Theo 2 - A RESEARCH PAPER ON CHRISTOLOGY

CHRISTOLOGY FROM ABOVE, BELOW AND WITHIN

Chapter I
Introduction

Modern Christology is largely driven by two issues: first, distance (the sense theologians have of how much divides us from the authors of the New Testament) and second, division (the separation between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith that emerged with historical criticism of the Bible). Balthasar’s Christology addresses these issues by seeing in them a more fundamental issue: the gulf that separates the historical Jesus from God, who sent him to the Cross to bear our sins.
Over the vast range, of his works, Hans Urs von Balthasar consistently pursued what they called a mystical Christology. It is a Christology “from within”. Although it would undoubtedly rank as a “high” Christology, one that always assumes the full divinity of Jesus, it is not a standard Christology “from above” that is its center of gravity is not really the eternal life of the divine Logos. Nor is it a Christology “from below” focusing on the critical examination of Jesus’ earthly sayings or ministry or social cultural milieu. Rather von Balthasar develops a Christology from within, an analysis of Christ from the perspective of those women and men who have mystically within the life of Christ.
This is a concrete example of Christology that arises out of dialogue between spirituality and theology. This is a Jesus whose passionate desire, whose struggle and commitment have suddenly been rendered theologically accessible and significant. It is a Christology that has found in spirituality a creative matrix for theological reflection, a matrix in which Jesus’ divinity and his humanity no longer seem like mutual contradictions only reconcilable by complex metaphysics. It is above all a Christology in which the spiritual pilgrimage of an authentic human being is not present but salvific.


Chapter II
Christology from Above

Christology “from above” begins with the pre-existent Word of God in heaven, who comes down to earth to take a human flesh and to redeem us by dying on the cross, rising from the dead returning to enjoy an exalted state as Lord in heaven. Christology “from above” is that Jesus pre-existed with God and then became a human being. This is shown by the spiritual attitude towards Jesus from an incarnational perspective which concern was centered on how Jesus is one person with two natures: human and divine. The spiritual attitude towards Jesus from a dialectic perspective posits the idea that through Jesus we are confronted with the question with whom we shall stand, for God or for evil powers.

