Jesus: An Experiment in Christology

...But still it is a hopeful sign of be, "Not again...

...WIIITERSPELT the Battle of the Bulge, but one that atMany impressions linger from an intel- Alfred Andersch tempts to rewrite a bit of history, or ligent and often inspiring book such as Translated by Richard & Clara Winston perhaps more accurately, to play out a this...

...dialogue with exegetes rather than his being on strange ground in concentrating The book is divided into four major fellow theologians, not because he wants on biblical studies, he performs his task sections, moving from a discussion of 16 March 1979: 147 methodology (Part I), to a detailed study with at least some aspect of the historical ping of post-Easter reflection...

...Even with all the referonly for exegetes and theologians, but ing or set in the period continued (alas, ences to troops and strategies and the wants it to be "within reach of anybody continues) to be written...

...God is decisively "for us," "mindful of "conversion," a Jewish literary genre Schillebeeckx also uses Part I to reflect humanity...

...comes a link between Jesus of Nazareth p.645 he where refers to the "personaland the post-Easter reflection of the cum-bodily" resurrection of Jesus...

...even death in 'service of others...

...Both Bodey's blowzy soliloquy alike-and it takes more than the proclamation of cheerfulness and Helena's thin-lipped bitchiness (she has most creve-coeur to provide a substantial theatrical picnic...

...Add German girl from upstairs, to give her coffee and crullers and that each act opens with a tinny victrola grinding out "Alone" compassion, to recognize-as she has refused to do before- and that the lines are so full of the names of products, places, that the, girl's fear of being alone in the apartment where her people that they seem a parody of Blanche DuBois's fondness mother died is only an extension of what all the characters feel...

...But the prophetic role best described the impression Jesus 18001860 of Nazareth made on his contemporaries, and the expectation of a prophetic figure Herbert Hovenkam p associated with the final dawn of salva- Fascinated by the scientific method as never before, American tion by intertestamental Judaism laid the Protestants experimented with an empirical approach to theology...

...understanding of Jesus as eschatological April prophet...

...This latter fact sessment of the biblical material to be the the whole, Schillebeeckx demonstrates will be the first thing to strike the atten- essential starting point for any revitalized sound discrimination and good judgtive reader...

...Louis German Helena) are never more than the vaudeville antagonists Wilbrother, the antithesis of the now inaccessible principal...

...The author writes his work not elsewhere for material...

...In the third section, Schillebeeckx out- William Ames lines some of the basic interpretations of Jesus in the New Testament community...

...She phia in a production that wrecked the rhythm of Streetcar...

...Helena, who somehow confuses the history of art heroines and, contrariwise, the comedy fails to penetrate the with tea sandwiches and contract bridge, needs Dorothea fi- surface and set up shop in the viscera of the characters...

...Schillebeeckx sets out to christology...

...This working Son of David, as Wisdom, as is the first translation and analysis of a theology that synthesized Crucified and Risen Savior), but all of classical pedagogy, medieval scholasticism, and Renaissance them spring from a common dominant humanism...

...Schillebeeckx does not affirm this In this section Schillebeeckx also tackimpact of the history of Jesus on the early as a presupposition but as an anticipated les, at least in an initial way, the resurreccommunity (Part III), and, finally, to the conclusion which his painstaking tion traditions...

...Technometry The early creeds took a variety of forms Translated by Lee W. Gibbs (focusing on Jesus as coming Judge at the Ames' rechnomerria was the official philosophy of the New England Parousia, as Theos Aner or wonder- Puritans, taught to generations of students at Harvard and Yale...

...But in a work this written a genuinely significant study in he considers a critical and competent as- size, such borrowings are inevitable...

...The last and briefest section of the book steps back from the biblical material and offers a tentative discussion of how the New, Testament portrayal of Jesus can have meaning for today...

...In recent years, several major christological manding officer of a German infantry MY DISAPPEARANCE IN PROVIDENCE battalion stationed at the town of Winstudies by Catholics (e.g., Kung, AND OTHER STORIES terspelt had decided to surrender his men Kasper) have devoted large portions of their attention to the biblical data...

...But groundwork for the vigorous theologiz- the facts of nature did not always confirm their religious beliefs, and ing of the Jewish-Christian community...

...But fiction recall- verisimilitude...

...This is one of the analysis of the Gospel Easter narratives fundamental characteristics of Schil- and such Pauline passages as I Corintlebeeckx's work and, in my view, one of hians 15 is well done, one has to wonder its chief strengths...

