Who: Robert Lassalle-KleinWhat: Outline of Introduction and Chapter 1 of Who Is Jesus?When: Jan. 6, 2016

INTRODUCTION (1-8)1. Who is Jesus? From the first days of the Christian community there have been

various answers to this question.2. Earliest Christians used titles: prophet, teacher, Messiah, Son of David, Son of

Man, Lord, Son of God, Word of God, and even occasionally God.3. The New Testament has a variety of different Christologies. (1)

A. Images of Jesus: 1. The Christian tradition has been no less rich than the NT in reflecting on the

mystery of Jesus2. Examples:

a. Catacombs: shepherdb. Church Fathers: pierced side of Christ as source of Church and sacramentsc. Medieval Christians: judge; wounds of Jesus (monastics and mystics)d. Renaissance: genitalia of Christe. Last three centuries: ethical teacher, noble human, loving misunderstood

figure, messianic schemerf. Recent (since 1986): political revolutionary, magician, Galilean

charismatic, rabbi, proto-Pharisee, Essene, or eschatological prophet. (2)g. Popular Christianity (Catholic, Eastern, Orthodox, Protestants,

Evangelicals): tendency to focus on divinity at cost of humanity

B. Starting Points for Christology: 1. The New Testament:

a. Difficulty is that NT offers many Christologies, not just one (3)b. Synoptic Gospels present a very different Jesus than the one of John

In general the Synoptic Jesus says very little about himself and more focused on coming of the God’s kingdom.

The Christology of Matthew and Luke both present Jesus as Son of God from the time of his virginal conception

c. John (the fourth gospel) begins by presenting Jesus as the incarnate Word of God (Jn. 1:14) and ends with Thomas’s Easter confession, “My Lord and my God (Jn 20:28) He proclaims himself Messiah (Jn. 4:26), the only-begotten Son

coming from the father (3:18), existing before Abraham (8:58), and uses the formula “I AM” (6:35; 8:28; 10:11, 14; 11:25)

d. Thus, the NT gives a number of different Christologies and raises many questions: Should we start with these Christologies which emerge by the end of

the NT period, with those in the earliest books, or with the oral traditions behind the books? (4)

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Was belief in Jesus’ preexistence a late development or can it be found earlier in the tradition?

Were the first disciples aware of what the Church would later call his divinity?

Should John’s view be considered more accurate than Mark’s or do we need to make room for both?

It it enough to just use the NT as the basis for our Christology? (

2. The Creeds and Dogmas of the Churcha. The Nicene Creed, which is a revision of the creed of the Council of Nicea

(325) by the First Council of Constantinople (381) is recited at mass each Sunday.

b. Cardinal Ratzinger chose the Apostles’ Creed as the basis for the catechism and his own approach to Christology.

c. Problem with using creeds is they start “from above.” But these faith statements need a critical foundation in the words and deeds of the Jesus of history. Otherwise it is vulnerable to the charge that the Jewish faith of Jesus and his followers has been turned into a Greek faith in a savior god, divinizing the carpenter of Nazareth. (5)

3. The Faith of the People (5)a. This approach asks, what do contemporary Christians say and believe

about Jesus? How do they apprehend him in faith?b. That faith is an important but insufficient source. It tends to get

exaggerated toward the humanity or the divinity.c. The idea that Jesus has been confronted with the same struggles faced by

each of us in for many Christians difficulty to grasp and tends to resolve toward the divinity.

