol- arship has been outstanding as names such as Barth, Bultmann, Moltmann, and Pannenberg suggest. In present ecumenical times, theological influence has flown more freely back and forth across the division of the churches. This good state of affairs is reflected in the later chapters of this book which recount more recent christological developments. I have chosen the metaphor of waves breaking on the beach to unify this vast body of material. As a wave is created by wind at sea and then rises up, rolls in, and breaks as it comes close to land, so too it seems that successive understandings of Christ have formed, swelled, and broken upon Catholic con- sciousness since the mid-twentieth century. The first wave in the 1950's consisted in remembering the genuine humanity of Jesus Christ, a memory stirred up by the 1,500th anniversary of the ancient council of Chalcedon which had declared the christological dogma. A decade later biblical scholarship be- gan to flourish, triggering critical discovery of the history of Jesus. Both of these waves overlapped as they arrived in a church that was incorporating concern for justice into its sense of mission. Before they had time to recede, a third wave formed as the voice of the poor began to be heard doing theology from the "underside of history" and so claiming Preface xi Jesus Christ as liberator. Almost simultaneously the move- ment of feminist theology stirred yet another wave to life, swelling as the majority of the church's members who had long been left out of the conversation about Christ began to articulate their insights. Even more recently a realization of the vastness of the world and its peoples has arisen, and looms as a question about the universal influence of Jesus the Christ. Under threat of ecological disaster, global vision now grows even wider to incorporate the view that not only human beings but all creatures of the earthand the universe itself are destined for final blessing in Christ. Thus pressures, needs, and new scholarship both inside the church and in the wider, tightly knit, anguished world have conspired together to create wave after wave of new insight into Jesus Christ. As with all waves, these are not always clearly separated from one another; as waves will do, they are collectively changing the shape of the landscape. This last half-century of development in christology brings into clear view the fact that the Christiancommunity is borne by a living tradition. As a vital, creative movement in time, this tradition hands on its inherited truth enriched through living response to new experiences. The witness of genera- tions who have believed before us has brought the church to this moment in its pilgrimage. In turn, adult believers now have the responsibility to utter their own christological word, personally and collectively as church, so that faith in Jesus Christ may be passed on to the next generation in a truly living state. These chapters have been written toward that end. I would like to express warm appreciation to those who first invited me to present these lectures: the Program for Ministry to Priests of the Archdiocese of Seattle, Washington, and of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia; the Lay Ministry Formation Program of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; the Probe Workshop organized by the Paulist Center in the Arch- xii Preface diocese of Toronto, Canada; the Institute of Spirituality spon- sored by the Sisters ofSt. Joseph, Brentwood, New York; and the Ongoing Formation Program in Ponce, Puerto Rico. In a special way my heartfelt thanks goes to the Theological Winter School sponsored by the South African Catholic Bishops Conference who invited me to present these lectures on tour throughout their country and saw to it that these lectures were first published. The present book is an out- growth of that South African publication, entitled Who Do You Say That I Ant? Introducing Contemporary Christology and published by the Order of Preachers at Hilton. This version differs from the first by the addition of bibliography for each chapter, and by the inclusion of chapter five with its American references. I am grateful to all who participated in these lectures whether in situations of relative peace and prosperity or situa- tions of violence We thought aloud together and oppression. about the significance of Jesus Christ, and it is in such mutual give and take that insights are truly born. A final word of gratitude goes to editor Frank Oveis, who in a serendipitous moment discovered these lectures in their South African form and saw their possibility for a North American public. Surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, we set ourselves to the task of faith to "consider Jesus" (Heb 3:1).  1 A Living Tradition A seed grows into a flowering tree. A glimmer of an idea matures into full-fledged insight. A young lover discovers ever greater depths in the beloved one, none of which can be fully expressed in words although loving words when spoken do deepen the relationship. A new interpretation of a law brings more of its original richness to light. Each of these experiences has been used to illumine the development of doctrine, that change in the Christian intellectual heritage that happens when new followers of Jesus Christ live out their faith in situations. Through prayer and thought in the context of new initiatives and responses given by the community of believers, insights develop. Different ways of expressing the meaning of faith in accord with cultural variations develop. Doctrine de- velops. Whether the image be taken from the world of nature, from human psychology, or from the social order, the analo- gies of the tree, the lover, and the interpretation of law suggest something alive in history. They point to a vital community of faith nourishing not a dead but a living tradition. This is not to suggest that doctrinal development is a tri- umphant march of progress along a straight line from truth to truth. The historical record shows otherwise, indicating de- tours, U-turns, and plain forgetfulness in the community's appropriation of its heritage. But it is to put clearly in the spotlight the fact that guided by the Spirit of God Christian 1 2 A Living Tradition believers throughout two thousand years have never stopped expressing their faith in Jesus Christ, their affection for him, and understanding of his significance in words and their deeds coherent with their time and place. The ongoing story of this community thus involves two elements, the old with the new, or the historically given with its current form of reception. At the start of an essay on education, the Jewish religious thinker Martin Buber wrote these engaging lines which give us yet another analogy for our situation as a community with a living tradition: In every hour the human race begins. We forget this too easily in face of the massive fact of past life, world history, of so-called of the fact that each child born with a given disposition of is world historical origin, that is, inherited from the riches of the whole human race, and also born into a given situation of world historical origin, that is, produced from the riches of the world's events. This fact must not obscure the other no less important fact that in spite of everything, in this as in every hour, what has not been invades the structure of what is, with ten thousand countenances, of which not one has been seen before, with ten thousand souls still undeveloped but ready to develop — a creative event if ever there was one, newness rising up, primal potential might. This potentiality, streaming uncon- quered, however much of it is squandered, is the reality child: this phenomenon of uniqueness, which is more than just begetting and birth, this grace of beginning again and ever again.* In this passionate description of the creative potential of new human beings the importance of both the old and the new are highlighted. Each child receives from the riches of the world * Martin Buber, "Education," Between Man and Man (New York: Mac- millan, 1966), 83. A Living Tradition 3 while at the same time he or she brings to the world some- thing never before seen. As a community with a living tradi- tion Christians find themselves similarly gifted. Believers to- day receive an enormously rich heritage woven by the struggles and advances of the cloud of witnesses that has gone before, at the same time that they must witness to the good news in ways that are credible to their own world and to their own heart. If it is not to stagnate and dry out a living tradition needs to be passed on in a living condition. All of this serves to introduce that theology which reflects on the meaning of Jesus Christ. For here in the first Christian centuries is a striking example of the development of doctrine in a living church. Here too is ferment in Catholic theology today which signals that the development is not over yet. One way often used to focus this issue is to pose the question about Jesus as Jesus himself does in the synoptic gospels. In Mark's narration: And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Casarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they told him, "Some say John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and still others say one of the prophets." And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8:27-29) Most — Christians know Peter's answer you are the Christ (v. 29); — and Martha's answer you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world (Jn 11:27); and the answers of the first generations of disciples whose insights frame the scriptural testimony. But the question does not rest there, with these answers. It resounds