Between the Christ of Deep Incarnation and The African Jesus of Tinyiko Maluleke: An Improvised Dialogue

All differences considered, the Christ of deep incarnation and the African Jesus of Tinyiko Maluleke share at least one fundamental dimension: they both stand out as signs of God's radical embodiment in the world of creation/of African culture(s). Put crudely, while the deep incarnation theologians extend Jesus’ body into social and cosmic bodies, Maluleke locates Jesus’ body in the bodies of his fellow Africans. This study first identifies major convergences and tensions between these two christological perspectives and, second, posits that the scandal of reciprocity, seen as a characteristic feature of African christologies, can be translated into a twofold guiding principle for approaching and assessing African Christianity theologically.     

Religion and space in colonial South America: a technology of geo-political rule and terrestrial-spatial subjectivity in the Jesuit missions of the Banda Oriental

ABSTRACT

Based on a genealogical analysis of documentary evidence, this paper explores the comprehensive technology of geo-political rule that was applied in the missions established and governed by the Society of Jesus in the territories of the Banda Oriental in South America, from the early 17th century to the second half of the 18th century. The interdependent knowledges and practices of the technology – its contested logics of universal conversion, its hard and soft geo-political techniques, its terrestrial-spatial subjectivities – as well as the resistances that opposed the technology’s operation are discussed and conceptualized. These conceptualizations are presented as contributions to the studies on colonial religious governmentalities. The conclusions highlight the relevance of governmentality approaches and meta-institutional analytical perspectives for the study of religions and space and religious geo-politics in past and contemporary societies.     

A twelfth‐century Muslim biography of Jesus

The biography of Jesus as it appears in Ibn ‘Asakir's Tarikh madinat dimashq comprises material which originated from the Qur'an and from the Bible (the Old and the New Testaments). It also comprises material that is neither qur'anic nor biblical: material reflecting an image of Jesus whom the Sūfi order in the medieval period was using as the prophetic authority for its ascetic teachings, and whose purpose was to make him a prototype of the ascetic (al_zahid). Furthermore, Ibn ‘Asakir, writing at the time of the Crusades, believed in the imminent qiyama of Jesus to lead the Muslims to victory and to defeat the invaders. Ibn ‘Asakir's biography of Jesus reflects the extent to which literature about the earthly career of Jesus had developed in Muslim lore by his time.     

The end of Jesus' mission and the honor of God in the Qur'an: the search for common ground between Muslims and Christians

Jesus is important for both Muslims and Christians, and this has led some in both groups to search for common ground concerning him. Nevertheless, two important points of disagreement concern the Christian claims that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus was put to death on the cross. The present article focuses on the last point, noting four key qur'anic passages (Q 3.55; 4.157–8; 5.117; and 19.33). Muslim commentators have mostly denied the historical aspect of Jesus' crucifixion, advocating some version of a substitutionist theory whereby the Jews crucified someone other than Jesus, while Jesus himself was taken alive by God into heaven. Muslim–Christian dialogue on this issue remains problematic. The present article encourages mutual exploration of a theological dimension of the end of Jesus' mission, that of the honor of God. Both Muslims and Christians affirm that God maintained his honor by thwarting the Jews' attempt to get rid of Jesus. The usual Muslim belief is that God rescued him alive to heaven before the crucifixion, while the Christian understanding is that God vindicated Jesus through the resurrection and ascension. Similar views of God's honor through his intervention regarding Jesus can contribute to positive Muslim–Christian dialogue.1 An abbreviated form of this paper was delivered at the International Symposium on Qur'an and Contemporary Issues at the University of Nairobi, 5 June 2011.      

Sexless Piety or a Man's Man? Notes on the cinematic representation of Jesus

The cinematic representation of Jesus reflects issues current in both popular piety and contemporary theology. However most critiques fail to engage with the portrait of Jesus that arises if one considers and takes seriously the notion of Jesus as ‘leading man’. This article seeks to engage with three issues that arose out of teaching a ‘Jesus at the Movies’ course: What does the choice of ‘Jesus actor’ signify? Does he succeed as a traditional ‘leading man'? How do you represent the incarnation? These three issues are discussed in relation to the five films studied and the problem of ‘representing Jesus’ is critiqued.     

A Lutheran Reflection on The One Mediator,The Saints,and Mary1 in Relation to the Question: How Do Lutherans Understand Prayer for Other People?2

Abstract : In this article, the author offers a critical, appreciative appraisal of The One Mediator, The Saints, and Mary (1992), which was the publication that emerged from the eighth round of the U.S. Lutheran‐Catholic Dialogue. Writing from a Lutheran perspective and using the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ, October 31, 1999) as a critical hermeneutical lens, the author points to Luther's theological conviction concerning how Mary—the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ—and departed saints are to be regarded. Luther's emphasis on Christ the only Mediator was highlighted. Reflection on this text was done in light of the theme of the dialogue's eleventh round, “The Hope of Eternal Life.” Prayer is always in and through Jesus Christ.     

