Christ as Chrism,Christ Given Away

This article develops the concept of Christ not as static body but as chrism for bodies. Christ as chrism travels in the matrix of relationality, on a vector toward the benefit of others. Conceptualizing christ as chrism potentially avoids both exclusionary and colonizing tendencies in Christian polity, and frames a Christian ethics that, while vulnerable and risky, marks the sanctity of the one giving Christ away.     

Christ as Culture 3: Christ as Drama

Abstract: Personal identity cannot exist without narrative coherence – without, that is to say, drama. Two sets of narratives make up the identity of Christ: a narrative of a human being among other human beings; and a narrative of the Son with the Father and the Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity insists that these narratives are the same. A culture is necessarily dramatic: a story of persons and their relationships. Thus Christ may be understood as drama and as culture. This identification has implications for the liturgy of the church.     

Christ as Culture 2: Christ as Art

Abstract: Art can be understood as experimenting with possible worlds. There is, however, a real world underlying the possible worlds – the world created by God. We do not have unmediated access to this world, and so must, and can, continue to be artists, and a loss of faith in the existence of the real world leads to a loss of the possibility of art. If Christ is to be understood as art, then the Father is the artist who experiments with a possible world, which is thus defined as the real world, through his Son, the Logos.     

Being Christ for the Other

In recent years, Christian humanism has received renewed attention. This article engages with the works of William Schweiker and John W. de Gruchy, two of the most prominent representatives of Christian humanism in contemporary Protestant theology. In a manner which is complementary to their views, this article attempts to outline a Lutheran Christian humanism based on the ethics of Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Inspired by a Chalcedonian Christology, the article attempts to argue for a polemical affirmation of Christian humanism as a characteristic of the Lutheran tradition. With this paradoxical notion, the article attempts to move beyond the antagonism between universality and specificity in Christian social ethics.     

On the Vicarious Humanity of Christ

In the recent literature there has been a spate of essays, articles and books discussing the question of whether Christ had a ‘fallen’ human nature. This article offers a new argument for the conclusion that Christ had a fallen but not sinful human nature that was ‘healed’ of its fallenness at the moment of assumption by the Word – what we shall call, the vicarious humanity of Christ view. This account concedes to the defender of Christ's ‘fallen’ humanity that his human nature is generated in a fallen state (and immediately cleansed of fallenness in the act of assumption). And it concedes to the defender of Christ's sinlessness the claim that Christ is without sin from the first moment of incarnation. This represents an important via media in the contemporary debate about this vexed christological topic.     

Gandhian Conception of Christ

Gandhi conceived Christ in a very peculiar way. His hermeneutics of New Testament in relation to the person and work of Christ was quite different from the official versions of different denominations within Christianity. He did not accept Christ as “world saviour” in the sense in which the dogmas proclaim. Gandhi’s conception of Christ is thus very “selective” and interesting as he understood Christ as a Satyāgrahi and a great teacher through the Sermon on the Mount. He too viewed the cross of Christ as an example of non-violence. This peculiar Gandhian conception of Christ within the Indian premises was an antidote in a colonial context and to the imported Western Christ into the Indian pluralistic tradition.

     

History of the United Church of Christ

Book reviewed:
The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ , Barbara Brown Zikmund (ed.), Pilgrim Press 1995–2005. Vols I–VII
Ancient and Medieval Legacies, Vol. I , Richard Ulrich (ed.), Pilgrim Press 1995 (0-8298-1064-1), 583 pp., $60.00
Reformation Roots, Vol. II , John Payne (ed.), Pilgrim Press 1997 (0-8298-1143-5), xii + 683 pp., $60.00
Colonial and National Beginnings, Vol. III , Charles Hambrick-Stowe (ed.), Pilgrim Press 1998 (0-8298-1113-3), x + 518 pp., $60.00
Consolidation and Expansion, Vol. IV , Elizabeth Nordbeck, Lowell Zuck (eds), Pilgrim Press 1999 (0-8298-1110-9), xvi + 668 pp., $60.00
Outreach and Diversity, Vol. V , Margaret Lamberts Bendroth, Lawrence Jones, Robert Schneider (eds), Pilgrim Press 2000 (0-8298-1111-7), xiv + 536 pp., $60.00
Growing Toward Unity, Vol. VI , Elsabeth Slaughter Hilke (ed.), Pilgrim Press 2001 (0-8298-1112-5), xvi + 744 pp., $70.00
United and Uniting, Vol. VII , Frederick Trost, Barbara Brown Zikmund (eds), Pilgrim Press 2005 (0-8298-1113-3), xx + 828 pp., $70.00     

The Many Meanings of the Only Christ

The intertwining of reflection about Christ and personal experience of Jesus has been at the heart of the matter from the start of the Reformation. Luther's Christology unites the transcendent and the intimate; it is Christ alone, Solus Christus, who mediates God's presence and promise to the world. This becomes one of the “solas” of the Reformation and the one to which this volume of Dialog is dedicated. This introduction considers the variety of ways theology has described the primary experience of Christ; we will consider how Christ has been theologically presented in terms of love, liberation, creativity, co‐sufferer, and holy presence. In addition, within the last century, one can see Christologies taking on universal or particular forms. The universal approach sees Christ in, with and under all the world, whereas the more “particular” forms connect to the singularity of Christ or Jesus as the sole locus of revelation of God in history or today. This introduction also explores the contemporary debate about the meaning of the cross and atonement in relation to the understanding of Christ as savior.