through the centuries inviting a response from every generation of believers and from every disciple. Who do you say that I am? The question is not the only way of framing the issue of Jesus' significance and, as we will see, there are some occasions when it may not 4 A Living Tradition be the best way. But it is a good question, one which sets us to thinking both personally and corporately. The question itself is not academic but arises from the experience of salvation. Something exceedingly good happens to people in their encounter with Jesus Christ. Fundamentally they are put right with God. Consequently they come to themselves, being restored to inner integrity, healed in body and spirit. Relationships with other people are also healed and peace becomes a real possibility. People experience a new lease on life pervaded with hope in the future, even if it be hope against hope. Among those who have been thus graced by the Spirit of Christ, community forms. Given the profound impact of Jesus Christ on their lives the question naturally arises — who is he? The experience of salvation coming from God in Jesus makes him fundamentally interesting. The answer to this question has not been academic either. In personal faith and piety, in official doctrine, in liturgy, and in the way people actually live the answer is always a matter of faith. As the faith of a pilgrim people is always historically inculturated, disciples of every generation have answered the question in thought patterns and images familiar to them from their particular cultures. The whole church as well utters its Each christological answer in every age as an ecclesial act. of us who been shaped by the answers of believes today has our ancestors in the faith. As the inheritors of two thousand years of a living tradition we are like "pygmies on the shoul- ders of giants," able to see far thanks to the stature of those who have handed on the tradition to us. Now it is our turn. Our times face new crises, demands, and critical challenges, and the meaning of Jesus Christ is being sharpened once again in engagement with needs in diverse quarters of the world. As baptized persons graced by the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, each of us is called to utter our own personal christological answer by word and deed; so too the church as a whole, in the idiom of our age. We do not do so out of A Living Tradition 5 whole cloth, however, but faithful to the truth handed on by the living tradition. A walk through history will high- brief light what our ancestors bequeathed to us by in the faith have way of answers to the christological question, and will point to factors in the world that have occasioned new ferment in the ongoing process of answering it. 1. Biblical Christology (First Century A.D.) It began with an encounter, as first-century Jewish women and men came in contact with the itinerant preacher Jesus of Nazareth, himself Jewish. He was hailed as a prophet mighty in word and deed. His preaching emphasized that salvation is on its way from God; in other words, that God is on the side of the little ones, the outcast, even the sinners, promising them new life. In light of the coming salvation, all persons, whatever their status, are called to conversion. All are called to open their hearts to receive the mercy of God. For the powerful, this involves a turn of heart and mind toward their brothers and sisters. Jesus took this good news which he preached in spoken parables and enacted it in living parables. His table fellowship with sinners, his healing people of suffering in spirit and body, and his bold reproach to repressive authorities held out the promise of life to all in concrete ways. Around him gathered women and men way called to be his disciples, following his and sharing on behalf of the reign of God. his efforts In a short time he was rejected by most religious leaders of his own faith. Arrested and tortured in prison, he was publicly executed by the civil authorities. After his death his mourning disciples experienced him as alive in a new way. God had raised him up! Present through the power of the Holy Spirit, he continues to be the one through whom the compassionate love of God is poured out upon the world to heal grief and alienation and to overcome sin and even death. 6 A Living Tradition The disciples experienced salvation coming from God through him, with ramifications in every dimension of their lives. They preached the good news and suffered for it, ex- pressing his significance in their lives by proclaiming his story as the story of the living one. Since the earliest disciples were Jews they turned to their own scriptures for help in interpret- ing him. There they found the divine promise embedded in such figures as the Messiah, Son of Man, Suffering Servant, Wisdom, Son of God, and so on. They used these evocative symbols to explain Jesus Christ's meaning and even turned some of them into titles for him. When they did this, his own life history and especially the cross revised what the symbols themselves meant. For example, no longer was Messiah the simply triumphant king of the Davidic line, but the crucified and risen one. By the second and third decade after the crucifixion, com- munities of believers had formed all over the Mediterranean world. These reflected different characteristics coherent with their diverse cultural and sociological settings (Jewish or Gen- tile, persecuted or at peace, provincial or cosmopolitan). Cer- tain of their members took up their quills to write their understandings of Jesus with insights shaped by the preaching and other experiences of their local churches. What resulted was a nuanced diversity of responses to the basic question: Who do you say that I am? Some of the key answers include: Paul—Jesus the crucified and risen Christ is Mark —Jesus the suffering Messiah is Matthew—Jesus the new Moses, teacher of the new law is Luke —Jesus, with the Holy filled Savior of Spirit, is all John —Jesus the Word of God made is flesh Differing in culture, geography, time, and emphasis, these various writers make from the beginning there has clear that been more than one christology in the Christian community. All confessing the same faith, they articulate this in a plu- ralism of ways. Taken together, their writings form the Chris- A Living Tradition tian scriptures, foundational to doing christology now since they carry the remembrance and witness of the inspired early communities. 2. Conciliar Christology (Second through Seventh Centuries) As the church moved into the wider Hellenistic world, preaching and thinking made use of philosophical categories that were a common part of the Mediterranean culture. These categories of Greek philosophy abstracted from knowledge of the way things act or function to raise the question of what things are in themselves, formulating this in terms such as nature, subsistence, and the like. While the early biblical communities had concentrated on what God had done for them in Jesus, and consequently on who Jesus is in a func- tional way, these later Hellenistic communities, made up al- most exclusively of Gentiles (non-Jews), began to wonder about Jesus in an ontological way. In other words, from — — proclaiming what he does Jesus saves their questions moved to the order of being: Who is he in himself that enables him to function as our Savior? From understanding that he is from God, their probing raised the question of his relation to the one and only God named Father. Were there two Gods? Unthinkable. Was Jesus a lesser god? Thinkable, but then how could he truly save? How could Jesus Christ be God and God the Father be God, and still there be only one God? In addition, questions about his relation to the human race became acute. If he is truly from God, then is he truly human? Is his body real flesh? Does he have a human soul with genuine human psychology? If not, then is the incarnation only a pretense? But if so, then is he really two persons, human and divine? If he is truly human how can he be considered at the same time truly divine and still be one person? All of these questions were phrased according to the 8 A Living Tradition idiom of the day, so that people of the church were involved in their development. Debate raged over Jesus Christ's identity. One bishop went out to buy a loaf of bread and wrote later that "even the baker" wanted to discuss whether there were one or two natures in Christ! There were two tendencies causing problems. On the one hand, some wanted to downplay any identity between God — and the human being Jesus in the end he is only a creature. He is definitely a superior creature, so said the priest Arius, but God cannot share being with anything finite or limited. To call Jesus "God" would be to dishonor God by involving the divine with limited flesh. So "God" is applied to Jesus as a courtesy title only. In 325 Council of Nicea, the bishops at the of the East decided that this approach was false. In the creed that they wrote, the Nicene creed still said and sung in the church today, Jesus is confessed as "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten not made; one in being with the Father." If this were not true, they reasoned, we would not be saved by Jesus. For sin is so strong that no mere creature can overcome it; "only God can save." On the other hand, some thinkers so stressed the divinity of Jesus Christ that they lost sight of his real humanity. Some examples show how far this tendency went: For he ate, not for the sake of the body, which was kept together by a holy energy, but in order that it might not enter into the mind of those who were with him to entertain a different opinion of him. — Clement of Alexandria Our Lord felt