211 - Jesus the Christ

Jesus the Christ
By Walter Kasper
New York, Paulist Press, New edition, 1977. paperback, 283 pp., $5.95.

Tübingen's distinguished Catholic dogmatician, Walter Kasper, here presents a remarkably concise, complete, and informative Christology. Rooted in the ancient and medieval tradition, he is also fully in touch with recent exegetical and philosophical trends. In compact style, Kasper handles practically all the standard Christological questions, such as the pre-existence of the Son, the hypostatic union (one person in two natures), the virginal conception, the freedom and sinlessness of Jesus, his Messianic claims and titles, his miracles, and his resurrection. Refusing to separate Christology from soteriology, Kasper likewise treats the redemptive character of Jesus's sacrificial death. On all these points, Kasper stands with the ancient councils and with the mainstream of the theological tradition.

Kasper is opposed not only to the liberal Christologies of the nineteenth century but, even more emphatically, to the twentieth century secular and anthropological Christologies, which present Jesus as the culmination of the evolutionary process and as the supreme fulfillment of essential humanity. In Kasper's estimation, such theories (represented by Teilhard de Chardin, Karl Rahner, and Wolfhart Pannenberg, among others) inevitably tend to reduce Christ to a mere symbol of cosmic and human evolution. Particularly sharp are Kasper's criticisms of the Dutch Catholic theologian, Piet Schoonenberg,

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whom he accuses of falling into modalism and of directly contradicting the ancient councils by holding that Jesus is a human-not a divine-person. (Schoonenberg's reply to these charges may be found in his recent article, "Spirit Christology and Logos Christology," In Bijdragen, 38 [1977], 350-375.)

Kasper, on the contrary, seeks to validate the ancient dogmas in terms of an approach influenced by Schelling's "positive philosophy" and by modern personalist anthropologies. In opposition to the evolutionists, Kasper insists on the freedom and unpredictability of God's interventions in salvation history. He holds that person is higher and more ultimate than nature, and consequently that it is appropriate to speak of three divine persons (though Barth and Rahner have intimated that the term "person" in this context may be confusing). On the basis of a modern, relational concept of personality, Kasper holds that Jesus is both a human and a divine person, that is, a human person whose transcendental openness is definitively determined by his oneness with the person of the divine Logos.

Within these Trinitarian perspectives, Kasper seeks to revive the early Spirit Christology, which is biblical as well as Jewish-Christian. The Incarnation, according to Kasper, is effected by the personal activity of the Holy Spirit, whose sanctifying presence is constitutive of the human person of Jesus. The risen Jesus, in turn, sends forth the Holy Spirit as his very own, and in this way continually inaugurates the eschatological era of salvation. In developing this Spirit Christology, Kasper seeks to provide an alternative to the Logos Christology more prevalent in our time. (For a contrast on this score between Kasper and Pannenberg, see Philip J. Rosato, S.J., "Spirit Christology: Ambiguity and Promise," Theological Studies, 38, [1977], 423-449.)

In order to place Christology in an adequate framework, Kasper probes deeply into many related themes, such as human freedom, personality, corporeality, sin, redemption, salvation, historicity, and eschatology. He provides likewise, in fine print, concise and lucid summaries of the history of dogma and of modern theological opinions. In these summaries, Kasper conveys much valuable information, and his judgments, though sometimes sharp, are always carefully considered.

All in all, this work is a skillful blending of biblical, traditional, and contemporary currents in Christology. No mere reproduction of the earlier manuals, it opens up exciting new approaches to the ancient faith in the light of modern philosophical anthropology. My principal regret is that, in his effort to handle many complex questions in relatively brief compass, Kasper sometimes writes in an excessively concise style. Readers may be tempted to skip a few of the denser paragraphs, but to the extent that they do so they will be less able to appreciate this exceedingly rich, original, and comprehensive synthesis.

Avery Dulles, S.J.
Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.