Christology

Teaching Jesus, Christ Today.

Pat LavercombeBCEO 2013

What is Happening Here?

From Mary MacKillop to St Mary of the Cross

How/why did we get from this......

To This ?

Inquiry

How did the earliest followers of Yeshu(a) the Nazarene get to Jesus, Christ, second person of the Trinity, Pantocrator ?

From This....

To This

From Yeshu(a) the

Tekton

to

Christ the King

From an earthly Jesus (Yeshu the Galilean)

to be also the Christ of Faith; God the Son; second person of the Trinity.

Which Human Jesus?

• The “Real” Jesus?

• The Historical Jesus?

• The Earthly Jesus?

Jesus

A Man of HistorySon of GodThe Face of God The Christ of FaithSecond Person of the Trinity

From Yeshua-to-Jesus-to-Christ-to god

• Post-Death experiences and memories of his followers

• Paul• Preaching of other Disciples• Recorders: Writers of the “Lists”• Gospel Writers• Patristic Writers- Apologists for Christianity• Constantine

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

Creeds

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

Creeds

The New RE Curriculum

What emphasis to we give to the dual nature of God the Son in the Knowledge and Deep Understanding required at each year level of the new RE Curriculum?

Jesus or Christ?

• When we use these terms, we are speaking of two different aspects of the second person of the Trinity: God and human.

• Some theologians argue that the Jesus of history is lost to us, and so we can only focus on the Christ of Faith- as the Church has done for most of the past two thousand years. They argue that Christianity is based on the Christ of faith, not the Jesus of history and all teaching about Jesus must occur through that lens.

• Others argue that while the earthly Jesus is lost to us, even today we can discover much about the Jesus of History from texts and from archaeology, sociology, anthropology and psychology and this will help us to interpret his teaching and actions and so remain faithful to his original message.

Is there any Concrete Evidence that Jesus (Yeshua) Existed at all?

Sources of our Knowledge of the Jesus of History.

Historical References: Secular and Jewish Theological Texts- His sayings. His acts The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Scholarship

on his context- the world in which he lived. Anthropology, sociology, archaeology, literature, psychology, geography, history.

What Can We Know of the Historical Yeshua from the Gospels ?

The Historicity of the Record

The Jesus tradition of scriptures therefore, contains three major layers:

• One of retention, recording at least the essential core of words and deeds, events and happenings, but little or no personal details;

• One of development, applying such data to new situations, novel problems and unforeseen circumstances

• One of creation, not only composing new sayings and stories, but above all creating larger complexes that changed their contents. (i.e. many gospels)

Jesus left behind him thinkers not memorisers, disciples, not reciters, people, not parrots. (Crossan)

Post-Easter Jesus: (30 CE-Present)• Spiritual, non-material reality• Infinite, eternal• Divine• King of Kings and Lord of Lords• Figure of the present• Jesus Christ• Second person of the Trinity• The human face of God

The Pre- and Post-Easter JesusPre-Easter Jesus: (4 BCE- 30 CE)• Corporeal human being• Finite and Mortal• Human• A pan-Mediterranean Jewish

peasant• Figure of past• Monotheistic Jew• Galilean Jew of the First Century

Are we presented with a single portrait of Jesus, Christ in the

Gospels?

Two Gospel Portraits

• The Synoptic Gospels• Begin with John the Baptist or birth

and childhood stories • Jesus is baptised by John • Jesus speaks in parables and

aphorisms• Jesus is a sage • Jesus is an exorcist • God's imperial rule is the theme of

Jesus' teaching • Jesus has little to say about himself • Jesus espouses the causes of the

poor and oppressed• The public ministry lasts one year• The temple incident is late• Jesus eats last supper with his

disciples

• The Gospel of John• Begins with creation; no birth or

childhood stories• Baptism of Jesus presupposed but

not mentioned• Jesus speaks in long, involved

discourses• Jesus is a philosopher and mystic• Jesus performs no exorcisms• Jesus himself is the theme of his

own teaching • Jesus reflects extensively on his

own mission and person • Jesus has little or nothing to say

about the poor and oppressed• The public ministry lasts three

years• The temple incident is early • Foot washing replaces last supper

Problem!

• Even if we could, what would we do with the Jesus we “found”?

As did Yeshua of Nazareth, a 21st Century Yeshua presents a fundamental and profound challenge aimed at the very heart of religious and political patrony and power, brokerage and control.

Like the Yeshu of Galilee, he is unrestricted, dangerous, unconventional, radical, inclusive and disturbing. He doesn’t fit in most of our churches, schools or homes.

If Yeshu of Galilee turned up in the foyer of our schools, or churches, most of us would call the police!

Jesus: A Man of History

Out of a Context• Literary and historical studies • Social history • Anthropology • Study of political systems • History of religions • Studies of honour and shame in societies • Studies of peasant societies • Studies of economic systems • Medical anthropology • Psychology

What do we know of the Historical Jesus?

• From attestations given in the gospels and other records, it is now believed he was born around4-6 BCE: that is, when Herod was Governor of Judea.

• He was born either in Bethlehem in Judea, or Bethlehem in Galilee; Nazareth in Galilee, or Qumran; or we don’t know.

• His parents were Miriam (Maryam)and Yosef• He appeared to have four brothers and two

sisters, as recorded in NT documents.• Those brothers are called James, Joses,

Simeon/Simon and Jude/Judas in New Testament texts. His sisters are possibly Miriam and Salome.

What do we know of the Historical Jesus?