the force of suffering but without its pain; the nails pierced his flesh as an object passes through the air, painlessly. — Hilary of Poitiers Middle beings are formed when different properties are com- bined in one thing, e.g., the properties of ass and horse in a A Living Tradition 9 mule, and the properties of white and black in the color gray. But no middle being contains the two extremes in full mea- sures, but only in part. Now in Christ there is a middle-being of God and man; therefore he is neither fully man nor God alone, but a mixture of God and man. —Bishop Apollinarius This approach was also found to be false by the Council of Constantinople in 381. The Eastern bishops reasoned that we are saved by God taking on fully whatever belongs to human nature; if something is not assumed in the incarnation, it is not redeemed. Thus Jesus' genuine and integral humanity becomes a salvific truth. Between these two extreme tendencies, the church strug- gled to maintain a full appreciation of Jesus' identification both with God and with human beings. As Pope Leo I wrote, "It is as dangerous an evil to deny the truth of the human nature of Christ as it is to refuse to believe that his glory is equal to the Father." Finally, in a.d. 451 after years of debate and episodes of unseemly conduct, the Council of Chalcedon affirmed this insight of faith. In Hellenistic terms they con- fessed Jesus Christ to be one in being with the Father as to divinity,and one in being with us as to humanity; truly God and truly human, having a rational soul. He is one and the same Christ made known in two natures which come together in one person. 3. Medieval Christology (Eleventh through Sixteenth Centuries) During this period no major controversies existed about Christ, although some minor ones erupted. The main change came with the introduction of a new process of reasoning and synthesizing identified with scholasticism. Within the so- ciological context of feudalism, Anselm of Canterbury ex- plored why God became a human being and had to die to 10 A Living Tradition save us, for could it not have been done in a different way? He reasoned brilliantly that Jesus Christ dies in order to make satisfaction for sin, without which the order of the universe would be forever disturbed. In the universities, a new locale for theology, scholars ex- plained the two-natures-in-one-person schema with the help of Aristotle's newly rediscovered philosophy. Imbued with piety, some thinkers sought to honor Jesus Christ by reason- ing according to the principle of perfection. This held that it was not fitting to deny to Christ's human nature any perfec- tion which it might have had. Accordingly, they envisioned him as the perfect sailor, the perfect mathematician, even the perfect canon lawyer! At the end of this period, the Protestant reformers called for a stop to scholastic metaphysical speculation about Christ's inner constitution, and a return to a more existential, bibli- cally based confession of Jesus Christ who won salvation on the cross and whose grace saves us now without any merit on our part. To know Christ is to know his benefits, Luther / argued, not to know refinements of dogma. 4. Post-TridentineChristology (Sixteenth through Twentieth Centuries) In face of the threat of the Reformation, and following this, the threat of the modern world moving toward democracy and challenging traditional authorities, the Catholic church as- sumed drew the wagons around a largely defensive posture. It to protect its and large refused to great heritage, but by engage new questions posed by the modern world. Along with other areas of theology, christology was organized into tract or manual format in which a thesis of doctrine was followed by certain logical deductions, the whole supported by classical arguments and each element assigned a specific theological weight. This format lent itself to memorization if  1 A Living Tradition 1 not to intelligible understanding. In the United States the manual format was adapted into the question-answer pattern of the Baltimore Catechism, a catechetical tool that taught the official christological answer to generations of immigrant chil- dren. The dryness approach was supple- of this intellectual mented by a rich devotional life including devotion to the Sacred Heart, Stations of the Cross, and other practices of a Jesus piety. 5. At the Brink of Renewal (1951) This year saw the celebration of the Council of Chalcedon which fifteen hundred years had confessed Jesus Christ earlier to be truly God and truly a human being, two natures in one person. This anniversary clearly marks the beginning of a renewal in Catholic christology, for many studies done by scholars around the world sought to probe the original mean- ing of that council's affirmations, finding it richer than neo- scholastic interpretationhad allowed. Among the many commemorative essays written that year, the one by theologian Karl Rahner originally entitled "Chal- cedon, End or Beginning?" has had a lasting impact. Survey- ing the Catholic scene, Rahner judged that christology was in a sorry and stagnant state. The use of manuals which ex- plained Christ in deductive logic gave the impression that we knew Christ thoroughly and definitively. This prevented new insights from arising. Furthermore, this manual approach tended to ignore the wealth of scripture with its narration of the events of Jesus' life, such as his baptism, prayer to God, and abandonment on the cross. All of this was left to piety or meditation but did not inform intellectual efforts to under- stand and confess Jesus Christ. Christology was just repeating old neo-scholastic understanding about two natures in one person without genuine contemporary understanding. The cumulative effect of all these elements was that christology by 12 A Living Tradition and large ignored the genuine humanity of Jesus Christ, a matter of scriptural and dogmatic truth. As a sign that christology was moribund Rahner applied the interesting cri- terion of controversy. How few really living and passionate controversies there are in Catholic christology today, he be- moaned, which engage the existential concern of the faithful —can you name a single one? We had made the dogma of Chalcedon an end in itself, whereas it should always be a beginning of thought since it carries the richness of the mystery of God's presence in the midst of our suffering his- tory. Since 1951 significant developments both within and with- out the church have made the question "Who do you say that I am?" once again. The Second Vatican Council, while not alive focusing to any extent on christology, encouraged the church to dialogue with the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears of the modern world. When we turned to do so, we found a world very different from the medieval world where dialogue, for the most part, had last occurred. Three shifts in the modern intellectual history of Europe stan3 out as having particular influence on Catholic theology since the council, and thereby on christology. In the first place chronologically is what is called "the turn to the subject." Associated with the work of the German philosopher Immanual Kant, this shift places attention squarely on the human person as a free subject in the process of becoming. As a corollary, human experience becomes an important norm for human knowing, a move which brings into question the dominance of authority and tradition. Fur- ther associated with this turn is a fascination with history and historical methods, with how things came to be in time. As this turn to the subject has intersected with christology, it has given rise to interest in the founding experiences of the faith. There is real interest now in Jesus as a genuine human subject, a real historical person with his own personal traits A Living Tradition 13 and life story. It has also awakened new interest in the experi- ences of the disciples who founded the Christian faith and to our own experiences as followers of Jesus today. The question arises: What has Jesus Christ got to do with our becoming fully human, free persons? A second major shift involves the turn to the negativity of so much human experience. Two world wars, the Holocaust, the Gulag, colonialism, the greed and narcissism of cap- italism, torture as an instrument of state policy, political op- pression, apartheid, the ecological crisis, the threat of nuclear disaster — all of these evils and more have turned thoughtful attention to the suffering of people in history and to those who are history's victims. A new sensitivity both to the irra- tional and to human pathology, individual and social, now affects thinking. In christology the impact of this turn has been felt in the recovery of the relevance of Jesus' ministry with his preaching of the reign of God, a symbol with social and political im- plications. The interpretation of the cross grapples with the significance of why Jesus did not die a natural death but was executed. The value of the demonic and of apocalyptic as symbolic elements of thought has come to light. The good news that God comes to save us takes on new and specific power. An entire change in christological method is involved as the question is raised: How does praxis, or doing the truth in love, or action on behalf of justice, become a path of knowledge about Jesus Christ? A third major shift is a turn to the whole globe as one small and Interconnected world. From telecommunications to in- struments of mass death, all peoples and all living things are affected by the actions of one another. At this point we realize how interdependent we are while not yet having structures to support and develop this in a positive direction. While some