4. Historical-Critical Approach (6)a. A strictly historical-critical approach would be “based on purely historical

sources and arguments.” But the Gospels and other NT documents are written in light of the Resurrection and the disciples’ Easter experience. They are products of Christian faith

b. There is considerable historical memory enshrined in the texts, but they do not count as historical writings in the modern sense.

c. On the one hand, a critical Christology must b based on historical-critical scholarship. The church always needs to check its doctrine against the historical events on which it is based.

d. On the other hand, historical-critical research is not sufficient. Historical research can tell us a great deal, but it cannot “prove” the

resurrection, or establish the truth of the miracle stories. (6) A strictly historical approach does not exclude the presuppositions of

those who claim to follow it. And finally, the “historical Jesus” reconstructed by scholars is not and

can never be the living Jesus of Christian faith. (7)

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5. A Dialectical Christology (7)a. If Christology is to be both critical (using historical and literary

disciplines) and also theological (i.e., be a reflection on faith), it must do its historical-critical investigation within the parameters of the historic Christian tradition.

b. Thus Christology must, per Cardinal Walter Kasper, must take into account “the earthly Jesus AND the risen, exalted Christ.”

c. Our primary access to the mystery of Jesus the Christ, and hence the starting point for Christology, is the church, through its Scriptures, its creeds, its faith experience, proclaimed, and handed on through the centuries.

d. Each criterion needs the others. Christological faith cannot stand solely on the Scriptures and teachings of the Church. Catholic Christianity has always emphasized the compatibility of faith and reason. A Christology not grounded in historical reality could easily become an ideology or myth, an idolatrous divinization of the man Jesus.

e. Thus, in order to be faithful both to history and to Christian faith, we will follow a bipolar or dialectical approach. We will take seriously the work of historical-critical scholarship as well as the monuments of Christian faith (scripture, teaching, etc.) And both make sense only within the context of the Christian community that continues to confess Jesus as Messiah, Lord, and Son of God, which recognizes his presence in the community fathered in his name, in the Word proclaimed, and in the breaking of the bread. (8)

I. THE THREE QUESTS FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS (9-22)Introductory Remarks: Question: Who is Jesus?

o 1977 editor of Der Speigel (German Time Magazine) published Jesus, Son of Man, which asked,“How the Christian church dares appeal to a Jesus who never existed, to a mandate he never issued, and to a claim that he was God’s son, which he never presumed for himself (9).”

o Eight years later Robert Funk founded the Jesus Seminar by Robert Funk. The seminar is a self-selected academic who meet twice a year in an effort to determine the “real Jesus”

Reject 82% of Gospel sayings as inauthentic, and Gospel of Mark. Reconstruct Jesus, “who bears little resemblance to the one

Christians are familiar with. What they off is a Jewish sage, wisdom teacher, or Cynic philosopher who enunciates a countercultural critique…(9)”

A. The First Quest: Reimarus to Schweitzer 1. Reimarus (1694-1768) was a professor of Oriental Languages in Hamburg

Germany.

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Real aim was to call Jews to a genuine love of God, love of one’s neighbor, and a new righteousness.

Died a failure, feeling that God had abandoned him and crying out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”

a) Apostles were disappointed, as they gave up everything to follow Jesus. Stole his body and claimed he had risen from the dead. Invented story that Jesus had been a suffering Messiah who died

for the sins of humanity. They were the ones who created the Christian story.

2. “Fragments” by Lessing caused a stir in Germany, 1778, really written by Reimarus.

3. “Fragments” launched the First Quest.a. Succession of books on the life of Jesus began to appear, b. mostly by scholars who were dominated by the philosophical principles of

the Enlightenment.

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o “argued that the message and intention of Jesus was simply different from that of the early Church (10).”

2. Aim of Jesus and aim of disciples were different. a) Preaching in Gospels, particularly the

Synoptics, centered on repentance in preperation for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

Used common definition of “kingdom of heaven” according to Jews of the day, which was a temporal kingdom established by Jesus who would free Israel from Roman rule.

a. Enlightenment text, “designed to replace revelation with reason and Christianity with a nondogmatic religion (11).”

b. Influenced by the English Deists. c. He was not first person who would attempt

to reduce Jesus to an ethical teacher. d. While his potrayal would be considered

amateur, he recognized the difference between the historical Jesus and the Christ proclaimed by the Scriptures and Church.

Hostile towards orthodox Christianity. If they removed dogma, preachiness, and Jewishness from Jesus,

historical Jesus would emerge. Not very objective. Attempt to read Gospels through lens of Enlightenment resulted in

reconstruction of Jesus in their own image.