a. An Incarnational Perspective
At the early century Christianity there were contradicting views with regard to Jesus’ natures as a divine and a human being. There were those who rejected Jesus divinity. Influenced by the Greek ideas, the Gnostic heretics simply denied that God assumed a real human nature and body that could suffer. For them Jesus was only a human being and not a divine being since he suffered and died. Re-interpreting John’s prologue Arius argued that the Son was not co-eternal with the Father. He taught that the word is divine but that this divine Son had a beginning. Arius reduced the Son to a being created by the Father, a demi-god or an emanation from God, an intermediary between God and the cosmos, but not fully God. For Arius, the Son is not unbegotten, nor part of the unbegotten in any way. The Nicene Creed is a reaction against the Arian doctrine. The response of the ecumenical council of Nicea to Arius was focused on the technical term “ homoousius” one being with the Father. Homoousius affirms the eternal equality and unity of the Father and the Son. Athanasius of Alexandria was the greatest and most persistent foe of Arius and his followers. After the New Testament period, what dominated is the understanding of the Prologue of John’s Gospel. In the Prologue of John’s Gospel Jesus is considered the incarnation of the Word: “ In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”(Jn 1:1). John’s prologue upholds the idea that before Jesus came to the earth, He lived with the Father from the beginning or His Father Jesus is a complete divine person.
There are at least two things held by the council of Chalcedon. First, is the claim that the divine Son and Jesus are one and the same. Jesus is the eternal divine Son and Logos. This one and then same Son is the only begotten, divine Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The personhood of Jesus Christ or His identity as hypostasis is numerically identical with the being of the divine Son or the Logos. Second Chalcedon affirms the dual characteristic of Jesus Christ: that He is the same perfect in Godhead and the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, consubstantial with us in manhood. God has two natures; human and divine. The Christological though in Nicea and Chalcedon, one can say that central to the classical understanding of Jesus Christ is the notion of incarnation that is the notion that the divine Logos became incarnate in Jesus. The incarnation perspective on Jesus is the proposition that before Jesus came to earth, God has sent His Son to the earth. Jesus is the God-man who from the beginning has existed unchangeable with the Father.
The classical symbol of Jesus Christ can be categorized as an example of Christology from above because its reflection is centered in the divinity of Jesus and how He became a human being.
b. A Dialectic Perspective
The spiritual attitude towards Jesus from dialectic goes back to the Christological ideas of Barth. Barth’s approach focuses on how God could be discerned in and through human history. His starting point is the discernment of the sacred text and tradition. In contrast to the spiritual attitude towards an incarnation perspective on Jesus which central idea focuses on the issue of how God became incarnate through the humanity of Jesus, the spiritual attitudes towards a dialectical perspective on the issue of how the human being can be brought to perfection through the divine nature of Jesus. The spiritual attitude towards a dialectical perspective on Jesus implies that if one wants to make sense as a human being he has to think about God’s judgment. Barth understand that what God intends human nature to be is revealed in the human nature of Jesus. For Barth, the proper conception of the human nature is to comprehend it from the nature of the man Jesus, who must be understood in the light of his unity with God. Barth posits the belief that Jesus Christ has shown the example of being obedient to God until death. Thus a real follower of Christ must also make a concerted effort so that his actions will resemble those of Christ. Viewing that Jesus by His divine origin puts all human experiences and activity in a critical perspective, a Christ follower makes a constant evaluation of his actions whether they are in congruence with that of Christ. This implies that in the day to day living of a Christian he seeks the guidance of Jesus. Anyone who intends to follow Jesus as in the case of His first disciples has to confront himself with the question whether to do things in God’s way or to continue doing it his way. Following Jesus entails conversion. It presupposes a radical change in one’s way of life that cannot be accomplished by clinging to the old forms of existence. One can say that Jesus Christ places human beings under the definitive judgments of God’s words. In Jesus Christ, God confronts human beings directly with the radical choice, whether they are for God or fro evil powers.



Chapter III
Christology from Below

Christology “from below” begins with the Jesus of history, a human being like us in all things except sin, who stands out from the rest of the human race by his proclamation of, and commitment to the Kingdom of God. His life of dedicated service of others led him to the cross, from which point God raised him up and exalted him.
Christology from below indicates a type of Christology that begins here below on earth. It begins with human experience, with human questioning, with the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth with the disciples who encountered Jesus and interpreted Him in various ways. The word “from indicates a point of departure in Christological thinking. The historical Jesus of Nazareth plays a central role and serves as the source and ultimate reference of the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ.