'NOLI ME TANGERE': WHY JOHN MEIER WON'T TOUCH THE RISEN LORD

John Meier distinguishes ‘the real Jesus’ from ‘the historical Jesus’. Meier claims that whatever happened to the real Jesus after his death, his resurrection cannot belong to the historical Jesus because that event is in principle not open to the observation of any observer. But why think that the resurrection is not observable in this way? Meier finds justification in Gerald O'Collins' view that although the resurrection of Jesus is a real event, it is not an event in space and time and hence should not be called historical, since a necessary condition of historical occurrences is that they are known to have happened in our space‐time continuum. Is this a good argument for the resurrection's being in principle excludable from the historical Jesus? A close examination of the argument reveals that it is not and that Meier's adoption of such a procedure contradicts Meier's own historical methodology.     

Crossan on the Couch, Along with the Rest of Us: Part Two: Six Proposals Toward a New Paradigm for a Psychologically Realistic Approach to the Search for the Historical Jesus as Suggested by the Work of Hal Childs

Building on the theoretical basis spelled out in my first article on Hal Childs' The Myth of the Historical Jesus and the Evolution of Consciousness, the present article engages in dialogue with Crossan's 2000 autobiography, A Long Way From Tipperary. The dialogue focuses on six proposals emerging from Childs' work that advocate the inclusion of psychological realism in rethinking the task, practice, and outcome of historical Jesus research. The six proposals are as follows: first, that psychological realism is an essential part of historical realism; second, that unconscious factors are to be considered at work in the viewer as well as in the viewed in historical Jesus research; third, that every reconstruction of the historical Jesus is mythic; fourth, that the preunderstanding that the Jesus scholar brings to historical Jesus research is generated within a hermeneutical circle constituted by a vast web of relationships, purposes, and meanings that include every aspect of the scholar's life; fifth, that the final goal of historical Jesus research is not the facts about the historic Jesus, but the meaning of these facts as archetypal images for self-understanding, world-understanding, and the evolution of consciousness; and sixth, that the purpose of the Gospel is to evoke new archetypal projections in the reader that can lead to new incarnations of the archetypal Self awakened and informed by the story of Jesus, often as recovered by the Jesus historian.     

Doctoral Dissertations in the Nordic Countries 1999

First, in order to understand historically how the formative beliefs about Jesus emerged, one must begin with the interpretations of Jesus' death, as Dahl so clearly pointed out. Second, the “quest of the historical Jesus” in all its varieties suffers from the fallacies of a peculiarly modern conception of human identity, which has now been abandoned in many areas of social science and critical theory. In our age we will understand the identity of Jesus in the early church better if we adopt a social model of the self and conceive of identity not as essence but as transaction and process. Third, the process by which Jesus' identity was formed in the communities of his followers was at its heart an interpretive process.     

ONCE MORE …

John Ashton (ed), The Interpretation of John, T. & T. Clark C.F. Evans, The Lord's Prayer Colin E. Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, T. & T. Clark John Parratt (ed), A Reader in African Christian Theology Eduard Schweizer, Jesus the Parable of God: What Do We Really Know About Jesus? T. & T. Clark Thomas F. Torrance, God and Rationality, T. & T. Clark     

Faith and belief in The Anti-Christ: A re-evaluation of Nietzsche’s relation to Jesus

This paper re-evaluates the significance of Jesus for Nietzsche by looking at The Anti-Christ. Specifically we will ask whether a re-evaluation of this relation can shed new light on Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity. And we will do this first by surveying the standard interpretations of this issue, as well as the existing literature on The Anti-Christ. Arguing that the latter picks out nothing new regarding a critique of Christianity, we nonetheless suggest that a new criticism can be developed via the discussion of Jesus there. Further, this can be done by looking at the account given of faith and belief in that text. That is, we will explore the status of Jesus for Nietzsche by looking at the origins and development of “faith” as a mode of belief. In particular, we trace the former’s development as a type from a basic mode of faith. As such, we begin by looking at the psychological origins of this kind of belief in “decadence”, and why Nietzsche is critical of this. However, we will then discuss the emergence of a more positive faith in the form of Buddhism, and see how this represents an analogue for Jesus’s faith. Continuing, we will see how Jesus signifies a similar problematic development, but also “overcoming”, of initial decadence faith. And we will argue, also, that this overcoming is rooted in his emphasis on the immediacy of lived experience. Finally though, we will look at how Christianity returns Jesus’s more productive relation to the world again to a primitive mode of faith. In other words, we will see how Christianity converts the fluid, lived, “faith” of Jesus into something again based on transcendent belief. And lastly, we will ask what new light this point sheds on Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity, and his affinity with Jesus the man.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: 60 YEARS OF ESCHATOLOGY-STUDIES: Jesus and the Kingdom : the Eschatology of Biblical Realism , by George Eldon Ladd. CHRISTIAN EXISTENTIALISM: 1) Studies in Christian Existentialism , by John Macquarrie CHRISTIAN EXISTENTIALISM: 2) Principles of Christian Theology , by John Macquarrie THEOLOGY OF THE EUCHARIST: The Eucharistic Words of Jesus , by Joachim Jeremias CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY: Contemporary Continental Theologians , by S. Paul Schilling CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY: The Theology of Rudolf Bultmann , edited by Charles W. Kegley DEVELOPMENT: War , Poverty , Freedom : The Christian Response. Concilium     