prize dominance, others search for a new transcultural hu- manity in which ethnic particularity is prized while the 14 A Living Tradition human race is valued as one. In this context, the religions are newly encountering one another and becoming newly aware of one another's wisdom, especially in face of the death- dealing powers of this world. In chnstology, this shift of consciousness is giving rise to a whole new What does the uniqueness of slate of questions. Jesus Christ as Savior of the world mean in the encounter with the world religions? Is it possible to believe that God has acted decisively in Jesus Christ to save the whole world, and simul- taneously to believe that Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, and persons of other religious persuasions are warranted in remaining who they are, pursuing the paths of salvation on which they rind themselves? Who do we say that Christ is in view of the fact that millions of people do not follow any religious path at all, and yet we hope they are saved by the same mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ? we will be exploring the re- In the chapters that follow sponse which theology making to these great shifts in is human experience and consciousness. The intersection of contemporary' experience with the heritage of faith is not without difficulty. The Catholic community now has more than enough living and passionate controversies in chnstology which engage the concern of the faithful. Rahner today would be a happy man! For these debates over the interpretation of Jesus Christ are signs of a living tradition in a church which has moved with its faith out of a self-imposed ghetto into genuine dialogue with contemporary problems. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the issues in christology have emerged more or less sequentially, like waves breaking on a beach. We trace these rising developments in christology not out of intellectual interest alone, although it makes a fascinat- ing story. But even more we ponder these things because, guided by scripture and tradition which carry the faith of our ancestors, we are responsible for answering the great A Living Tradition 15 christological question in our own time and place: "But who do you say that I am?" Readings Out of the immense literature on Jesus Christ the following works are offered as a guide to readers who may wish to pursue a par- ticular point further. Onemost readable overviews of the of the Catholic theological tradition about Jesus Christ is Gerard Sloyan, The Jesus Tradition: Images of Jesus in the West (Mystic, CN: Twenty-Third Pubns., 1986); George Tavard, Images of Christ: An Enquiry into Christology (Lanham, MD: University Press of Amer- ica, 1982), covers the same ground in a more technical way. In a broader context Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture (New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 1985), presents a fascinating, readable survey of eighteen images of Jesus in relation to shifting cultural mores. The dynamism of biblical christology 's development of names for Jesus iscaptured by James Dunn, Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980). The diversity of New Testament christologies is presented in clear prose by Reginald Fuller and Pheme Perkins, Who Is This Christ? Gospel Christology and Contemporary Faith (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983). Jerome Neyrey, Christ Is Community: The Christologies of the New Testa- ment (Wilmington, DL: Glazier, 1985), explores this diversity from the viewpoint of the social sciences which understands texts from the types of communities that produced them. The disputes surrounding the early church councils and their decisions in the realm of christology are set out by J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), and by Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (Chi- cago: University of Chicago Press, 1971). Richard Norris, The Christological Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980), has edi- ted pertinent original texts. Very useful is Frances Young, From 16 A Living Tradition Nicea to Chalcedon: A Guide to the Literature and Its Background (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984). One of the most accessible examples of scholastic reasoning in christology remains Anselm's Cur Deus Homo? (in English, Why God Became Man [Albany, NY: Magi Books, 1969]), structured as a dialogue between the wise Anselm and his inquiring student Boso. Zachary Hayes, The Hidden Center: Spirituality and Speculative Christology in St. Bonaventure (New York: Paulist, 1981), captures the flavor of this unique blend in another outstanding medieval scholastic. Given the split between the universities and the people, much christology went forward in devotion. Jesus in Christian De- votion and Contemplation, trans. Paul Oligny (St. Meinrad, IN: Abbey Press, 1974), pays particular attention to medieval and late medieval approaches. See also the essays by John Meyendorff, "Christ as Savior in the East," 231—52, and Bernard McGinn, "Christ as Savior in the West," 253-59, in Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century, Bernard McGinn et al., eds. (New York: Crossroad, 1985); and Ewert Cousins, "The Humanity and 375-91, in Christian the Passion of Christ," Spirituality: High Middle Ages and Reformation, Jill Raitt, ed. (New York: Crossroad, 1987). Marc Lienhard, Luther, Witness to Jesus Christ (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1982), traces the themes and stages of development in the reformer's christology. An excellent example of Catholic christology before Vatican II is Karl Adam, The Christ of Faith: The Christology of the Church (New York: Pantheon Books, 1957); his own early attempt to encourage appreciation of the humanity of Christ is Christ Our Brother (New York: Macmillan, 1931), which bears the marks of having been written before the biblical renewal. The pivotal essay in which Karl Rahner analyzes difficulties in the state of christology and suggests a way forward has as its English title "Current Problems in Christology," Theological Investigations 1 (Baltimore: Helicon, 1961), 149-200. Another analysis of the same situation Yves Congar, Christ, is Our Lady and the Church (London: Longmans, Green, 1957). One of the best descriptions of modern influences on christology and the discussion of Jesus Christ since the council is William M. Thompson, The Jesus Debate: A Survey and Synthesis (New York: A Living Tradition 17 Paulist, 1985), which also makes its own constructive suggestions toward a christology of love, justice, and peace. Of interest both for what it reveals and does not reveal is the poll by George Gallup, Who Do Americans Say That I Am? (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986).  The Humanity of Jesus It is interesting to note that in the mid-twentieth century while Protestant communions were deeply embroiled in con- troversy over the interpretation of scriptureand consequently over how to understand the historical Jesus, Catholic christology which had concentrated for centuries on dogma began its revival in this doctrinal field. The first wave of renewal in Catholic christology clearly rose in the 1950's and early 1960's during the celebration of the Council of Chal- cedon, fifteen hundred years old in 1951. Theologians marked the occasion by doing what they do best, writing studies. Their deep look at that council's doctrine about Christ led to a new appreciation of what it was affirming and an analysis of the shortcomings in the way people had come to understand it. Karl Rahner, whose influential essay has already been mentioned, was joined in this endeavor by Euro- pean theologians such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, Piet Schoonenberg, Bernhard Welte, and Bernard Lonergan, a Canadian teaching in Rome. Chalcedon had confessed that the identity of Jesus Christ was to be understood as comprised of two natures, a human nature and a divine nature, which came together in the unity of one person. The problem that these theologians identified did not lie with that confession in itself. Rather, the problem was found to exist with the way this dogma had come to be 19 20 The Humanity of Jesus taught and understood. For theology had forgotten the mys- tery of salvation which was being safeguarded in the language of this doctrine, and had made its concepts too clear and its ideas too distinct. On the one hand, there was the issue of the two natures in Jesus Christ. The fact that these categories point to a myste- rious reality was overlooked, especially in the manuals. In- stead, the two natures had come to be understood as two varieties of the same basic thing, two species of one genus, something like apples and oranges are two kinds of the one category fruit. The point that divine nature is holy mystery, in a class by itself and in no way comparable to human or any other kind of nature, had simply slipped from view. Conse- quently, when people, including theologians, said that Jesus had two natures, they implicitly thought of each of these natures as comprising one-half the total picture. Jesus became so to speak, 50/50, partly divine and partly human, or totally divine and partly human, but not truly divine and truly human, 100/100 as Chalcedon had confessed. On the other hand, there was the problem of understanding the language of one "person." What is a person? The meaning of this word today in a post-Freudian era is very different from what it was in fifth-century thought. The word today usually connotes a psychological entity, an individual center of con- sciousness and freedom, constituted in relation to other per- sons in a community. However, the