4. 1882 Martin Kahler distinguished between “Jesus” and “Christ” and between historic and historical. a. Historic, implying the past as a story as interpreted from a point of view. b. distinguished between “historical Jesus” and “historic, biblical Christ.”

5. Historical Jesus refers to Jesus of Nazareth as he can be known through historical research. Christ of Faith is the Jesus proclaimed by the first Christians. Both are important; the object of faith cannot be the historical Jesus, but

that faith must be rooted in the Jesus of history.6. The End of the First Quest

d. But the first quest had produced a number of insights and principles.

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a. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) saw the old quest as flawed because theologians presupposed that Jesus was a modern man, just like themselves.

b. Argued that Jesus was not a modern man, his interpretation was from the apocalyptic eschatology. Matthew 10:23: “You will

not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

Jesus decided to go to Jerusalem to provoke a final confrontation, but only accomplished his own death, dying a failure.

c. Schweitzer ended old quest,

B. The New Quest: Kasemann to Schillebeeckx 1. Kasemann in 1953 called for a new quest using the new methods of historical-

critical scholarship- source criticism, form criticism, and redaction criticism.

2. Second Quest not burdened by secular presuppositions of the Enlightenment. Three historical and theological principles of New Quest.

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Priority of Mark, as well as another source common to Luke and Matthew, called “Q.”

Mark’s “messianic secret.” Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Jesus must be understood in the context of

first-century Palestinian Judaism. Theological work of early Church in

interpreting the Christ event had been noted.

Quest was necessary to keep Christian faith tied to life history of Jesus.

a. Gospels contain more historical material than had been previously acknowledged.

b. Rejects myth and Docetism, “meaning that Christology must remain focused on the identity of the exalted Lord with the earthly Jesus and on the primacy of Christ before and over the Church (14).”

c. Does not bypass kerygma, but “proceeds though the medium of that preaching, so that the historical Jesus is interpreted through the kerygma while at the same time, the historical Jesus helps us to interpret the kerygma (14).”

3. Host of books on the historical Jesus and Christology followed, mostly by Europeans, particularly Germans.Schillebeeck (1914- ) wrote influential massive two-volume work, Jesus and Christ. a. “Insightful in its treatment of how Jesus approached his death and useful

for establishing what critical research is able to affirm about his life and ministry (15).”

b. “Hypercritical,” but “remains helpful for establishing a critical minimum in regard to the life and preaching of the historical Jesus (15).”

4. New Quest broke with rationalist liberalism of Old Quest, but many practitioners still remained half liberal in their presuppositions. Too easily dismissed the miracles, as well as eschatological and prophetic

content.

C. The Third Quest 1. 1980’s, use of properly historical methods, social sciences rather than literary

disciplines such as form criticism, redaction criticism, and tradition criticism.

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c. Social sciences has helped “appreciate the social, cultural, and anthropological factors that effected first-century Palestinian Judaism and particularly, the social fabric of Galilean life (15).”

d. Investigates structure of Galilean family and social relationships, position of women, religious milieu, Hellenistic Greek influence, Roman domination and its system of taxation. Overall social climate within which Jesus preached.

e. “Was it possible to separate religion from politics? Who were the ruling elites and where did Jesus and his disciples fit in the social hierarchy? What did “holiness” mean in this period (16)?”

2. Many involved in Third Quest move beyond the closed rationalist system. a. Take seriously the eschatological context of first-century Palestinian

Judaism, while ditching the Enlightenment worldview. Most are Americans, with a couple Europeans.

b. Meier’s A Marginal Jew is open to all sources, but doesn’t find apocryphal Gospels to be helpful.

3. The Jesus Seminara. Can be considered part of Third Quest

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a. Research into Second Temple Judaism helped to better understand Jesus in his own historical context as a first-century, Palestinian Jew.

b. Josephus, first-century Jewish historian, documents of Qumran, and apocalyptic writings are being used to give depth to the context.

