Chris to Logy From Below - From Above

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

What is Christology?

Christology is the theology of Jesus Christ: his what and whonatures,person, obscurity, ministry, consciousness, etc. WHENEVER we ask andreflect about the who and what of Jesus Christ, we are doing Christology.

We have a hierarchy of truths. Among these truths, it is more importantto know who Jesus is than it is to know how many sacraments there are orwhether Christ is really present in the Eucharistand these truths, one mustgrant, are exceedingly important matters in themselves.

There are two basic types of ChristologyChristology from below or Ascending Christology.Christology from above or Descending Christology.
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Christology from below

Starts with Jesus of Nazareth, that is, the Jesus of history, and tendsto emphasize his humanity.

We begin with Jesus, a human being like us in all things but sin, livingout his early life in obscurity and who, by his unique proclamation of the Kingdom of God, stands out from the rest of humanity.

He is led to Calvary and the Cross by his lifelong giving of himself inservice to others

God raised him up and exalted him.Notice how Christs life proceeds

according to this Christology? It ascends.Notice how Christs life proceeds according to this Christology.
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The Christology from above is the emphasis of the theology we find in theFourth Gospel and that of Paul. Christology from above was thedominant approach to Catholic Christology from the medieval period up untilVatican II. It is usefulbut what do you think happens if you take thisChristology too far? An exclusive or exaggerated Christology from above tends to imply that Jesus is not really human, but only appears to havetaken on our human condition.

Question: Of taking these positions to their extremes, to which haveChristians historically more often been inclined?

Answer: CHRISTOLOGY from above. Why? Our humanity is VERYuncomfortable. We really dont like associating it with God. Its much easierfor us to see Jesus as Superman than man. In the pre-Vatican II Church,one might often hear statements like, when Christ walked the earthdisguised as a man.

Catholics strive to be both-and Christians, not either-or. Jesus is both Godand man. He is both from above and from below. We need the full apostolicwitness to see this. Theology is an outcome or fruit of faith. Christology iswhere anthropology and theology meet. The first theological questions are:

Who am I? Who are you? Who are we?
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Who is Jesus Christ? In all the literature about Jesus ever written you willnever find a neutral account. Study his life and teachings and it will beIMPOSSIBLE for you to maintain a credibly indifferent posture. Either youwill accept him in faith in more or less conformity with the faith of theChurch OR you will deflate his importance or discredit his person in one way

or another.

What about modern skeptics? Modern skeptics and their claims areUNORIGINAL. It was not modern theologians and book writers that inventedthe idea of the extramarital conception of Jesusit was insinuated by someof his contemporaries (Jn 8:41). Reimarus did not invent the notion of Jesus body being stolen from the tomb; it was a well-known rumor by the time of Matthews composition (Mt 28:11). D.F. Strauss was not the first to rejectthe mystery of the Incarnation as unworthy of educated human beings;Celsus and Porphyry, pagan philosophers of the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries deridedit well before.

But that does not mean that the Early Church was a group of fundamentalists! It would be wrong to insinuate that the Church of the 2 nd

and 3 rd centurieswhich determined the biblical canonshared 21 st centuryChristian fundamentalist anxiety for historical accuracy. The biblical canonattests the Churchs conviction that the four Gospels together, in theirrelative differences and essential complementarity provide the full, authenticportrait of Jesus and the full, authentic depository of his teachings. Bypreserving four DIFFERENT VERSIONS of the same story the Churchexpressed that the truth of the Quadriform Gospel does NOT depend onthe historical accuracy of the contradictory details among the fourdocuments called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. To speak of theGodman Jesus Christ is to speak of ultimate mysteries, the complementarymysteries of God and Human being.

John 17:3And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God,and Jesus Christ whom you sent.

What follows is not just a mental exercise. This is encountering a MYSTERY,

a dive into the LIGHT.John 4:42[The Samaritan villagers] said to the woman, It is no longerbecause of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves , and we know that this is indeed the Savior of theworld


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This mystery, the mystery of Christ, the human mind can never exhaust.The knowledge here is like the knowledge between Adam and Eve,between Christ and Church.

John 20:28ff

Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God! Jesus said tohim, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessedare those who have not seen and yet believe.

God calls us in Christ to a mystical intimacy and divine eros. This is morethan a head thing. This is a PRAYER thing. Pray.

FatherAll things praise you in your SonBy your Spirit conform all things toJesus ChristGrow our faith to illuminate our reasonAnd grant us reason to critically appropriateOur faith.
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Chris to Logy From Below - From Above