Short Notices

Books reviewed in this article: Alan Race, Interfaith Encounter Paul D. Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, Marianne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament, its Literature and Theology Richard A. Horsley, Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark’s Gospel Anna Wierzbicka, What did Jesus Mean? Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in Simple and Universal Human Concepts James E. Tull (edited and with a preface by Morris Ashcraft), High‐Church Baptists in the South: The Origin, Nature, and Influence of Landmarkism Thomas C. Kennedy, British Quakerism, 1860–1920: The Transformation of a Religious Community Philip A. Cunningham, A Story of Shalom: The Calling of Christians and Jews by a Covenanting God Kathryn Tanner, Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology Paul Matthews, The Revelation of Nature Michael Palmer, The Question of God: An Introduction and Sourcebook Michael Paul Gallagher, Dive Deeper: The Human Poetry of Faith John Wijngaards, The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church: Unmasking a Cuckoo’s Egg Tradition Andrew Davey, Urban Christianity and Global Order: Theological Resources for an Urban Future Anthony G. Reddie, Faith, Stories and the Experience of Black Elders B. J. Gibbons, Spirituality and the Occult from the Renaissance to the Modern Age James E. Gilman, Fidelity of Heart: An Ethic of Christian Virtue     

The Extended Body: The Social Body of Jesus according to Luke1

Abstract : Informed by body phenomenology and contemporary concepts of the social body, this article aims to interpret the particular movements and transformations of Jesus’ body as presented in the Gospel of Luke. From the outset Jesus’ body is inscribed in a Jewish genealogy. Likewise, the Gospel depicts the character of Jesus via the various landscapes he passes through as well as through the social interactions of which he is a part. While Jesus’ body is initially described as being energized by the mobile presence of the Spirit, it increasingly closes in and, at the end, simply disappears. Luke describes Jesus’ ascension and resurrection as radical transformations of Jesus’ body, by which Jesus’ body‐and‐mind (Leib) extends into a social body, at home in God as well as among his followers. This social body also crosses the genetic and cultural boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. Only through this extensiveness can Jesus’ body become accessible worldwide.     

Once More ≡

Books reviewed: Graham Ward, Theology and Contemporary Literary Theory Raymund Schwager S.J., Must there be Scapegoats? Violence and Redemption in the Bible René Latourelle and Rino Fisichella (eds), Dictionary of Fundamental Theology H. R. Mackintosh, The Person of Jesus Christ     

A postcolonial Pannenberg? Mimicry,the law,and the cross of love

This paper employs the postcolonial concepts of mimicry and hybridity to interpret Wolfhart Pannenberg's understanding of the violence done to Jesus on the cross and the subversive reconciliatory love that it engenders. According to Pannenberg, although the man Jesus was crucified as blasphemer of the Jewish law, the resurrection vindicated Jesus so that the ones accusing Jesus were retroactively deemed to be the actual blasphemers. As a result, Jesus ended up dying not for his own alleged breaking of the law, but as an inclusive substitute for all blasphemers of God (through amour propre) deserving death. Thus, the resurrection confirmed Jesus’ divine identity and his earthly teaching that love supersedes and transforms the law. Applying the concept of mimicry to Pannenberg, on the cross the symbolic and semiotic are held together in tension for in mimicry the “not-quite sameness” menaces the colonizer. The cross, ostensibly a symbolic sign of abjection, is mimicked by the suffering of Jesus and subverted through a practice of inclusive semiotic love which recapitulates sinful human life toward a life of transformed autonomy. Pannenberg displays a pseudo postcolonial understanding of subverting oppressive law into love. However, on account of his futurist ontology, the eschatological totality is underscored relative to formative experiences, leaving him vulnerable to postcolonial critiques of essentialism, which can reinscribe colonialism. I contend that Pannenberg employs a strategy of “strategic particularism” in which concepts such as mimicry and hybridity are helpful as hermeneutical tools but ultimately provisional and temporary relative to the whole.     

Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth

Books reviewed: McClymond, Michael L., Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth
Reviewed by Roger P. Ebertz
University of Dubuque