Christology in the postmodern period
CHRISTOLOGY:
it is the study of the titles, concepts
and conceptual patterns by which the New Testament church expressed its faith
in Jesus as the Christ and of the extent to which such concepts and titles may
be traced to Jesus’ own self- understanding. Therefore, Christology is the
study of incarnated nature of Jesus.[1]
BEGINNING OF CHRISTOLOGY:
Early
Christians found themselves confronted with a set of new concepts and ideas
relating to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as well the notions of
salvation and redemption, and had to use a new set of terms, images and ideas
to deal with them., these new forms of discourse led to the beginnings of
Christology as an attempt to understand, explain and discuss their understanding
of the nature of Christ.
The
Kyrios title for Jesus is central to the development of New Testament
Christology, for the early Christians placed it at the center of their
understanding, and from that center attempted to understand the other issues
related to the Christian mysteries In early Christian belief, the concept of
Kyrios included the pre-existence of Christ, for they believed if Christ is one
with God, he must have been united with God from the very beginning.
The
Aramaic word, Mari was a very respectful form of polite address, which means
more than just "Teacher" and was somewhat similar to Rabbi. In Greek,
this has at times been translated as Kyrios. While the term Mari expressed the
relationship between Jesus and his disciples during his life, the Greek Kyrios
came to represent his lordship over the world
THE POSTMODERNISM:
The term
"postmodern" has appeared since the early twentieth century.
According to Lawrence Cahoone, "postmodern" seems first to be used by
the German philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz in 1917 to describe Friedrich
Nietzsche's "nihilism." As in the English world, the theologian
Bernard I. Bell employs this term in 1939 to "mean the recognition of the
failure of secular modernism and a return to religion." After that, this term
was gradually adopted by various academic areas: the historian Arnold Toynbee
applies this term again to describe the rise of mass society in the post-World
War I era; literary criticism of the 1950s and 1960s refers
"postmodern" as the "reaction against aesthetic modernism";
it was used in architecture in the 1970s; and, in the 1980s, it was used
"to refer primarily French poststructuralist philosophy, and secondarily
to a general reaction against modern rationalism, utopianism, and what came to
be called 'foundationalism.”[2]
CHRISTOLOGY
FROM BELOW
Christology
“from below” is contrasted with Christology “from above.” The latter is also be called “high Christology,” and begins with
the premise that there has always been an infinite God, who at a point in time
“came down” to earth to take on human nature and to redeem us by dying on the
Cross. He is supposed to have risen bodily from the grave, actually ascended
into heaven and is now literally at the right hand of His Father, from where He
will come on the last day to judge the living and the dead.
Compared with
this medieval notion, the new Christology “from below,” or “law” Christology
starts with the Jesus of history. He was always a human being like us, even
when with St. Paul we claim He was without sin. He stands out above other human
beings not because He is God in human form, but because more than anyone else
He proclaimed the Kingdom of God and gave Himself to the extension of this
Kingdom as no one has ever done or, we may suppose, ever will do.
The Christ of
Christian faith is only and uniquely the historical Jesus of Nazareth. In spite
of what the evangelists or St. Paul say, Jesus was not interested in
proclaiming Himself. He was completely subordinated to God’s cause, the Kingdom
of God over the hearts and minds of the human race. Jesus preached merely the
direct, unrestricted rule of God over the world.
The postmodern
perspective of Christology is to see Jesus as the parable of God, as the
paradigm of humanity, the one who realizes that human concerns and God’s
concerns really coincide; and that we should realize that we, like Christ, are
“of God,” even when death seems to contradict it. As expressed by Edward
Schillebeeckx, “Through his historical self-giving, accepted by the Father,
Jesus has shown us who God is: a Deus humanissi mus (most human God),”
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