Greek word hypostasis originally used in the doctrine is not a psychological but a philosophical term that connoted something ontological, in the order of being. It meant subsistence, or the metaphysical root of a thing, or the firm ground from out of which an existing individual stands forth and There is no simple exists. English word which would translate meaning exactly. Thus its there has been a semantic drift with the meaning of the word "person"; it has slipped out from under the church's dogmatic meaning. To modern ears a psychological twist is given to the The Humanity of Jesus 21 confession that Jesus Christ is the Second "Person" of the Blessed Trinity, so that little or no room exists for his real human psychology to function. The wave of renewal in christology grappled with the first ancient dogma to unlock once again its original faith affirma- tions: that in dealing with Jesus we are dealing with the one God who alone is God, who is one of us, and who is both of these in unbreakable unity — and all of this for the sake of our salvation. Given the basic tendency in the Catholic approach of the time to think of Jesus as more divine than human, this effort had the result of recovering the genuine humanity of Jesus as dogmatically defined. Let us take each of the doc- trinal terms: human nature, divine nature, one person. We will trace the pattern of thought about the meaning of these terms which Catholic theologians of the 1950's developed. Rather than using classical scholastic philosophy which would define a person as an individual substance of a rational nature, these theologians applied existential philosophy de- veloping in Europe at the time. Their approach is still heavily philosophical, but in a newer mode. It is usually called tran- scendental theology, for they seek to make dogma meaningful by~connectrng it with anthropology, with human existence analyzed by transcendental methods. Human Nature What is human nature? Let us try to get at this by means of some simple experiences. A person asks a question. This is a universally human thing to do —young children, old people, persons of every race and tongue, people of all ages. Asking a question is a characteristic of human beings, as unique to us as a species as is laughing. What does asking a question reveal about ourselves? It shows first of all that we do not know some thing and yet want to know it: we have a desire for this truth, whatever the 22 The Humanity of Jesus answer will be. It also means in some significant way that we do have a hunch that something is there to be known, or we could not even ask the question to begin with. Asking a question reveals that we are in touch with a known unknown/ When we receive an answer to our question, do we stop asking questions? No. Curiosity drives us on, and every an- swer can well be the foundation for the next question. We ask not just about practical matters such as how things work and why the sky is about very deep issues such as blue, but also what is the meaning and why there is so much of our life suffering in the world. How many questions can we ask in a lifetime? It is without number. No one answer will ultimately satisfy us. The human spirit is revealed by this analysis as having an and an infinite capacity for truth, an infinite thirst for truth infinite dynamism toward truth. We can keep on asking ques- tions and keep on receiving answers, but it does not shut us down; rather, it keeps awakening us further. One of the worst sins persons can commit is to stop asking questions, because then they are prematurely dead inside; they have quenched the spirit. This questioning of our dynamic spirit reveals that we are thirsty for the truth and that we have a capacity for it that does not ever get filled up. Now at this point we raise the question: Are human beings ever fulfilled? Does this quest of ours for truth ever reach a resting point? Obviously not in this world. The only reality that will quench this quest of ours is God's own being which is infinite truth, TrutMtself. would agree with Catholic theo- Existentialist philosophers logians that human beings are open to the infinite and are dynamically questing for the infinite; but they would disagree about whether or not there is ever a fulfillment. For example John Paul Sartre, the atheist philosopher, argued that there is no fulfillment ever to be had. Life is a joke, it is absurd: while we are structured toward the infinite, we are destined to The Humanity of Jesus 23 eternal frustration. Now in faith the answer would come back —no. We have an infinite thirst for truth and we are going to be satisfied only by infinite truth. However, there is infinite truth, and we name that God. What this kind of analysis reveals is that human beings are dynamically moving toward the infinite and will only be satisfied by the The same kind of analysis can be infinite. made with experiences of loving. When we love someone, and are loved, it reveals a dynamism of our spirit which is bound- less. Interpersonal love does not shut down our capacity for loving but rather opens it up even The classic example further. here is that of a man and a woman who love each other. Out of that love comes a new being, a child, whom they also love. The circle of love keeps growing wider. Once again the human spirit's quest for love, and capacity for love, seem to be infinite. And again the question: Is this human thirst for love ever satisfied in this life? No. Ultimately only infinite love can satisfy this thirst of ours. We call infinite Love God. So once again thinking of people's love experiences, we arrive at the same realization — that human beings are dynamically struct tured toward the infinite. A third experience to trace is the experience of hoping against hope. In situations of desperate need, human beings nevertheless do not necessarily despair. We can always hope against the present for a better future. There is a capacity in us to imagine a better future and to hope against hope for it. A great deal of prison literature shows this capacity of the human spirit. Survivors of Nazi death camps, of South Af- rican detention cells, of Latin American political prisons bear witness that even when people are totally bound in, deprived of elemental necessities and treated in violent and degrading ways, the human spirit can still yearn for life beyond the present moment. This shows itself in the human capacity to imagine a different situation and to hope for it to become 24 The Humanity of Jesus actual. This imaginative ability to hope against hope reveals that we have an infinite capacity for life, which ultimately can be filled only by the source of life, God, Life itself. This analysis of human nature ends with a rather different idea of ourselves from the scholastic definition of human beings as rational animals. We are that. But in addition we are so made that we are dynamically structured toward the infi- nite and will only be by the infinite God. We are not a satisfied closed-off, limited reality, but open out into depth that goes all the way down to the infinite itself. There is an architectural image that symbolizes this very well. In Rome the Pantheon is an old pagan temple that has been made into a Christian church. It is round, and the roof is a great dome with a circle cut out at the top. The sun streams in, as does the rain. The church is pretty dim most of the time so that when you walk in the door you are in a gloomy enclosure, but pouring down from up above is this bright light. Your whole spirit swoops up into the light and out to the sky. That building is an image / of human nature understood through transcendental analysis. We are not capped off; we are open at the top, you might say; we go off into the infinite by the very way that we are made. Augustine knew this and in a famous sentence expressed it well: "You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." Our restless hearts will rest only in God. Existentialist analysis is showing us that from very human activities such as asking questions, loving someone, or hoping against hope, it becomes clear that we are made for God. Christians would say that it is no accident that we are made this way. God graciously made us this way precisely in order to be able to be our fulfillment. What is human nature? It is a finite reality with a capacity for the infinite, a thirst for the infinite. In its last issue of 1982, Time magazine featured the computer as "Man of the Year" and included in that issue an essay about peoples' fear that The Humanity of Jesus 25 computers might take over. The author, Roger Rosenblatt, wrote: What if the human mind with all of its complexities could in fact be replicated in steel and plastic, and all human con- fusions find their way onto a software — program would the battle be lost? Hardly.... Even if it were possible to reduce people to box size and have them sit down before themselves in all their powers, they would still want more. Whatever its source there is a desire in us that out-desires desire; otherwise computers themselves would not have come into being. As fast as the mind somehow manages to travel faster than travels, it itself, and people always know or sense that they still do not know. No machine does that. A computer can achieve what it does not know (not knowing that 2 plus 2 equals 4, it can find out). But it cannot yearn for the answer or even dimly suspect its existence. If people knew where such suspicion and yearn- ings came from, they might be able to lock them in silicon. But they do not know where they come from; they merely know that they are. In the end the difference between us and any machine we create is that a machine is an answer, and we are a question. This