•He was a wandering preacher and healer in Judea and Galilee for between one and three years when he was about 30.•He was involved with John the Baptist’s movement and practised John’s baptism of repentance.•He was crucified during the Governorship of Pontius Pilate between 26-36 (33) CE.•A movement grew up around him during and after his death.•This new movement, a part of Judaism, claimed he had risen from the dead.

L Michael White• From an historical perspective, what we

really know about the life of Jesus is very, very limited depending on which gospel you read.

• His actual career may be something less then one year and maybe even as little as only a few months, whereas in John's Gospel his career is nearly three years long. So there are these kinds of historical discrepancies among the gospels themselves.

• They range from the way his birth occurred to the actual day on which he was executed and even to the kinds of teachings and miracles that he performs throughout his career.

• As a result we begin to see that the gospels themselves are not as useable as historical information as we might have hoped.*

Is the Quest for a Jesus of History of any worth to today’s searchers for truth?

Yes: Opportunity to have a relevant, meaningful construct for today’s believers. (Funk, Crossan, Borg, Jesus seminar)

No: The Christ of Faith constructed by the history, theology and tradition of the Church is the basis of Christianity, not Jesus of history. (Schweitzer, Meyer)

So What Do We Teach the Children?

Some “Real” ReconstructionWe Can Teach

Jesus was a:• Jewish Mystic / Spirit Person - One of those figures in human history

who had frequent and vivid experiences of the sacred. He heard God calling him in the words of the prophets. He prayed, meditated and knew the Scriptures

• Jewish Healer - The historical evidence that Jesus performed paranormal healings is very strong; he must have been a remarkable healer- physical and mental; psychological and spiritual

• Jewish Wisdom Teacher - He taught a subversive and alternative wisdom. He was a storyteller and used images and metaphors that people knew and understood and “got”.

• Jewish Social Prophet - Jesus stands in the tradition of the great social prophets of ancient Israel who challenged social systems. Himself a social outcast, at the bottom of the social ladder, shared God’s preference for the anawim.

• Jewish Movement Founder / Initiator - A movement came into existence around him which embodied his alternative wisdom.

from Marcus Borg's appearance on the Today Show:

And I suggest that, as a figure of history, he was an ambiguous figure. You could experience him and conclude that he was insane, as his family did, or that he was simply eccentric, or that he was a dangerous threat, or you could conclude that he was filled with the Spirit of God.” (Borg)

Christ• The first challenge for the first disciples who preached Jesus as the

Jewish Messiah, though not the messiah Israel expected, was to reframe him for their current context.

• So he became the Universal Messiah, not the Jewish Messiah. This had implications for membership, worship and morality.

• The reframing of “Christ” has continued to the present day as the church founded in his name met new circumstances.

• Jesus, Christ, is now “Priest, Prophet and King”.

• For much of Christian history, there has been emphasis on the Priest and King.

• In our Liturgical Calendar we have a feast of Christ the King but not Christ the man.

Titles of Christ Across History

• Once we remove the historical Jesus, from Christology, we can theologise Christ into anything we want, as he needs to be contextualised for every generation and culture.

• What is gained and what is lost by doing so?

One Lord, Jesus Christ• According to some translations of the Gospels, people

addressed Jesus as “Lord”.• It is probably a Post-Easter title, developed by Paul and

“written back” into the Gospels.• Across history it becomes a hierarchical title, placing Jesus

Christ among the ruling class, as the Church had become.

Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages

• All Jews were considered “sons of God”. But Jesus was the only “begotten” son of God.

• As theological debate continued, Jesus, Second Person of the Trinity, could not be God if he was created, so he has always been “Son”: God has always been Trinity.

• For a sect evolved from monotheistic Judaism, the notion of Jesus as “also God” posed huge problems- hence the rise of heresies: Arianism; Doceism.

God from God, Light from Light, True God from true god, Begotten, not

made, Consubstantial with the Father

• The early Church struggled with concepts of more than one God and whether the omnipotent, omniscient, omni-present spiritual force known as God, could be “polluted” by being partly human.

• So the understanding of Jesus as God had to accommodate these problems.

• Not everyone agreed, and Christianity was split by these understandings.

Through Him all things were made

• Jesus, then becomes the conduit of creation- he was present “in the beginning” as John’s gospel states and it is through him that God and creation come together.

• Jesus is the human face of God. He is the link between God and creation.

For us men and our salvation he came down from heaven

• The theory of atonement, first espoused in the Letter to the Hebrews, is restated in the Creed.

• Jesus is the universal saviour. His life, suffering and death are the ultimate sign of God’s desire to say : “all is forgiven, come back to me”.

• Note the katagogic perspective; He (God, came down from heaven to become one of us.)

• Note the difficulty for modern audiences of “down from heaven”.

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

• This statement addressed another of the crises in Christian belief: many could not accept that God could or would be polluted by sinful flesh- let alone in what some considered the sinful act of sex.

• So there had to be a virgin and no “normal” creative act.• In other religions, heroic figures were conceived through

copulation of humans with the Gods, but Christianity goes one further, not needing the act for “incarnation” to occur.

and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures

• For some, including Paul, the resurrection was God’s reward for Jesus for his fidelity unto death.

• Some taught that it was at this point that Jesus became God.

• For the creed, however, the Resurrection was proof of Jesus’ divinity.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

• The ascension of Jesus is integral to human faith.• The human Jesus had to leave: he returns to become part

of the Trinity from which he came.• Note the hierarchical, “reward” element of the image.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

• Christian belief, as revealed in Paul’s writings and John’s gospel, quickly came to the understanding that the return of Jesus was immanent.

• The image of the Son of Man from the Book of Daniel was drawn upon by the early church to depict Jesus’ return.

• Belief in the resurrection led to belief in eternal life. But would the kingdom be on this earth or in heaven?