...The unique person of Jesus and $14.95 the early community's Easter experience of salvation in him transformed every Science and Religion in America, traditional category...

...Neither the empty tomb tradition and with a non-theistic technological ence") must be applied cautiously, in (which he considers to be the product of world...

...Criti- study that is surely to cause reaction in rary world (Part IV...

...emphasizes that resurrection is an act of Thus, even though the early commu- God that affects Jesus (and not imnity immediately set out to interpret the mediately the disciples), but seems to ultimate significance of Jesus (an ongo- prefer the language of exaltation when he ing task which Schillebeeckx notes is es- moves to interpret the meaning of this sential if the Christian vision is to be "act of God...

...For one, the theological style of possibility (to borrow from Andersch...

...The accumulated experience which enables them to underresults of modern critical exegesis do not stand that J,esug was the Christ (p.360...

...He Christian community...

...Indeed, after the appearance ceeds makes for a very odd book, not at mate theology was understood to be bi- of a host of accomplished and imagina- all the documentary or historical novel blical interpretation...

...Doubleday, $10, 480 pp...

...raim's Book and Herlin's Commemora- side...

...for the specific...

...Bodey, who used comedy in his serious plays-particularly verbal comedy knows that she will never have children of her own, envisions a (think of Amanda on...

...In recent years intense focus on individual soldiers, his interested" ("Foreword...

...Here he discusses why tion of the evangelists) are of much help Christians make universal claims for the Jesus's life was "gospel" for his follow- historically...

...At this point Schil- God," a God who, in turn, is paradoxibook are powerful and intensely moving, lebeeckx returns to an image with which cally and parabolically revealed through almost homiletic in tone, and almost he began his study: Jesus, a human per- Jesus as "totally for man...

...Perhaps it is safe to say, Peter Bischel and Hans Erich Nossack, thinking and is still another in a long line that no major christological study in the so much of contemporary German fiction of novels reflecting German guilt (in this foreseeable future can afford to be less still seems inspired by German history of case inspired by the Wehrmacht's failure skillful (even if less voluminous) with the the 1930s and '40s, with innumerable to break with Hitler and hurry the war to a New Testament materials than this work...

...He notes that the unity Jesus's own striking intimacy with God, surrection accounts...

...But his concentration on the biblicall data is so despite the pyrotechnical display, which intense that the book is more of a pro- DESPITE the appearance in recent years is impressive, and the exhaustive examilogomena to christology than a christol- of important works by such relatively nation of moral positions, which is also ogy as such...

...Schillebeeckx remeaning and purport of their lives by outcasts, and in his willingness to accept peatedly insists that he is not reducing the reference to Jesus of Nazareth" (p.56...

...At times, he seems to not only because it is massive in size Seabury, $24.50, 736 pp...

...Schil- Alfred Andersch to the American forces positioned outlebceckx's book, even though the origi- Translated by Ralph Manheim side the town...

...period, specifically in the desperate, participate in the meditative drama: himself...

...lead to agnosticism about the historical While Schillebeeckx's careful dimensions of Jesus...

...She pulls herself together and goes off to join the picnic, to ac- manages to get through the voice to the character by the end of quiesce in the courtship that Bodey has been engineering with the play, but Peg Murray (as Bodey) and Charlotte Moore (as her fat, cigar-smoking, beer-drinking St...

...which one settles for what one can get instead of what one Familiar Williams theme then, relentlessly explicit,- and wants...

...cal exegesis has provided criteria which the English-speaking world, as his origit In Part I, Schillebeeckx reviews the enable us to trace the link between the nal Dutch version did in Europe...

...ages to the tomb in Jerusalem) nor the vation in Jesus (the heart of the Christian His methodological caveats aside, appearance traditions (which presuppose message) mean in a world where humans Schillebeeckx plunges into Part II, the the reunion of the disciples and reflect the look for and experience "salvation" in longest (290 pp...

...The best model for underman Jesus...

...He observes that a about the theological proposition he has significant personage like Jesus leaves an reduced them to...

...Only once, as far as I imprint on his contemporaries...

...explore the possibility in a dense, elliptiother efforts, represents the most devel- cal and sometimes maddeningly digresoped example of this approach...

...Yet, as if he were writing a pure Schillebeeckx's efforts to reach the tions, all of which are concerned, almost naturalistic novel, the author interrupts proverbial "general reader" are ham- obsessively, with the past...

