A Skillful Blending of Biblical, Traditional, and Contemporary Currents in Christology

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION | Jesus the Christ | James Edward Talmage

books:


	• Jesus the Christ James Edward Talmage General Books LLC, 2010 - 542 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

IF there's a valid criticism....

This book, now 'eons' old, has withstood some weathering, but people now are a)considerably more cynical about religion b) wish to form their own opinions regarding things, religion included.
Most books by LDS/Mormon leaders are hopelessly biased in-with the myopic POV of Mormonism, and readers not knowing that may not notice some-many of the subtlties. The nature of the Godhead (trinity) will strike many Christians as an example.
What also comes thru is the authors adoration of Christ; the gestapo-like tactics / practice of the LDS church in 'enforcing' their beliefs have become Much more pronounced in the years since this book was written....

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A Skillful Blending of Biblical, Traditional, and Contemporary Currents in Christology

"Kasper conveys much valuable information, and his judgments, though sometimes sharp, are always carefully considered. All in all, this work is a skillful blending of biblical, traditional, and contemporary currents in Christology. No mere reproduction of the earlier manuals, it opens up exciting new approaches to the ancient faith in the light of modern philosophical anthropology." Avery cardinal Dulles

Chalcedonian Christology Assailed:
Chalcedonian Christology has been under attack on various fronts. Post Vatican II theologians criticized its dependence on a noncritical interpretation of the Gospels. The christological pluralism of the New Testament is not recognized by The Chalcedonian formula, which is not supported by the Gospels and the virgin birth expressed only in Matthew and Luke. Rudolf Bultmann, hinges on the fact that the Chalcedonian Christology (Nature of Christ) is based on antiquated Jewish messianism and apocalypticism and on Neoplatonic metaphysics, in which the terms person, nature, and substance are understood in ways fundamentally different from those terms are understood today. Chalcedonian christological definitions used in interpreting the Gospel portraits of Jesus has tended to restrict the access of modern Christians to the man Jesus in his historical actuality. In order to make the proclamation (kerygma) and Christ's saving work meaningful to modern persons, Bultmann has advocated 'demythologizing' the NT and reinterpreting the mythological elements that lie behind early christological formulations. Some theologians advocate using alternative christological models to explain the doctrines of preexistence and the incarnation, preferring the New Testament metaphor of God's 'sending' his Son to the world to the intellectualized expressions of the Council of Chalcedon. Edward Schillebeeckx and Walter Kasper, have chosen to begin their christological inquiry 'from below' rather than 'from above'; they start with the fully human Jesus and then go on to discover and confess the saving presence of God in him. This does not signal a rejection of Chalcedon, only that `the Chalcedonian terminology no longer establishes.

Pneumatological christology:
The 1500 anniversary of the schismatic Council of Chalcedon, was marked by the year 1951. Since then, theological reflection in the field of christology has experienced an outburst that is as remarkable as promising. It reflects the belief that the landmark christology council of the fifth century does not terminate Christological debates as the guidelines for a continuing dialogue. As that dialogue has continued in the last half of the ending century, one of the promising areas of development is that of Spirit christology, a modern retrieval of an unmistakable presence of a pneumatological (Spiritual) understanding of Jesus, the messianic Christ of the New Testament, as an absolute biblical idea in early Christianity. Among contemporary theologians, one of the pioneers and proponents of a Spirit driven christology, was Walter Kasper. This christology is clearly evident in Kasper's book; Jesus the Christ, as well as earlier in some of his writings. He seems to backup from such approach in some of his later writings, as in, "The God of Jesus Christ." Kasper's "Son christology, looks as a shift away from his pneumatological christology. Instead of developing such pneumatological approach to christology in his later writings he return to a solid Logos oriented model for presenting the mystery of Christ. The Spirit christology model is seen as complementary to the Logos model. While honoring the divinity of Jesus Christ, it renders his human and historical nature more intelligible, using a language true to Chalcedon but adequate to contemporary discourses in the Church, the academy and society.

