New & Enlarged Handbook of Christian Theology - Donald W. Musser

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dialogue has dominated much theological discussion over the past several decades. Theologians not only promote dialogue between Christian churches, they also have developed theoretical reflections on dialogue among the various world religions. Pluralism is the name often given to a kind of theology that wants to recognize the universality of God’s grace and the relative equality of the world religions. While pluralism has been a basic assumption in many theological schools, more recently it has come under increasing attack. To some, pluralism seems to be too much in debt to Enlightenment assumptions about religious faith. Given so many religions, the pluralists ask, how do we figure out a rational way of determining their common features? In the postmodern universe, by contrast, theologians no longer have the ambition of constructing a vantage point from which to view all the world’s religions. Instead, the more modest task of analyzing Christianity’s own internal coherence and historical development seems much more feasible and important. The one religion that Christianity cannot avoid engaging is, of course, Judaism, and some of the most exciting theology in recent years has been written about Christianity’s treatment of Judaism and the role Judaism continues to play in Christian faith.

      To return to the theme of an ongoing conversation, it can be said that all Christians comprise theology by joining their voices together in the search for understanding. Some Christians, however, have a vocation that calls them to reflect in more detailed and comprehensive ways about the various issues involved in the life of faith. Nevertheless, what theologians do in academic institutions should not become alien to what every Christian does in times of doubt, curiosity, and meditation. Unfortunately, theological specialization often means that theologians of various schools and methods can hardly talk to each other, let alone to the wider public or laity in the pews. Thus, much intellectual and inspirational leadership on religious issues in North America is conducted by persons who reside outside of academic institutions.

      Such specialization is especially devastating for the relationship between theology and biblical studies. Probably for most people, theology simply means a well-informed reflection on the Bible, but in the world of scholarship, the connection between theology and the Bible has become strained. Many New Testament scholars resist the imposition of contemporary theological concerns on the Bible, and many theologians, granting New Testament scholars their territorial rights, refrain from in-depth analysis of biblical texts. Of course, there are still New Testament scholars who deal with theological issues, but the pressures of research and the standards of secular scholarship drive many in the field of biblical studies toward issues and topics that are increasingly remote to contemporary religious concerns. Interestingly, some New Testament scholars have recently revived the quest for the historical Jesus, and while they claim to be operating on purely objective historical criteria, it seems obvious to many observers that they are once again mixing constructive theology and textual criticism. The quest for the historical Jesus, although almost certainly an impossible task on historical grounds alone, is a refreshing reminder that the most important New Testament issues remain within the orbit of theological concerns.

      Another way of dealing with the problem of specialization in theological studies is to think about theologians as public intellectuals. Theologians should be willing to address the public issues of the day in language that is relevant and accessible. There are many proposals for turning theology into a more public venture, but nearly insurmountable problems remain in trying to bridge the culture of academic institutions with the wider public. Moreover, some theologians insist that the main public that theologians should worry about addressing is the church, not society at large.

      These problems in communication explain why there has been an attempt in recent years to recover the rhetorical dimensions of the theological task. Rhetorical theology can take various forms. It can be a reflection on the rhetorical style of individual theologians. It can give theologians the tools to be more aware of the different kinds of audiences they address and, therefore, the appropriate style for those different contexts. It can also make normative claims about how theology should be practiced. Rhetorical theology will not solve all of theology’s problems, but it is a symptom of the continuing struggle of all theologians to be relevant and helpful to both church and society while explicating the Christian faith.

       STEPHEN H. WEBB

      Bibliography

      Don H. Compier, What Is Rhetorical Theology? Textual Practice and Public Discourse.

      Colin E. Gunton, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine.

      Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology.

      David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism.

      Clark M. Williamson, Way of Blessing, Way of Life: A Christian Theology.

      Cross-Reference: Biblical Theology, Christology, Dogmatic Theology, Ethics, Historical Theology, Liberation Theology–Latin American, Philosophical Theology, Pluralism, Postmodern Theology, Practical Theology, Systematic Theology.

      CHARISMATIC (See PENTECOSTALISM.)

      CHRISTOLOGY

      At the center of the Christian faith is the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and Christology is essentially the explanation for this. Christology deals with questions about who Jesus is and about why he makes the decisive difference in human destiny. There are some christological issues about which all Christian traditions and denominations are agreed, and others that divide the various churches.

      Positions on which there is agreement among all Christian traditions are these: Jesus of Nazareth was a real human being, a first-century Palestinian Jew, who was reared in Nazareth of Galilee in a devout family, and trained to be a carpenter. He left home as a young man to take up a wandering life as a preacher and healer, and came into conflict with the religious authorities and under suspicion of the Roman colonial occupation. Knowingly risking arrest and execution for the sake of his message and mission, he was arrested, tried, and cruelly executed, but raised from the dead to a new life that has provided enlightenment and empowerment for his followers ever since. Jesus is savior; he stands in a unique relationship to the transcendent God.

      Some important questions are not answered uniformly by all Christian traditions: What is meant by the claim that Jesus is divine? Did he himself make that claim before his death and resurrection? Does any divinity claim apply to his whole life from the first moment of his human existence, or does it refer to the time after his resurrection from the dead? Does the divinity claim begin with his baptism by John in the Jordan, or is it in some sense progressively realized? Is he the savior of all who are in good faith or only for those who explicitly acknowledge him as savior? And finally, in quite recent times, is he the definitive and only savior given for all peoples at all times, or might there be other saviors for other peoples and cultures?

      The claim that Jesus saves is basic to the whole structure of Christology, and it assumes that there is something very wrong from which all human beings need to be saved. The Hebrew scriptures (beginning with Genesis 3) describe what is wrong as an estrangement from God that causes confusion in all aspects of human life and relationships, requiring new intervention of God the creator to restore the balance and focus. The New Testament, particularly in the letters of Paul, makes the claim that moral law and religious observances have never been enough to accomplish this restoration, but that in the person, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus there has been a radical reversal of the fate of the human community. Those who first proclaimed this did so on the grounds of their own experience of radical change for the better in their lives as individuals and as communities. For all subsequent Christians, who were brought to faith in Jesus Christ by the testimony of others, it has been important to ask why Jesus makes this radical difference.

      One approach is through the theme of Adam in the Genesis story of creation and sin: Jesus is the “new Adam” who by the providential will of God assumes the corporate identity of the human race, and in that identity reverses the disobedience of Adam by his own perfect obedience to the will of the heavenly Father and creator of all. This approach

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