writer echoes in a different context the insight of mid- century Catholic theologians. Human nature as a definable concept cannot be totally grasped. Our own mystery goes deeper than that. We are a question more than we are an answer. The first step in the 1950's renewal of christology was recovering this deep mystery of what it means to be human, both for ourselves and for Jesus. Divine Nature If we are a mystery, how much more is God a mystery? God's own being (divine nature) is utterly incomprehensible 26 The Humanity of Jesus to us. We cannot grasp God in a single concept, or a word, or an image, or a name, or definition. Whoever God is keeps slipping away from our naming into the deep mystery of the divinity. If that were not true, then God would not be God. This is a very classic doctrine. Recall the story of St. Augustine walking on the beach, trying to figure out the mystery of the Trinity. As he watched a little child with a pail trying to put the sea into a hole he had dug in the sand, Augustine said, "You cannot do that." To this the child (actually an angel) replied, "Neither can you fit the mystery of the Trinity into your finite mind." Whether or not this actually happened, it is an excellent story about our fundamental situation before God. Augustine was later to write that, "If you have under- stood, then what you have understood is not God." By the nature of things we are finite, we are creatures, talking here of the infinite God who has created us. So we cannot understand God. Even though God is a profound mystery, we go on boldly in the Christian faith to proclaim that God is the profound mystery of love. In fact the New Testament sums God up in one word: "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). Simone Weil, the religious writer, uses a marvelous image to illustrate this when she says — "God is love the way an emerald is green He is 'I love.' " An emerald would not be an emerald without being green and God would not be God without being love, if you believe the scriptural revelation that God is love. Love is able to give itself away, love is able to pour itself out, love seeks union with the other. This is the kind of God we are talking about when we say "divine nature." Here the problem with the word "person" comes into which talks about one theology, in the doctrine of the Trinity God in three divine persons. Most people today hear that word "person" contemporary sense, a psychological in a sense, as a center of consciousness and freedom related to other persons. This leads to the problem that in talking about The Humanity of Jesus 27 the three persons in God, many Catholic people are really tritheistsand think of three "people" in God: Father, a Son, and an amorphous Holy Spirit (we never quite get the Spirit personalized). Again, that is not the original meaning of the word in the doctrine of the Trinity. Hypostasis, does not mean a person in a contemporary sense. ^vTrTat does it mean that God is a person? Or three persons? Whatever it means, it does not mean that God is like three individual people somehow pasted together so that in the end we are really dealing with three gods. Karl Rahner suggested that theology drop the " word "person" ancTspeak of hypostasis in a more original sense of distinct manner of subsistence or self-subsistence. God's ow'fTself "has three different ways of being, or exists in X three distinct manners'oT^ubsTstence. As Ranner spells it out, God is God first of all in the divine self —the unoriginate and source of alfc when we think of God that way we call God Father. Then God is God again in a way that is always self- expressing, always self-uttering, always going out; when we think of God that way we call God the Word or the Son. And God is God a third time as the power of unifying love, always bringing the divine self-expression back into the primordial unity; when we talk about God as love we call God the Holy Spirit. There is one God in three distinct ways of self-being. Some theologians such as Walter Kasper dispute Rahner's dismissal of the word "person." But the debate has helped us realize that our language about God cannot be pushed to the extreme in a literal way, a realization that is also accomplished by the doctrine of analogy in Catholic theology. The doctrine \ of the Trinity safeguards the understanding of divine nature as a mystery of self-communicating love. One Person We have seen human nature as a deep mystery questing for the infinite. We have seen divine nature as a deep mystery of  28 The Humanity of Jesus self-giving love. The christological question arises when we inquire after what happens when these two enter into union in the incarnation. More often than not, in the popular mind although not in doctrine, divine nature has been thought to overshadow human nature, to diminish it, or even to swallow it up. It has always been a scandal that this one person can be truly God and really human at the same time. There has been heresy after heresy in the history of the church which has denied the genuine humanity of God in the incarnation: there was no real human body, nor real soul, nor real human will, nor real human nature. It is as though God and humanity are somehow opposed to each other, or in competition with each other, so that a choice has to be made for one or the other. As Karl Rahner has written so extensively, this intuition has functioned widely in spirituality and asceticism, giving rise to ^ the idea that in order to honor God and grow in holiness we must put ourselves down, be diminished, somehow get our- selves out of the way. There is a truth in this ascetic approach not to be lost sight of, namely, the fact that we are sinners. There an egocentricism in us that needs to be called con- is stantly to conversion. Left to our own devices, there is indeed competition between our sinful ways and what God is calling us to be. At the same time, given the way God has created and redeemed us, we are not in competition with God but rather made for God. From our side, since we are structured toward the infinite with a capacity for truth, love, and life that knows no bounds, then the nearer we get to Truth, Love, Life or — God —the more fulfilled we are going to be. As for God, who createsand redeems out of love, God is glorified not by the diminishment but by the enhancement and growth of the beloved creature. Thus, the more human we become, the more God is pleased. As the second-century bishop Irenaeus ex- claimed, "The glory of God is the human being fully alive!" 1/ The underlying truth here can be seen best by the analogy  ' The Humanity of Jesus 29 of human love. Parents' love for their child does not diminish \ the child's personhood but enables the child to grow into a / mature human being. Good married love transforms the mar- \ ried partners into being fully themselves as individuals the/ more united they become in their own love. The love of friendship has a similar effect, enabling friends to flourish as human beings. Could anything less be true of God who is Love? God's drawing near is creative of mature and full hu- manity. One could appeal here to the saints; the most popular saints, at any rate, have a very winning humanity about them (Francis of Assisi, for example). Again,what usually attracts young people to a life of deeply committed faith or even to a religious vocation is more often than not the humanity of someone who is already in that life. The goodness that is shown, the humor, the personal maturity, is very attractive, and the young person rightly senses this as a sign of holiness, of union with God as its source. Experience shows that the closer we become to God, then the more fully our own true selves we become, rather than less * ourselves. As Karl Rahner challenges us to think, "Nearness \ to God andgenuine human autonomy grow in direct and not inverse proportion." The more fully human one becomes, the more God is taking hold. What, then, of Jesus? In the case of Jesus of Nazareth we are dealing with some- one who was more profoundly united to God than any one of us. We even talk about hypostatic union, a union at the metaphysical the person. If his humanity is united level of with God most profound way, what are we to say about in this him as a human being? That he is genuinely human, and in fact more human, more free, more alive, more his own person than any of us, because his union with God is more profound. Rather than seeing the humanity and divinity as opposites, if one thinks of humanity flourishing the nearer one is to God, then in Jesus' case the logic applies that since he of all our race is the most profoundly united with God, then in fact he is the  30 The Humanity of Jesus most fully human and free. Rather than the confession of his divinity diminishing his humanity in our imagination, it should in fact release him to be a fully free human being. I Because of the incarnation, he does not become less human I but rather the most fully human of us all. One can go to the scriptures and see sign after sign of this: he is like us in all\ things, tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (Heb j 4:15-5:3). As a genuinely human being, Jesus Christ is God wilhuis. This is made thinkable with the help of the biblical concept of kenosis, or self-emptying. At the moment of the incarnation, God who is love eternally self-expressing within the divine being as the eternal Word, self-expresses outwardly into the history of this earth. God's own inner Word is spoken into the / medium of human flesh, bringing Jesus into existence. God who is always self-expressing within the divine nature now self-expresses outside the divine nature, n tim e, injiuman i nature, in another medium and the one who (you might