Quests of the historical Jesus:
To acquire a clearer idea of the theological issues that are involved in the various "Quests of the historical Jesus," and to arrive at your own resolution of the tension between both 'faith and history' (the relation between what you believe by faith to what had actually happened in Palestine two millennia ago). While, 'faith and historiography' (the relation to what you attain as knowledge of the main lines of modern historical Christology. In the course of this process on contemporary Christology, the questions surrounding the relationship of faith to history, asking in particular the question of the relation between Christological doctrine and modern historical reconstructions of the life of Jesus. You believe by faith not to the results of critical-historical scholarship on the Historical Jesus of Nazareth.
Three major outcomes will help you to realize this attained goal: A general knowledge of the thrust of the "Liberal Quest" of the historical Jesus, with its philosophical and theological presuppositions, the causes for its breakdown, and Bultmann's reaction to it. - A detailed and critical knowledge of the hermeneutical and methodological principles of Edward Schillebeeckx regarding the 'historical Jesus', as well as his actual project of historical reconstruction and subsequent development of Chalcedonian Christology in a contemporary context. - A general knowledge, through secondary sources, of the work of a handful of contemporary 'historical Jesus' scholars representing both the "Third Quest" (Meier, Sanders, Wright) and 'Neo-Liberal Quest' (Crossan, Borg, the "Jesus Seminar'.

Book Review:
Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligous Dialogue, is one of Tübingen's utmost Catholic dogmatic theologians. He presents a remarkably concise study, and an informative Christology. "Rooted in the ancient and medieval Chaledonian tradition, he is momentarily informed on recent Christological trends, exegetical and theologo-sophical. In concise exploring style, Kasper tackles almost all the normative Christological questions, such as the eternal pre-existence of the Logos, the hypostatic union, the virginal conception, the freedom of Jesus from sin, his Messianic claims, his miracles,& resurrection. Kasper treats the redemptive character of Jesus's sacrificial death, unwilling to separate Christology from soteriology unlike Chalcedon. Opposing liberal Christologies, Kasper thus stands with the seven councils and the mainstream of the traditional theologians, a position he alters in his later writings. Twentieth century secular and anthropologists present Jesus as the zenith of the evolutionary process, the ultimate fulfillment of essential humanity. Such theologies, as by Teilhard de Chardin, Karl Rahner, and Wolfhart Pannenberg, reduce Christ to a mere symbol of human cosmic evolution. Kasper harshly criticizes of the Catholic theologian, Piet Schoonenberg, even accusing him of Modalism by holding that Jesus is a human-not a divine-person.

Avery Dulles' Comments:
Cardinl Dulles, Catholic University of America, thinks that Kasper seeks to validate the ancient dogmas in terms of an approach influenced by modern personalist anthropologies. "In order to place Christology in an adequate framework, Kasper probes deeply into many related themes, such as human freedom, personality, corporeality, sin, redemption, salvation, historicity, and eschatology. He provides likewise, in fine print, concise and lucid summaries of the history of dogma and of modern theological opinions. ... In opposition to the evolutionists, Kasper insists on the freedom and unpredictability of God's interventions in salvation history. He holds that person is higher and more ultimate than nature, and consequently that it is appropriate to speak of three divine persons (though Barth and Rahner have intimated that the term "person" in this context may be confusing). On the basis of a modern, relational concept of personality, Kasper holds that Jesus is both a human and a divine person, that is, a human person whose transcendental openness is definitively determined by his oneness with the person of the divine Logos. Within these Trinitarian perspectives, Kasper seeks to revive the early Spirit Christology, which is biblical as well as Jewish-Christian. The Incarnation, according to Kasper, is effected by the personal activity of the Holy Spirit, whose sanctifying presence is constitutive of the human person of Jesus. The risen Jesus, in turn, sends forth the Holy Spirit as his very own, and in this way continually inaugurates the eschatological era of salvation.

The God of Jesus Christ
Theology and Church

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PAY CLOSE ATTENTION

Note that there are reviews here for two different books by the same title. They are the Talmadge (LDS) and Kasper (Roman Catholic) books. Just be sure you know which one you're looking at and you'll be fine.

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Not a Mormon Book

Attention readers: This book is by Cardinal Walter Kasper, and is NOT the Mormon book by the same name.

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Mormon Church; Mormons; Mormons and Mormonism; Religion / Biblical Studies / Jesus, the Gospels

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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