Correlation of Self-Perception and Image of Christ Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality

In this study, the relationship between one’s self-perception of personality and his or her image of Jesus Christ was studied within a sample of 153 undergraduate students, of whom 130 were Christian and 23 were non-Christian; 23 Protestant pastors; and 55 Protestant laypersons. Using two forms of the NEO Personality Inventory (Self and Observer), ratings of the Big Five personality factors were obtained for both self and Jesus Christ. Results indicated significant positive correlations between ratings of self and Christ in each of the subgroups of Christian individuals. No correlations were found between ratings of self and Christ for the non-Christians. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant differing correlations between groups. Christian persons may project perceptions onto Christ or attempt to mold themselves in a way more consistent with their own images of Christ. Further implications of the results as well as direction of the relationship between self-perception and image of Christ are discussed.     

Buddy Christ and Jesus Action Figure

Two diminutive, mass produced statues of Christ, Buddy Christ and Jesus Action Figure seem intended as postmodern anti-Christs to offend Christian sensibilities and mock the image of Christ. I suggest, however, that the statuettes have an excess of meaning that is remaindered as a residual respect for Christ as a spiritual guide, whose enduring political leadership subverts religious hypocrisy. An atheistic/Marxist defence of Christology provides my theoretical base to explore the statuettes, the cult of the Sacred Heart provides an historical example of subversive piety and an editor of the Gay Times' supplies an urgent challenge to reclaim the Christ of Faith as a spiritual and cultural inheritance from the religious right.     

Neither Hypocrisy Nor Replication: A Protestant Account of Imitating Christ as Moral Exemplar

In this article a Protestant view of the imitation of Christ is offered as part of participation in Christ and as taking place in ordinary life (Luther, Calvin). Imitating Christ as moral exemplar does not mean copying him, as a human effort to emulate a high moral ideal, but loving the neighbour as he did in the particularities of one's own life. It is a striving rooted in Christ's lowliness, which makes imitation an achievable though demanding ethical requirement for each individual (Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer). Imitation is a ‘putting on Christ’ that is neither a hypocritical pretending nor a pretentious replication but a striving to re‐present Christ in an authentic Christian existence.     

Christ, Spirit and Atonement

The Christian doctrine of the atonement is complex, not least in part because it must hold together the integrity of both divine and human being. Too often attempts to expound theologies of atonement have foundered because they have pitted divine and human action in competition one with the other. This article addresses itself to this problematic by suggesting three minimum conditions which must be met if this doctrine is to a give a theologically plausible account of salvation: first, that divine and human activity not be identified; second, that divine and human activity not be co-ordinated so as to complete or complement each other; and third, that neither divine nor human activity be rendered superfluous. The article elaborates upon these conditions by taking as its test case the Christian claim: God was in Christ.     

Christ Existing in Ordinary: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Sanctification

One task of any doctrine of sanctification is to attend to a theological rationale for the significance of a habitual and developing Christian life within a broader salvific economy. This article introduces the problem of claiming ‘ordinary’ life as the arena and instrument of God and distils three elements of Bonhoeffer's early theology that might be employed to articulate a theology of sanctification as the counterpoint of justification: the realization of a new humanity in Christ that constitutes an ontology of justification; Christian devotion as the act of this new humanity in the Spirit; and the dynamic integrity accorded to historical existence.     

The freedom of Christ and the problem of deliberation

Call the claim, common to many in the Christian intellectual tradition, that Christ, in virtue of his created human intellect, had certain, infallible exhaustive foreknowledge the Foreknowledge Thesis. Now consider what I will call the Conditional: If the Foreknowledge Thesis is true, then Christ’s created human will lacked an important sort of freedom that we mere humans have. Insofar as many, perhaps all, of the people who affirm the Foreknowledge Thesis also wish to affirm the robust freedom of Christ’s human will, the truth of the Conditional would be most unwelcome to them. I consider an argument in support of the Conditional from the necessary conditions for deliberation, arguing that the argument fails.     

Symbolism in Weakness: Jesus Christ for the Postmodern Age

The postmodern emphasis on human finitude encourages the reconsideration of religious traditions, and more particularly of Christianity. The doctrine of a vulnerable God dying on a cross speaks to postmodern civilization. Jesus Christ infuses transcendence into the realm of immanence by assuming the human predicament to its bitter end. The present essay critiques the recent attempts of deconstructionist philosopher John D. Caputo and systematic theologian Roger Haight to provide postmodern expositions for the Christian doctrine on the person of Jesus Christ. With the help of the fundamental notion of agapeic love, we demonstrate that in Jesus Christ, Caputo's philosophy of the event and Haight's theology of the symbol can be meaningfully integrated and human finitude responsibly overcome.     

Schopenhauer on Christ,Suffering and the Negation of the Will

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to illuminate Schopenhauer’s notion of the negation or denial of the will by investigating the figure of the saint within his philosophy. We argue that various discussions in Schopenhauer’s works of the possible role of Christ as exemplar reveals an underlying Christological understanding of self-denial as a model for the saint. The connection between Schopenhauer’s approach to Christ and Kant’s Christology in Religion within the Bounds of Mere Reason is also explored. We note how Schopenhauer builds on the Kantian demythologization of the Incarnated Christ in order to uncover the moral and existential spirit that underlies Christianity. In addition, we outline how a recognition of the symbolic importance of Christ for Schopenhauer suggests features of the denial of the will that have been overlooked in the literature, involving the intellectual transcendence of suffering through the cultivation of a state of emotional unresponsiveness. It is argued that this reflects a deeper connection between Schopenhauer’s philosophy and Christian thought than is often recognised.     