say), comes into existence is Jesus of Nazareth, the ord ma de W flesh. In addition to speaking of God's "assuming" human nature, as classical theology does, we can think of this as a moment oifkenosis or God's "self-emptying" of the glory of divine nature. \As Paul wrote of Jesus, "although he was by \ nature God, he did not consider being equal to God some- thing to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the nature of/ a servant" (Phil 2:6-7). Jesus Christ comes into existence as God's own self-expression in time, himself genuinely human, with the divine glory veiled. If we do not think of God literally as three different people but rather as the triune fnystery of self-giving love, then it becomes possible to see Jesus existing as dhe Word of God in time who, in his humanness, embodies the self-emptying of the God of love. At the end of this thinking anew about the dogma of Chalcedon, each of its words comes to mean something re- lated to our lives. Human nature is a deep questing mystery,  1 The Humanity of Jesus 3 thirsting for the infinite. Divine nature is the incomprehensi- ble mystery of holy Love seeking to give Godself away. The two come together in the incarnation in a personal unity which enables the human nature of Jesus to flourish. In this way of reading the dogma we do not say, "Jesus is God, and in addition human as well." Rather, we start at the other end and say, "As this human being, Jesus is the Son of God. Precisely as this human being he is God in time. He is fully human, fully free, fully personal, and as such he is God who has self- emptied into our history." At the end of this progression of thought, what is restored to our consciousness is a way of envisioning Jesus to be genuinely human at the same time that the confession of his genuine divinity does not slip from view. Conclusion The significance of this approach has continued to affect the church since this work was done in the 1950's and early 1960's. The fact that Jesus is genuinely human came as a bit of a surprise to Catholics at first. What should have been part of our consciousness all along, and was officially part of doc- trine, has taken time to be fully realized. Vatican IPs The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes, 22) ring- ingly affirmed this recovery of Jesus Christ's humanity, stating in one beautiful passage: Human nature as he assumed it was not annulled. He... worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind, he acted by human choice, and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin. This paragraph has been quoted by every Pope since the council in very significant ways. For example, in his first encyclical, John Paul II uses the text to speak of the dignity of 32 The Humanity of Jesus human beings, an enormous dignity due not only to the fact that we have been created by God, but also thanks to the way that we are united to the Redeemer, whose own humanity sheds light on ours (Redemptor Hominis, 8). The consciousness of Jesus'humanity is flowing into our conversation again in the church and is having ramifications in many areas. What does this mean in terms of spirituality? It has led to revaluation of the humanness of all of us in a very positive direction. Formation programs in religious commu- nities, preaching, spiritual direction, and so on, communicate a sense that each of us as human is a gift of God, filled with potency for God; a sense that human nature itself is moving in the direction of God. There is a different emphasis in spir- ituality growing out of this, a different kind of asceticism, a much more positive view of our humanness. Again, in terms of ethics, the direction of thinking has been this: If God has become one and Jesus Christ as a fully human being is of us confessed as God, then the humanity of every single human being in some implicit way (because we are all one race) is also united with God and has its own very special dignity. The logic is clear: If God has become one of us, then that means something for the whole human race. Human nature itself is gifted with God's identification with us in our own nature. Again, both the council and John Paul II have insisted, "Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in him has been raised in us also to j_dignity_ beyond compare" (Gaudium et Spes 22; Redemptor Hominis 8). This leads to a very strong sense in the church of the dignity of every human being precisely as human, and to a very strong social teaching with regard to human rights. The church's social teaching is not based only on simple human- v ism, but on a deep christological motif: God has so identified with our humanity that each of us as human beings has been lifted to a dignity beyond compare. Thus, whatever disfigures ^ or damages a human being is an insult to God's own self. In a  The Humanity of Jesus 33 more poetic way, Karl Rahner has envisioned that because of the Word of God our midst, it can now be seen that each o f in >s an ^individual act, one must also think of it collectively, socially, in structural terms. Similarly, the grace of God forgives indi- vidual sin and unites each person with God; but it not only transforms us one by one. It is also social, embedded in structures, and able to transform them. There is a great consciousness of this sociality of human existence in liberation theology, and the perspective is far from the privatized view too often prevalent among those who are privileged. 4. Liberation theology makes extensive use of social analy- sis. Unlike classical and transcendental theology, whose "handmaid" was philosophy, and unlike narrative christology which makes a partner of historical and biblical studies, this I approach utilizes social, political, economic, and anthropo- logical studies which lay bare the structures of the social situation. With the help of these disciplines, the situation is analyzed to identify the forces that are causing the suffering. What are the dynamics of a system of privilege for the few which causes misery for the many? Who is benefitting from the way things are arranged? Indeed, who benefits from any particular theological interpretation? Because it asks these kinds of questions liberation theology almost invariably comes up critical of the status quo. Being done in a social situation of oppression, it names evils and perceives a way forward certain of one thing: that structures must change. From the perspective of the victims, the chasm between what should be and what actually is is so great that superficial reforms of tinkering with the system simply will not do. Liberation theology opts for the changing of structures, and that means it is a conflictual theolog y, for the powerful are fiercely protective of their own privilege. 5. In addition to the goal of classical theology, which was to understand the faith, the goal of liberation theology in- cludes the purpose of changing the unjust situation. It is a practical goal in addition to an intellectual one that is en- dorsed. Theology here is seeking not just the gift of meaning Liberation Christology 87 from newly interpreted dogmas, but also the release of cap- tives. It intends to contribute something to the lifting of misery for actual people here and now. 6. The vision which impels liberation theology is that of the reign of God, already arriving. We do not have to wait until the last day for God to wipe all tears away from people's faces and for there to be an end to mourning. The new heaven and the new earth should already be beginning to take root, if not totally, then at least in real anticipations here and now. To use a technical word, what is operative is a realized es- chatology which functions as a critique of the lack of salvation in present situations. In this vision, what comes to the fore in a new way is the importance of this world, in contrast with a dualism which would pit heaven against earth. In a dualistic view, what happens on earth is relatively unimportant because we expect a life to come where eternal reward and punishment will be meted out. The more integrated vision proposed by Vatican II and strongly adopted by liberation theology sees that this world also matters, for it mediates to us in a sacramental way the goodness of God. Our ultimate salvation can be tasted in advance in the blessings of this world. In very concrete ways, then, God's saving will is violated when oppressive situations grind people down; but God's saving will appears wherever justice and peace gain a foothold. As the Latin American bishops said at Medellin: "All liberation is an anticipation of the complete redemption brought by Christ." This redemp- tion involves us as persons in all of our dimensions, so that no act of lifting oppression, however small, is divorced from the final redemption. Rather, it is part of salvation already hap- pening. Method Individual theologians will work variations on the theme, but liberation theology's method does involve three steps. 