a. A Liberal Perspective
This spiritual attitude highlights the political dimension of Jesus ministry. As a prophet, Jesus is seen as someone who clashed with both the religious and the civil authorities of his time. The actions of Jesus are viewed as the actions of somebody who was completely devoted to the Kingdom of God. And this Kingdom of God demands personal conversion and restructuring of the human world. It demands a complete turn-around of ones lifestyle, which in turn affects the world around him. Jesus condemned the Scribes and Pharisees not because they were evil people. In fact, they did what the Law and society required to be called good. But they failed to do the essence of the law which is love, justice and mercy. The liberation theologians discovered that Jesus is not actually meek and passive. Jesus on many occasions got into trouble with the religious authorities in His time because of His radical interpretation of the Law in favor of those people in need and people who are poor. From a liberationist perspective, what is enunciated in the Gospel is that Jesus opted for the poor. He preached that the reign of God was near. He called blessed those who hunger and thirst for justice. He is on the side of the apprised to free them. Liberating symbols of Jesus provide a new image for the oppressed people. They lift up the low self-image of the oppressed. They make them realize that they are of great worth, the privileged focus of God’s care.
b. A Jesuanic Perpective
The term “Jesuanic” is a technical term referring to the historical Jesus as the starting point of Christological reflections. The term “Jesuanic” is coined in order to emphasize the point that this type of Christology highlights the role of the historical Jesus. It means that without historical Jesus, there can never be Christology at all. The spiritual attitude towards a Jesuanic Jesus is categorized as Christology from below because its starting point of reflection is the life and ministry of Jesus and from there one tries to figure out in what way Jesus could be considered as representing in his life and ministry God’s revelation.
For Schillebeeckx the search for the historical Jesus is not an end in itself but a starting point for hermeneutical reflections from the question what this historical Jesus might have to say to modern man in modern society. Schillebeeckx presents that no human being can be understood (1) independently from the course of past events that have surrounded him and confront him and elicit his critical reaction (2) independently of his relations with those about him contemporaries who have received from him an din turn have influenced him and touched off specific reactions in him (3) independently of the effect he has had on subsequent history or of what he might have intended to set in motion by direct action of his own. Basing himself on these threefold assumptions, Schillebeeckx asserts that the starting point for any Christology or Christian understanding of Jesus is not simply the Jesus of Nazareth nor church kerygma nor creed. Rather it is the movement which Jesus himself started in the first century the starting points are the first Christian communities that serve as a reflection of what Jesus himself was, what He said and did.
The message of the gospel portrays that Jesus worked by the power of God that was always directed at human good. Thus, Jesus disclosed a God who is on the side of human existence. In His works of miracle Jesus provokes human beings to seek divine help and to foster fellowship with God. Schillebeeckx sees Jesus as someone who had shown his commitment to the reign of God. In other words the salvation that Jesus Christ mediates to the world must never be understood apart from its historical unfolding in concrete instances.
c. A Secular Perspective
The spiritual attitude towards Jesus from a secular perspective highlights the life of Jesus of Nazareth understood from a literary critical perspective, getting rid of the metaphysical and mythological interpretation of the Gospel stories. The spiritual attitude towards Jesus from a secular perspective is very much alive at present taking into account the widespread impact of secularization in the past decades up to the moment.
Van Buren asks the question: how many Christian who is himself a secular man understands the Gospel in a secular way? He was concerned how the Gospel could still be relevant to secular man. Jesus of Nazareth is the pre-eminent example of caring for our neighbor. This means that Jesus is the perfect revelation of living as a human among humans. One has to recognize that Jesus has in word and deed shown to us concretely, what it is like to be a good human being. Jesus has shown us how to live as a human among humans.