Pope Francis: a pastor according to the heart of Christ

Catholic Canon Law stipulates that the Pope is ‘the pastor of the universal Church on earth’. Pope Francis took up the challenge which this statement poses to those exercising the Petrine ministry by asking for prayers that he might be ‘a pastor according to the heart of Christ’. How is a Pope ‘a pastor according to the heart of Christ’? What particular opportunities does the Petrine ministry offer for this? What are the pastoral aspects of the papacy? What does it seem we can expect from Pope Francis in this regard? As this article shows, the task of ‘a pastor according to the heart of Christ’ has an impact on several aspects of the implementation of the Petrine ministry, such as using the Pope’s power in the service of unity, encouraging collegiality in communion as the visible centre of the entire Christian Church in dialogue with other religions, that the world may believe.     

The Law of Christ All the Way Down

Abstract:  A reading of Paul and Matthew on Christian obedience suggests that the polemic against 'law' is not directed to all forms of religious practice, but instead only to a particular set of religious practices developed by Israel's sages. Law should not therefore be opposed to grace; instead the correct opposition is between the 'law' taught as the proper way of living before God by the majority of rabbis and the law of Christ, taught by Paul, Matthew and others.     

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.

     

Pauline Conversations: Rereading Romans 1 in Christ

Abstract

One of the most insidious forms of Christian idolatry is the fetishizing of biblical texts, as when the meaning of Romans 1 is (wrongly) stabilized as condemning homosexual love-making. With Karl Barth we can learn how to converse with Paul in Christ, so that we can benefit from what Paul has to teach us, and his teaching can benefit from what we have learned under the tutelage of the Spirit. In this context we learn that in Paul's day there were no homosexuals, and Paul learns that there are homosexuals in our day, some of whom are included within the body of Christ, where they are learning to love God in their loving of one another. The article uses the work of Bernadette Brooten, David Halperin, Mark Jordan and Martti Nissinen; and discusses the work of Eugene Rogers and Douglas Farrow.     

He Came down from Heaven: The Preexistence of Christ and the Christian Faith – Douglas McCready

Book reviewed:
He Came down from Heaven: The Preexistence of Christ and the Christian Faith , Douglas McCready, InterVarsity Press 2005 (0-8308-2774-9), 348 pp., pb $26.00     

Faith in Christ today: An engagement with Klaus Nürnberger

Today's Lutheran theologian must retrieve his or her particular Christian tradition while articulating the faith for our globalized twenty‐first‐century context. South African Klaus Nürnberger's new two‐volume systematic theology, Faith in Christ Today, adds heat to the current creative flurry of red‐hot systematic theologies. Nürnberger, who is oriented both to God's future and the world's future, places the theological articulation of the faith within the context of the worldwide and multi‐cultural Christian church. We all can learn from Nürnberger.     

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.     

The history and tradition of the Precious Blood of Christ in Mantua

The relic of the Precious Blood of the Passion of Christ is kept in the crypt of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea in Mantua. Venerated over the centuries by popes and emperors, it was, according to tradition, transferred from Calvary to Mantua by the Roman centurion (later saint) Longinus, who had pierced the side of Jesus to verify his death (John 19.34). This devotional tradition was corroborated by historical testimonials and miraculous facts. The soil soaked with the Precious Blood was hidden underground, for fear of desecration, and then found again in two subsequent retrievals (in 804 and 1048 A.D.). Due to its donation to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, a part of the relic finally arrived, through various vicissitudes, in Weingarten, a town now twinned with Mantua. Guardianship of the prestigious Christian relic rests in Mantua, with the Confraternity of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ.     

The God Who Believes: Faith, Doubt, and the Vicarious Humanity of Christ – Christian D. Kettler

Book reviewed:
The God Who Believes: Faith, Doubt, and the Vicarious Humanity of Christ , Christian D. Kettler, Cascade 2005 (1-59752-188-4), xiv + 194 pp., pb $24.00     

Trinity and Church: Trinitarian Perspectives on the Identity of the Christian Community

Starting from practical problems with praying and living a Christian life, the author argues that God's relationship with the Christian community has primacy over God's relationship with individual believers. When we conceive of the Christian community as being the body of Christ, we can uphold the high Christian ideals of prayer and living a Christian life without making them unattainable: these ideals are ideals for the community rather than for individual persons within the community. Next, the author argues that being the body of Christ is given to the Christian community not as a possession but as a task to fulfil through the power of the Holy Spirit. Finally, he shows how, in becoming the body of Christ through the Spirit, the Christian community is drawn up into the trinitarian community. He concludes that the identity of the Christian church cannot be fully understood apart from the Trinity.     

Christology in Dialogue with Muslims: A Critical Analysis of Christian Presentations of Christ for Muslims from the Ninth and Twentieth Centuries – Mark Beaumont

Book reviewed:
Christology in Dialogue with Muslims: A Critical Analysis of Christian Presentations of Christ for Muslims from the Ninth and Twentieth Centuries , Mark Beaumont, Regnum Books International 2005 (1-870345-46-0), xxiv + 227 pp., pb £19.99