88 Liberation Christology Firsts an oppressive situation is recognized to be oppressive. It is named a sin and analyzed for its root causes. Then, because this is theology and not simply a humanistic discipline, Chris- tian tradition is analyzed for what may have contributed to this oppression. What elements coming from our tradition had a hand in this present circumstance? Where is the com- plicity of the church and its preaching? How have we under- stood Christ in a way that is helpful to the oppressor? At this point liberation theology becomes quite critical of some ele- ments of the tradition. Finally, guided by the experience of the oppressed, the Christian tradition is searched for elements thatwould yield a new understanding and a new practice which would be liberating. At this point liberation theology often notices things in our tradition that have been overlooked and lifts them up as a challenge to accepted interpretations. Jesus Christ "Who do you say that I am?" In Latin American liberation theology the question begins to be answered by bringing into focus the poverty of millions of people. The question arises: is it God's will that these people be deprived of livelihood, that they be malnourished, that children die, that there be inade- quate education, no medical benefits, no shelter for millions of people? Is this what God desires? No, it is wrong. Then why is it like this? At this point social analysis starts to uncover economic and political structures wherein the majority of people are landless while a small minority of people own all the land. The land itself is worked by the many for the benefit of the few. This in itself is a controversial analysis. The dispute over its legitimacy brings to mind Brazilian Bishop Dom Helder Camara's comment: "When I ask people for bread to feed the poor, they think I am a saint; when I ask them why the poor are hungry, they think I am a Communist." But it is that asking of the question why that gets to the root causes. Liberation Christology 89 Then it becomes possible to envision something besides just emergency measures and endless patching up; a radical, cre- ative quest for better structures ensues. The second toward answering the question leads to step way preaching and piety, with official critical analysis of the encouragement, have appropriated the tradition about Jesus Christ. What is there in the tradition of christology that has » supported this situation of injustice? Two things have been named. The first is the mysticism of the dead Christ in Latin American pietyTsymbolized in graphic crucifixes and in Holy Week processions in which the dead Christ is carried and pious folk mourn as if he had just died. This is coupled with an interior spiritual identification with Christ as a model. - What is wrong with this? How has this contributed to the continuation of a situation of oppression? Emphasis on the dead Christ works to legitimate suffering as the will of God. It is preached that Jesus Cnrfst suffered quietly and passively; he went to the cross like a sheep to the slaughter and opened not his mouth. The corollary is clear: To be a good Christian youv should suffer quietly; you should go to the cross and not open your mouth; you should bear your cross in this world and after death God will give you your eternal reward. When embraced in a situation of injustice, this pattern of piety ' promotes acceptance of the status of victim. Anyone who would challenge their suffering would be seen to go against the example of Christ. This obviously works to the advantage of the oppressor. The second difficulty that has been identified in the tradi- tion is the glorification of the imperial Christ. In heaven the risen Christ rules. preached that he sets up on earth It is human authorities to rule in his name, both in the civil and ecclesiastical spheres. Human authorities represent Christ and are to be one would obey him. In a situation of obeyed as injustice, this puts Christ in league with the dominating powers. The ethics which flow from it would lead one to think 90 Liberation Christology that anyone who challenged temporal or ecclesiastical rulers, all too often allies in the past history of Latin America, was disobeying the will of God. This emphasis on the heavenly Christ ruling as Lord in league with the earthly lords has been used to keep people passive in the face of their own oppres- sion. The third step is then taken. What in the tradition of christology has been overlooked and, in the light of the expe- rience of the poor, might be used to shape a christology that would liberate? Liberation theologians look primarily to the Jesus of the gospels. Is he really a passive victim whose example legitimates passive suffering? Is he really a dominat- ing lord whose will legitimates oppressive rule? What did he What about the fact that his ministry stand for in his ministry? to the outcast and sinners led to his death in an intrinsic and profound way? Is the resurrection not God's victory over oppressive forces? Reading the scriptures from the perspective of the poor makes it very clear (and this comes as a surprise, perhaps, to those who have not been suffering, but to the oppressed it comes as a great revelation of good news) that Jesus is on the side of the downtrodden and calls oppressors to conversion. A key text is the scene in Luke where, at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus goes to his home synagogue in Nazareth and reads from the scroll of Isaiah. Imagine how these words sound to people within a situation of oppression: The Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me Spirit of the to preach the good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Sitting down Jesus says, "Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:16-21). This prophecy agenda sets the for Jesus' ministry, as we see from everything that follows in the gospels. His preaching that the reign of God is near; his Liberation Christology 91 singling out the poor and those who hunger after justice for beatitude; the way he feeds and heals and welcomes out- casts — all of this reveals a choice, a preference for those who have not. Obviously, then, this is God's agenda for the poor: that they be released and set at liberty from grinding poverty and oppression. This is special good news for victims. It means that their present situation is not the last word about their lives, but that God has another design in mind. Touching structures as well as hearts, God is opening up a new future for the poor. One of the most powerful expressions of this gospel truth is the Magnificat, the song of Mary. After praising God for all the great things He has done for her, a poor peasant woman, she goes on to sing about the great things God will do for everyone else, perceiving this in very startling words: "He has put down and has exalted the the mighty from their thrones lowly. He has filled good things and has sent the hungry with the rich way empty" (Lk 2:46-55). How does that sound to the hearts of those oppressed? There is a clear message enun- ciated here that rings all the way through the gospels: Jesus opts for the poor, for the cause of the poor, as the embodi- ment of God who does the same. If this is the way the ministry of Jesus is read in liberation theology, then it flows logically into an interpretation of the cross as a liberating event. It is not that Jesus came to die; he was not masochistic. He came to liveand to bring life abun- dantly to everyone Doing so faithfully, however, put him else. at odds with the religious and civil powers not tuned into God's ways. In one real sense the crucified Jesus is a victim arrested, unjustly tried, executed. But he is far from passive.^ His death results from a very active ministry in which love and compassion for the dispossessed led him into conflict with the powerful. Even in custody he still had the choice of what attitude to adopt toward those who were torturing and killing him. His words, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what 92 Liberation Christology they do" (Lk 23:34) show was still for love and that his choice compassion. There is engagement active here, of heart and soul, in conflict with the mystery of evil and in tune with the mystery of the goodness of God. In the end, the cross reveals that God identifies with the one unjustly executed rather than with the rulers. Far from legitimizing suffering, the cross in a liberation perspective shows victims that God is in powerful solidarity with them in their suffering, and opens the pos- sibility of their own active engagement, both interiorly and exteriorly, against the forces of oppression. Coherent with this reading, the resurrection appears as the sign of God's liberation breaking into this world. It does not rob Jesus' death of its negative aspects, but reveals that ul- timately the loving power of God is stronger than death and evil. The risen Christ embodies God's intention on behalf of everyone who is oppressed; in the end, the murderer will not triumph over his victim. In this light, the ruling Christ is seen to be in league not with dominating powers who cause so much suffering, but with those who suffer, as ground of their hope. He is the Lord as the crucified one who liberates. Out from the perspec- of this reading of the story of Jesus tive of the poor and oppressed has come a new and potent christological title: Jesus Christ, Liberator. In the early church, believers borrowed names which had currency in civil society and bestowed them on Jesus, whose own life history and them with a different significance. For exam- Spirit filled ple, the title "Lord," used of someone who was a boss or an overseer of a group, was given to Jesus in acknowledgment of his ascendency over all other powers of this world. The dif- ference which his own was the value of history gave to this title liberating service rather than domination: this Lord washes feet. A similar dynamic occuTs^witrr^this- new title. Some leaders of movements for national independence in various countries have been called "Liberator," showing the role they played in freeing their people from dominating colonial na- Liberation Christology 93 tions. Giving this title to Jesus, liberation theology intends to confess his identification with the oppressed as well as the power of his name and Spirit to overturn that oppression. If people set their hearts on him, they will be on the path to wholeness and freedom. At the same time, Jesus' own life history breaks