108 - The God of Jesus Christ

The God of Jesus Christ
By Walter Kasper
New York, Crossroad, 1984. 404 pp. $27.50,

This work of Walter Kasper, professor of Catholic theology at the University of Tubingen, follows his volume on christology, Jesus the Christ, by almost ten years. He describes the present book as a strong plea to make the God-question once again the fundamental theological question. He intends it primarily for students of theology, but means it also "for all who have a deeper interest in the theological questions connected with the faith."

Kasper divides his treatment into three main parts: (1) The God-Question Today, (2) The Message About the God of Jesus Christ, and (3) The Trinitarian Mystery of God.

"The God-Question Today" is largely an exploration of modern atheism, with a consideration of the resources of experience, philosophy, and faith for meeting the challenge atheism presents. Modern atheism is said to be of two basic types: one based on the autonomy of nature and secular spheres (science, art, politics, etc.), and the second based simply on the autonomy of the human subject, whose dignity and freedom are held to be incompatible with an omnipotent God. There is also a third kind of atheism, which is a protest against the wickedness and evil in the world. Kasper traces the development of the first type of atheism against the background of the development of modern science. He describes the second chiefly in reference to modern philosophy, most especially the thought of Feuerbach, Marx, and Nietzsche. He deals with the third in his positive exposition of Christian teaching on theodicy later in the book. After looking at different stances that theology may take toward atheism (apologetic, dialogical, and dialectical), he looks at theology's fundamental resources in experience, philosophy, and the knowledge of God in faith.

Part Two looks at Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in successive chapters. The treatment of God the Father considers the problem of speaking of God in this way; the history of the matter in world religions, the Old and New Testaments, and in theology and dogma; and, finally, the problem of the definition of God's essence, both in Western metaphysics and in a modern philosophy of freedom. The chapter on God the Son recapitulates much of Kasper's earlier book on christology, dealing with salvation, the problem of suffering, the saving proclamation of Jesus Christ, and the meaning of his divine sonship. The chapter on the Holy Spirit is an extremely rich and satisfying treatment that underlines the importance and urgency of a theology of the Holy Spirit for today, and points to the work of the Spirit in creation and history, looks at different theologies of the Spirit in East and West, and makes positive suggestions for developing a more adequate pneumatology.

The final section has two basic parts: establishing the doctrine of the

109 - The God of Jesus Christ

trinity from the foundations in revealed theology and in doctrinal and theological development, and setting forth this doctrine in the context of the contemporary discussion of the trinity.

The merits of the book are many: its careful scholarship, its willingness to engage contemporary thought with openness and to learn from it, original suggestions and insights for further development, integration of the major questions about God into a trinitarian framework. The shortcomings of the book (besides the inevitable typos) seem principally to be two: its general overemphasis on the contribution of German philosophers and theologians which renders it less satisfactory for use as a basic textbook elsewhere, and the failure to deal in depth with a centrally important theological issue about God, that is the problem of divine and human freedom. He insists that human freedom must exist and be sustained by divine freedom, but he does not really attempt to deal with how this may be possible.

John H. Wright
Jesuit School of Theology
Berkeley, California