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The Same Jesus: A Contemporary Christology

By Daniel A. Helminiak

Chicago, Loyola University Press, 1986. 337 Pp. $15.95.

This systematic christology by a young Catholic scholar sets for itself a daunting task. It aims to present "a complete review of christological issues: methodology, biblical scholarship, church teaching, and speculative development." From this presentation is to come "a complete systematic christology." The methodology for accomplishing all this is that of Bernard J. F. Lonergan. The aspiration is that this method will allow the integration of these various sources "while avoiding static dogmatism, outright relativism and soft inspirationalism."

All the while, the book is to provide personal stories and to be easy to read. These are goals to which we all aspire. While it does not fulfill its high aspirations, the book is a work of thoughtful scholarship. It is a helpful guide to contemporary Roman Catholic Christology and New Testament scholarship.

In its treatment of the New Testament, it is reminiscent of the work of those English and Scots theologians of a past generation who were always on the outlook for "the assured results of biblical scholarship." Having identified these "assured results," it would be possible to go on and reflect theologically on them. From this method came the christologies of A. B. Bruce, H. R. Mackintosh, P. T. Forsyth, and D. M. Baillie. The great difficulty is that there are no such settled results of biblical scholarship today any more than there were fifty years ago. There are strands of New Testament scholarship that relate positively to the later developments of christology among the councils and the patristic theologians. Helminiak has rightly identified these. But there is a host of New Testament scholars whose work points in many different directions. The mediating theologians who would build a christology out of the confluence of biblical scholarship with dogmatic definitions face an increasingly perilous undertaking.

The promising aspect of this book is its utilization of the theological method of Lonergan. While the book lacks the depth and profundity of Lonergan's writings, it does make good on something promised by all of the practitioners of phenomenology as the basis for theological method. The phenomenological approach claims to be an exact form of reflection that gives rise to results directly verifiable by relating them to the phenomena being examined. The difficulty is that when these results are announced in a clear, simple, direct way they appear arbitrary and uncertain in their relationship to the phenomena on which they are based. A christology in the style of Lonergan is much to be desired. How

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ever, it still awaits further development. This book is an important start in that direction. It can help to guide others in this crucial task.

Donald G. Dawe, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va.