...Jesus was, in effect, a "living para- standing what Easter meant for the discithe others, that Schillebeeckx will/pur- ble of God" (p.159), demonstrating that ples, Schillebeeckx affirms, is that of sue...

...He obkind of questions that make christolegy historical person of Jesus and the com- serves that the crucial issue is what an urgent responsibility of the contempo- munity's interpretation of him...

...teristic of several recent christological assumed that German writers would look Andersch makes no great effort to create studies...

...This is an aspect of his implication of all this for our contempo- analysis constantly demonstrates...

...Shirley who expects a romantic marriage to the handsome, socially Knight does Dorothea in a voice that suggests Marie Wilson as prominent principal of the school where she teaches and who much as the traditional Southern belle-a comic voice, one finally, this lovely Sunday, learns that her dream man has might assume, had Knight not used a similar one when she become engaged to a girl in what a 1930s comedy (the play played Blanche a few seasons ago in Princeton and Philadeltakes place in 1935) would have called "his own set...

...There are porthe times that a pastoral goal has become novel that is not only set during the Hitler traits of the main German figures who part of the modern theological enterprise...

...of the good lines) are forms of desperation, but Dorothea's GERALD WEALES Books: JESUS, COD'S LIVING PARABLE THE APPEARANCE, in English, of IU03: with awesome skill and comprehension...

...marriage which will make her an aunt, give her a surrogate Edgar Allan Poe" to describe Stella's apartment...

...intions, a momentum is established toward terdisciplinary science of man in which nature and nurture rogerher a secondary level of reflection, a christ- explained man's behavior...

...The failure to discuss the universal rather than local), in each in- significance of resurrection for bodily stance this "theologizing" reckoned existence (Jesus's and our own), and its Commonweal: 148 relationship to the biblical meaning of creation in general is the most serious .Facts and Faith in American History flaw in Schillebeeckx's book...

...Thus this primary level of reflec- Heredity-Environment Controversy, 1900.1941 tion is basically "functional" and Hamilton Cravens "salvation-historical" in orientation...

...Dorothea is a school teacher (civics), a foolish, pretty characters that bring' echoes of so many Williams women who blonde woman, running to plumpness and shortness of breath, have gone before, but how are we to take the play...

...Be- liams has written and Jane Lowry's suicidal Miss Gluck is a fore she goes, she stops long enough to quiet the hysterical travesty character as well as an unlikely Miss Happiness...

...serious title (A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real), and decision to ally herself with Bodey suggests that warm vulgarwhat little plot the play has carries Dorothea beyond her ity is more desirable than waspish correctness although even creve-coeur to the amusement park, to an acceptance of life in that warmth is cold comfort...

...The author goes on to nal Dutch edition predated many of these Doubleday, $7.95, 231 pp...

...The Christian stand is that son, is the "parable of God," the one goal-even if only partially achieved-is God can and does "act" in and through whose human existance was "wholly for not mere lip service...

...After the collapse of Social Darwinism...

...the telephone, Blanche's conjuring "Mr...

...Rather, this forgiveness and able chasm between Jesus of Nazareth conversion is an act of God's grace, an and the Christ of faith...

...Both Bodey and Helena, the schoolteacher who expects Perhaps a comic variation on the familiar Williams theme is Dorothea to share an apartment, want to use her- not quite as intended (remember Slapstick Tragedy), but the mention of the principal did, on the reclining seat of his brand-new Reo Blanche in this context is a reminder that Williams has always touring car-as a defense against loneliness...

...Jesus is seen as "belonging to God," as "wholly on University of Pennsylvania Press God's side," as "Son of God...

...Edward Schillebeeckx's 1975 AN EXPERIMENT IN CHRISTOLOGY In fact, I am not aware of any work in book on christology can only be Edward Schillebeeckx modern New Testament christology described as monumental...

...In a way, theology has returned to a investigations and reconstructions of the Yet the way in which Winterspelt promedieval conception in which all legiti- Hitler years...

...Put differently, how can part of his study...

...In fact, Ronald Do Feo sive narrative of nearly 500 pages...

...These 3933 Walnut Street are biblical ways of speaking ontologi- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (215)243-6261 cally...

...These exactly happened between the dispersal rary church: the challenge of critical sci- criteria (Schillebeeckx merely rephrases of the disciples at the time of Jesus's ences, the Jewish-Christian dialogue, in- the standard criteria of "multiple attesta- death and their re-assembly some time teraction with non-Christian religions tion," "dissimilarity," and "coher- later...