Chapter IV
Christology from within

The heart of von Balthasar’s notion of the peculiar access to the inner reality of Christ that the saints and mystics give to theology. It is an approach to theology which thoroughly bridges the usual distinction between Christology “from above’” and “from below”. Von Balthasar does indeed have a very high Christology which certainly presupposes a doctrine of the trinity, yet he also constructs this Christology with constant attention to the historical human Jesus. He explores the participation of the saints and mystics in the life of Christ in order to understand Jesus divine-human reality “from within”. Von Balthasar sees the saints as the concretization in each age of that particular unfolding of Christ most needed by their contemporaries.
The saints are not given to us to admire for their heroic power, but we should be enlightened by them on the inner reality of Christ, both for our better understanding of faith and for our living thereby in charity. Because of their communion with Christ, that saints hear within themselves the marks of his own experience. How does von Balthasar explain this participation in Christ? First, humanity itself is ordered to fulfillment in Christ and this is actualized by sharing in the obedience of Christ’s own mission; and second, Christ is uniquely open and inclusive being, always drawing his fellow humans into his own life.
Von Balthasar’s second approach to the question of how the saints come to participate in Christ is focused less on the christomorphic structure of the believers existence and more on the inclusive nature of Christ own personal existence. There’s a need to have not only the openness of Christ’s life to participation but even more the capacity of his divine-human life actively to generate related situations in the life of the believing community.
Von Balthasar argues that the participation in the stages of Christ’s life is grounded in the eternal presence of those historical moments for Christ himself: Christ inherent capacity to include souls within himself makes it possible fro those whom he draws to himself to share in his own living experience of his earthly life. So the believer’s participation in the ever-present interior reality of Jesus life is completely based on Christ’s fundamental personal inclusivity. And in fact it is exactly this participation in Christ that grounds the fullness of human historical existence, namely the capacity to be for and with another in freedom and love. Von Balthasar gives a multihued account of this inclusive capacity of Christ. it is not simply on untroubled sharing of divine delights, for there is no more accessible state of Christ’s existence than his suffering. Von Balthasar reflects on the church’s invitation to “co-suffering” in terms of John’s story of Lazarus.
The Berullian metaphysics of capacity achieves in Von Balthasar a grave and more historically grounded depth from his reading of Christ’s earthly life. We see that this inherent capacity or opening out of Christ is grounded in the momentum of Jesus self-giving. Jesus is accessible to the saints and faithful who seek him precisely because he chose always to give others, a share in his mission. Therefore each moment in his earthly life, for all, its Berullian eternality is in von Bathasar’s reading already structured to include others; each state bears within it a fundamental orientation towards companionship and self sharing. So what exactly does von Balthasar hope this participation of the saints in Christ will continue to theology. What is necessary, after long experience of the history of theology is an effort at an authentic theological deepening of the particular mysteries of salvation in their incarnationaly concrete character.
Von Balthasar wants to explore the great theological loci by taking them back into their Christological Trinitarian depths. Every doctrine is replete with the tension, passion and drama of a human life because it emerges from the community’s experience of Jesus. Von Balthasar is not ultimately fastened to a particular dogma or theological principle, neither the triumph of grace nor the glory of self giving love could be the real object of their theology, but only the living person Jesus Christ. The saints have been granted a capacity to witness to the ever new ever deeper dimensions of Christ’s living, dying and rising. Von Balthasar suggests that it is Christology that stands to gain most “from what the saints experienced”.
Through the saints, each moment of Christ’s existence is made continually and newly present in his Body, and it is von Balthasar aim to enlist these experiences in deepening the Body’s understanding of what has taken place in the Head. Von Balthasar develops features of Christ’s life in direct conversation with mystical theology, as fro example is the case with Christ’s passion and mystical dark night. Von Balthasar draw on the saints own grace of participation in Christ as a direct source for theological construction. And so he aims for a Christology “from within”.
a. Theological Role of the Saints
How does von Balthasar envision the theological role of the saints? What is most crucial in these figures? Von Balthasar speaks of finding in the saints “ the source, ever flowing, ever fresh” of a theology of Christ’s redeeming existence, especially his passion.
The charism of the saints consisted in the ability to re-immerse themselves, beyond everything that convention might dictate, in a contemporaneity with the gospel so as to bequeath the legacy of their intimate experience to their spiritual children.
Von Balthasar speaks of a contemporaneity with the gospel; not so much a bringing forward of the past into the present experience of the believer, but a participation of the believer in the eternal aspect of definitive historical event. For von Balthasar saving and revelatory events are never really the “past”; yet by no means is the concrete historical form of these events jettisoned for some more elemental core. Rather in his view these events, because of the effulgence of divine agency at work in them, are always open, communicable and extensive realities. Von Balthasar resists any approach that would look on historical revelation as a past event, as presupposed, and not as something always happening, to be listened to and obeyed.
Von Balthasar defines the saints precisely as those who have ceaselessly immersed themselves in the actual circumstances of the events of revelation. For the saints the gospel narratives become a threshold over which the believer may pass prayerfully into the original and eternal presence of the saving events themselves. In the Ignatian perspective, particularly the instruction throughout the Spiritual Exercises, to enter meditatively and imaginatively into the scenes of the gospels, seeking especially fro an interior knowledge of our Lord.