Does not exclude miraculous, but argues the notions “that Jesus acted as and was viewed as an exorcist and healer during his public ministry has as much historical corroboration as almost any other statement we can make about the Jesus of history (16).”

Sees Jesus as greatly influenced by John the Baptist.

b. “Effort to find the “real” Jesus hidden behind the theology of the evangelists and the dogma of the Church. The seminar’s founder Robert Funk charges the Church with keeping the faithful in ignorance (17).”

c. He wanted to “liberate” Jesus: “The only Jesus most people want is the mythic one. They don’t want the real Jesus. They want the one they can worship. The cultic Jesus (17).”

d. Seminar’s co-chair, Crossan, reconstruction of the historical Jesus are problematic. Much based on noncanonical texts such as Gnostic Gospel of Thomas,

Gospel of Peter, secret Gospel of Mark. Relies heavily on social anthropology. “Defines Jesus within a secular, social, and cultural matrix

characterized by class, other social distinctions, and the political dynamics of colonization and occupation (18).”

e. For Crossan, Jesus is philosopher and magician, rejects God addressed as Abba, rejects inner circle of 12 disciples, or speaking of a future coming of the kingdom. Open commensality, advocated radical egalitarianism, which

challenged established structures and hierarchical power. f. Crossan argues that Christianity knew nothing about the passion of Jesus,

Jesus was executed by the Romans not the Jews, and that his body was probably eaten by the dogs who scavenged beneath the cross. “In his view, the passion account should not be understood as history

remembered; it was created by early Christian writers on the basis of Old Testament models.”

g. Mack’s approach more radical—hypothetical reconstruction of “Q” community, sees Jesus as wisdom teacher who set in motion a “social experiment.” Sees Mark as real founder of Christianity. Mark sounds like a university professor, who received the Gospel not

as transmission of tradition but composed it with other intellectuals. Mark invented the conflict between Jesus and Jewish leaders of his

day, making them the villians. h. Borg is most sympathetic to religious dimension.

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“He presents Jesus as a charismatic sage and healer, a spirit person, social prophet, wisdom teacher, and movement founder.” “For him, Jesus, like Moses, Ezekiel, Paul, and the Lakota shaman Black Elk, was a spirit person…(19)”

Social prophet, put to death because his social vision threatened the dominant classes of the day.

Borg doesn’t deal with eschatological or Resurrection. Agnostic about afterlife.

CONCLUSION1. Are we any closer to knowing who Jesus was after two hundred years of research?

a. First Quest, Enlightenment, from it came many of the “distinctions and concepts which would become part of the vocab of Christology, including Jesus of history and the Christ of faith, the priority of Mark, and the ‘Q’ hypothesis (20).”

b. Second Quest moved beyond Enlightenment . “Sought to show the continuity between the historical Jesus and the

Christ of faith. Scholars recognized that they couldn’t bypass the kerygma. “Their effort to interpret Jesus through the medium of his preaching meant

taking much more seriously the Palestinian Jewish background of Jesus, and by implication, the Jewish religious tradition which shaped his own religious identity and imagination (20).”

c. Third Quest led to greater appreciation of the world of Jesus. Application of social sciences suggested a more radical dimension to his

words and deeds. Seminars argue that Gospels can’t be taken as reliable source. But Luke

Timothy Johnson dictates narrative spine provided by Mark which can be corroborated by other sources.

d. Historical Jesus is never sufficient. “Most of his life remains veiled to us, and our sources are of necessity selective (21).” Historical Jesus cannot be the object of Christian faith. “…problematic nature of establishing the meaning of a person by means of

critical histiography alone, and the adequacy of history as a basis for faith.”

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i. Few scholars take the work of Jesus Seminar seriously. questionable selection of sources, criterion

of dissimilarity for assessing authenticity, insistence on finding a non-eschatological Jesus.

Produced a lot of headlines but it has not added much to our knowledge of the historical Jesus.

e. Nonetheless, faith should be grounded in the Jesus of history as well as in the faith of the Church.

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