...That "re- observed, does he refer to the meaning of flex" on the part of the community be- resurrection for corporeal existence (cf...

...On New Textament exegesis...

...The crucial question is whether an individual human life can have universal significance, a proposition denied by rationalism...

...What if, Andersch suggests, the comSchillebeeckx's work is significant...

...his intricate, chronologically jumbled pered not only by the technical nature of It is understandable then that a reader's fantasy at various points to provide biohis exegetical discussions but also by a initial response to Alfred Andersch's graphical sketches of his characters and translation that, at times, is simply massive new work, Winterspelt, might to relate supposedly very significant laborious...

...tive books focusing on this dark period one anticipates after reading the opening There is another point that should be (such instant classics as Boll's Billiards pages, which present excerpts from acnoted about the style of this work, and at Half-Past Nine and Grass's monumen- tual war memoirs and records as historihere, too, Schillebeeckx shares a charac- tal The Tin Drum and Dog Years) one cal background for the fiction to come...

...These meaning of the resurrection experience to The term Jesus of Nazareth is important, dimensions of the life of Jesus of a memory of the historical Jesus (even because, unlike Bultmann and other late Nazareth-dimensions which can be es- though the disciples' memory of the 19th and early 20th century theologians, tablished by critical historical compassion of Jesus prepared them for Schillebeeckx does not find an unbridge- methodology-become the underpin- Easter...

...Even though he confesses to ment...

...But it is we have had, to cite but a few examples, characters appear to exist in a closed, doubtful that anyone who does not have Bo71's Group Portrait with Lady, Lenz's rather orderly little world, far removed some academic background would get The German Lesson, Andersch's Ef- from the devastating and chaotic war outfar in this book or at least enjoy doing so...

...But even at that, Schil- abstract, philosophically oriented writers impressive, if occasionally ponderous, lebeeckx's achievement is impressive as Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, the work is really a grand piece of wishful and valuable...

...Talk about Jesus, for the rationalist mind (which, according to Schillebeeckx, has had a profound impact on contemporary christology, especially in North America), is only a language for describing new religious experiences, not a statement about Jesus 16 March 1979: 149 In the case of this book, such a pastoral challenge...

...every segment of this study contains material which has rich pastoral potential...

...The nancially (to pay for the expensive apartment she covets), but problem, I suspect, is that there is an idea rather than dramatic her brief soliloquy on eating alone indicates that Dorothea's substance at the heart of their speeches-conversation and presence is as important as her money...

...For here we have a scenes from their lives...

...they proved that Science and Scripture are not easily mixed...

...Monumental which can match it...

...The four family which might bring meaning to her preoccupation with women in Creve Coeur lack the urgency of the early Williams the kitchen...

...But basic to all these factors is the tandem, and without the expectation of traditions associated with early pilgrimkey question of salvation: what does sal- definitive results...

...and most impressive ecclesial and therefore post-Easter reflecother ways...

...This "parable" was told in detectable in several New Testament reon methodology...

...Some portions of his human history...

...ology as such...

...Schillebeeckx concludes Part III by $16.00 noting that the dominant feature of the New Testament reflection is a "theology The Triumph of Evolution of Jesus," that is, a reflection on how God's salvation is experienced through American Scientists and the Jesus...

...the technical contributions of But even in the New Testament tradi- a new generation of professional scientists led to a "synthetic...

...novels and short stories cast as memoirs, conclusion...

...This assumption needs critical hopeless days (for Germany) just prior to Major Dincklage, the officer who reCommonweal: 150...

...of the historical Jesus (Part II), then to the Jesus...

...endorse too wholeheartedly a debatable (nearly 800 pages of text and notes) and exegetical position (such as Siegrid erudition (over 600 authors are cited), Donald Senior Schulz's elaborate hypothesis on the but because a premier systematic, theolo- theology of Q or Theodore Weeden's ingian of the Roman Catholic tradition has to be "unbrotherly" (p.40), but because terpretation of Mark...

...which inquires about the $17.50 identity of Jess himself...

...The disciples examid the diversity of New Testament in his provocative story-telling, in his perience forgiveness and reconciliation thought is to be found in the basic thrust acts of healing and compassion, in his and are able to re-group and pick up the of the New Testament community itself: prophetic challenge to wrong priorities, pieces of the mission Jesus of Nazareth its insistence on defining "the ultimate in his calculated table fellowship with the had given them...

...Beyond question, this is a book that is Pyrotechnics without life a credit to its author and, much more important, a service to its subject...

...It is this question, more than ers...