What is the nature of the saints “contemporaneity with the gospel” and contemplative exposure to God? Von Balthasar’s prime metaphor is nuptial and Marian. The saint within the community of the church enters the ecclesial role of the bride in communication with Christ the bridegroom. The purpose of contemplation is to cause the life of the bride to be transformed. The saints by their attentiveness to the Word begin to transformed, in the classical terminology, from image to likeness; and it is their receptivity and transformation that provide the model form for Balthasarian theology; just as their teaching is its primary matter. Von Balthasar sees this gift of openness and availability to the Word as first gift of the church, but it often becomes manifest in a saint, whose soul has gazed so long and deeply on the light of God that it become to hold within itself an almost inexhaustible store of light and love, and so can offer lasting force and sustenance.
b. Christology from Within in the context of new way of seminary formation
The seminary plays an important role in the identity and spirituality of the priest. It is a time or period of formation which has the aim of developing a relationship of deep communion and friendship with Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II describes the seminary as a home and school of communion. It is the “proper home for the formation of candidates for the priesthood” and education community” . In his encyclical, he describes the seminary as a re-living of the experience of formation which the disciples have with Jesus Christ. The seminary also represents an intimate sharing of life with Jesus Christ. These intimate sharing would indicate the element of communion. In other words, the seminary should foster communion among the students so that the image of communion in the ministerial priesthood.
The question on the nature and mission of the priest is not separate with the nature and mission of the Church. In Pastores Dabo Vobis, the Pope makes an interesting refection that is worth quoting: it is within the Church’s mystery of Trinitarian communion in mission tension, that every Christian identity is revealed, and likewise the specific identity of the priest and his ministry. Indeed, the priest, by virtue of consecration which he receives in the Sacrament of Orders, is sent forth by the Father through mediator ship of Jesus Christ, to whom he is configured in a special way as Head and Shepherd of His people, in order to live and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in service of the Church and for the salvation of the world.
In this way the fundamentally relational dimension of priestly identity can be understood. Through the priesthood which arises from the depths of the ineffable mystery of God, that is, from the love of the Father, the grace of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit’s gift’s of unity, the priest sacramentally enters into communion with the Bishop and with other priest, in order to serve the People of God who are the Church and to draw all mankind to Christ.
The nature and mission of the priest is defined in connection with relationships which flow from the Blessed Trinity. In this regard, the communion plays an important role in understanding the identity of the priest. The priest then should be a man of communion. His being a man of communion gives the identity and also its spirituality.
If the nature and mission of the priest is defined in terms of communion, then the new way of seminary formation must also be defined in terms of communion so that being in communion with Jesus must be developed. The new way seminary formation should develop a relationship of deeper communion and friendship with Jesus.
c. Christology from Within in the context of Basic Ecclesial Community
The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines has promoted the building of BEC. PCP II describe the ecclesiology of communion as something of discipleship in community and integrated with the vision of the church as mission and participation as priestly, kingly and prophetic. In a community a Christian grows in faith, we are called as individuals, and each one must give a personal response. He wants the church to be a communion of life, love and truth, a community of faith hope and love. The first disciples expressed this in their lives. They formed a community in which they devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. They were of one heart and mind and share even the things they owned so that no one among them was in want
The church as Christian community must have built within it authentic human community: friendship genuine sharing, true personal relationship founded on Christ and fostered by his grace. These principles of human community must become incarnate in each BEC groups to have a true communion.
The small group structure has a participative nature, social interaction among the members and develops a strong group feeling and a greater sense of responsibility. There would be a deep bond of unity and solidarity that develops among members a real sense of community beyond the family. These human qualities in BEC, highlight more of the qualities of human relationship that are more person-oriented and conducive to developing real friendship, this creating also a community of the friends of the Lord. It is within the context of BEC that the members live out the values of the Gospel associated with communion such as love, service, caring for one another. Members of the BEC’s are called to liberate itself from selfishness and self-centeredness and to relate to others in love. This kind of community becomes of itself truly a sign and instrument of community- an icon of the Trinity.
BEC is centered in God’s word. BEC is a means to experience, reflect and act on God’s word. BEC enable us to know Christ more deeply, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more concretely.


Conclusion

The center of the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar is the task of renewing the Church through the formation of new communities which unite the radical Christian life of conformity to the evangelical counsels of Jesus with existence in the midst of the world, whether by practicing secular professions, or through the ministerial priesthood to give new life to living communities. For Christians, the practice usually involves the belief that communion with Jesus Christ is the way of encountering ultimate meaning. The story within which Christians seek to live their lives, discovering in this path is the transforming companionship of God.