SCHILLEBEECKX'S CHRISTOLOGY
THEOLOGICAL METHOD: Assessment
Submitted to Mabiala Kenzo, Ph.D. - www.ambrose.edu
Edward Schillebeeckx's (henceforward referred to as 'ES') work "JESUS – An Experiment in Christology" is an attempt to "bridgethe gap between academic theology and the concrete needs of the ordinary Christian". He wrote the book in such a way that the content would be understandable to anyone interested. My perception is that he presupposes his audience will be university educated, at a minimum, based upon his style of writing and his commentary which is difficult to follow. The text was composed "to enable the reader to share in the process whereby Christian belief – including one's own – came into being." This volume is but the first part of an extensive Christological study that includes a second volume entitled "CHRIST" in which the author looks at Pauline and Johanine doctrines as well as New Testament Christologies; (from the 'foreword' of "JESUS"). Schillebeeckx asks the question, "Why, of all the significant figures in human history, is it that Jesus remains a powerful and prominent personality and force to be struggled with by many to this day?"
Schillebeeckx is attempting to provide a relatively comprehensive approach to problems regarding "who Jesus is" that he encountered in the Western cultural context (especially Northern and Western Europe it seems) during his lifetime. ES considers the Jesus of history, ie. the Jesus who effected the foundation of communities of believers as far away as Syria in which the foundational rudiments of Christian worship were already established within 5 years of his death/resurrection (19). He posits that "where humanity has looked for salvation the hope in which the place their trust has received a religious name"; Jesus is the name upon which people across the Mediterranean world pinned their hope, and this is remarkable. " 'In Jesus we find final salvation and well-being' this is the fundamental creed of primitive Christianity – Credo in Jesum."
ES hits the nail on the head when he takes note of the fact that 'salvation' in modern society comes from government, medicine, etc. , and not only from Jesus, so "Jesus alone brings salvation" is in a certain sense no longer a credible statement. Yet there remains a salvation which man cannot seem to attain and that is the freedom from "a more profound alienation, linked with human finiteness and entanglement with nature… if not some alienation through guilt and sin… Man's redemption seems limited after all and it is to this latter deeper alienation to which Jesus speaks." (25) One of ES's reasons for writing this book was to give serious consideration to the views non-Christians have of Jesus and their interpretations of who He is. ES asks the question "What have the churches to say to those outside?" and comments that there is no uniform Christology amongst Christians at this time.
Methodologically, ES states that "as a believer [he wants] to look critically into the intelligibility for man of Christological belief in Jesus, especially its origin." He is concerned to hold a fides quaerens intellectum and an intellectum quaerens fidem together, looking for what a Christological belief in Jesus of Nazareth can intelligibly signify for people today (33)." ES seeks "what is peculiar, unique, about this person Jesus – and that which may slip from our grasp into depths unfathomable – the Jesus who touched off a world movement claiming Him to be "the revelation in personal form, of God (33)"
In this work "faith and historical criticism go hand in hand". ES undertakes the study 'in faith' but "with the doubts concerning 'the Christ of the Church' that had been so clearly expressed to him" in the years leading up its composition. He confines himself "to a consideration of the 'course taken by the dogma' from the start of primitive Christianity up to the formation of the Gospels and the books of the New Testament; a period that brings us closest to Jesus and is still very reticent over identifying Jesus of Nazareth, in whom followers of Jesus, after his death, found final and definitive salvation (35)." ES's original intention was to offer a "synthetic view of the contemporary problem of 'redemption' and 'emancipation' or man's self-liberation, partly with liberation theology in mind.
Schillebeeckx uses Scripture as the standard against which all his research must be measured but he comments on the fact that modern exegesis is by no mean a uniform resource to which the theologian is able to refer in order to gain sound Christological insights. ES commits himself to no single exegetical method commenting that "one can see from the literature how national differences in regard to exegesis often have a bearing on problems of 'method and truth', so that knowledge of national perspectives affords a greater degree of theological 'independence' without denying some dependence on expert exegesis (38)."
Schillebeeckx holds also that no 'exegetical common denominator' distilled from available exegesis is acceptable, nor generalizations 'in the round' which often "reflect the theological outlook of the person putting them together rather than the pluralistic yet fundamentally one New Testament interpretation of Jesus (38)." He writes seeking the Jesus of early Christianity while referring to the guidance of contemporary church teaching meanwhile stating with a quote from Yves Congar, OP:
"Je respecte et j'interroge sans cesse la science des exégètes, mais je récuse leur magistère."
Finally, Schillebeeckx intends this work to fulfill a pastoral purpose while acknowledging that his scientific -cum-critical approach is only one of many possible approaches.
Schillebeeckxs' "JESUS" appears to be perhaps one of the most ambitious Christological reflections imaginable upon Jesus as perceived in contemporary Western society. He has limited himself minimally it seems, in terms of choosing a methodology, so that he can comment accurately on what he perceives to be the very serious problems modern believers and non-church goers alike have with the person/figure of Jesus as He is commonly perceived today. In light of ES's ambitious and comprehensive approach to contemporary Christological problems I suspect that I will gain considerable insight into the challenging theological questions being presented to the Church by modern social and cultural change.