102 - Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture & Jesus in European Protestant Thought, 1778-1860 & The Jesus Debate: A Survey and Synthesis

Jesus Through the Centuries:
His Place in the History of Culture
By Jaroslav Pelikan
New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985. 270 pp. $22.50.

Jesus in European Protestant Thought,
1778-1860
By Colin Brown
Durham, Labyrinth, 1985. 359 pp. $35.00.

The Jesus Debate:
A Survey and Synthesis
By William M. Thompson
New York, Paulist, 1985. 437 pp. $12.95.

Karl Barth once said, "Tell me where you stand on Christ and I will tell you who you are." Because of the intimate way in which Christian identity is wrapped up with the identity of Jesus, the literature on this subject has proliferated into a veritable flood over the ages. In fact, to think significantly about the person and work of Christ today, it is necessary to be oriented to all that has been said on this subject already. These three books, in very different ways, seek to guide us through the maze of images by which Christian people have expressed their faith in Jesus. Such historical reflection is not a sterile academic exercise. It is the way in which people catch afresh a vision of Jesus Christ by which they may live.

Jaroslav Pelikan, whose scholarship has illumined the history of the dogma of Christ, has turned his attention in a new direction. In Jesus Through the Centuries, he studies the images of Jesus cherished by successive ages, starting from that of the rabbi of the first century to the liberator of the twentieth century. Pelikan studies the poetry and prose, the painting and sculpting, the mosaic images and rhetorical pictures of Jesus by which people have expressed his meaning for them in their own time. While the quest of the theologian for a christology is part of these images of Jesus, they have a life of their own. They reflect the history of culture. Pelikan suggests that by studying the images of Jesus of a particular age, it is possible to find a key to understanding that age. Starting with the early church, going through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation to the dawn of modern times, Pelikan finds in each age an image of Jesus by which he has been celebrated and received. This is a work of mature scholarship that brings rich resources to all who seek a vision of Jesus. It unfolds the understanding of Jesus, not from the perspective of the biblical scholar, or historian of doctrine, but from the way in which Jesus has been a part of the unfolding spiritual quest of humankind.

Colin Brown has drawn a richly detailed picture of the great

103 - Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture & Jesus in European Protestant Thought, 1778-1860 & The Jesus Debate: A Survey and Synthesis

christological developments of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At no time since the patristic age has Christian theology gone through such vast and far-reaching changes as in the nineteenth century. The figure of Jesus is at the center of these developments, as theologians struggled to find the meaning of faith in the new age created by modernity. Brown has given us a masterful treatment of the rise of modern christology, starting with the probing questions posed by Reimarus and Lessing. Then he treats the constructive designs of Kant, Goethe, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Baur, Strauss and the great mediating theologians of the period. Yet, he treats not only this great tradition, but its critics as well: Kierkegaard, from within the church, as well as Feuerbach and those who raised questions from without. This is a work of incisive and analytic scholarship, not a collection of brief sketches of these christologies. It is more than a picture of the past. It is a resource for dealing with the christological quandaries of today. In a real sense, the faith and fallacies, the contributions and confusions of the nineteenth century are still very much with us. This book can be a vital resource for all who seek to make a faithful confession of Jesus Christ in our time.

The Jesus Debate carries the story of the church's search for faithfulness in its confession of Christ down to the present day. Its vision is ecumenical, drawing on Roman Catholic as well as Protestant scholarship. Its concerns are existential. It is a survey of modern New Testament scholarship to which is added a survey of the christological options in liberation, feminist, process, and narrative theologies, and in the search for a new spirituality and the encounter of Christianity with other religions. The formula around which the book is built is two-fold: christological ("the Jesus event as the disclosure of a new vision and praxis of our relation to God, to self, to society, and to the world"); and soteriological ("the Jesus event as the therapy for our broken relations in relationship to God, self, community and nature").

The sub-title of this book characterizes it as "A Survey and Synthesis." As a survey, it works on so high a level of generalization that the lines of connection between New Testament passages and contemporary reflection become blurred. As a synthesis, it is not particularly convincing. It does provide a scheme for relating many contemporary christological efforts, but this scheme is more a rearrangement of materials than a convincing synthesis. The historical studies of Pelikan and Brown offer pastors, teachers, and laity rich resources for expressing faith in Jesus Christ by showing how it has been done. They show how, at its best, historical study helps overcome the limited vision of our own moment in history. It allows us to overcome history by history. In this age of growing pluralism, christological synthesis is a reality we still await.

Donald G. Dawe
Union Theological Seminary
Richmond, Virginia