The First Coming
Thompson, William M.
ticular function with conspicuous suc- evangelists, but the John Courtney Mur- nity. This citing of tributes from cess. As a, modern circuit-rider, speaking rays and the Reinhold...
...throughout the work...
...As a seventeen-year-old So while Reinhold Niebuhr may be came apparent, as he expounded biblical freshman, hitherto successful in avoiding American theology's "last superstar," I passages with rare insight, that the Chris- church attendance, he was told to be sure am unable to celebrate the lack of such tian faith was a massive, subtle, and pro- to be in chapel on Sunday to hear an luminaries today...
...These are, for varying ing one can complete the upper levels of a the contribution of "liberal" scholars reasons, the creations of the later church...
...troducing us to some of his work on Karl Rahner and even Martin Heidegger...
...privatize) is both present and future...
...Jesus down to sensing a form of forgive- My own suggestion is that the terms in ness and coming to believe in charity and The complete absence of Jesus which Sheehan chooses to set his justice...
...Why the reBooks (June 14, 1984...
...the night side of 128 pp...
...The debate section on Jesus' glance at the Simon to a kind of illusory "more" which sets might usefully focus here, rather than on Commonweal: 378 arguments about biblical data and their is early Enlightenment, reflecting the ex- new cross-cultural context, hardly peep possible reconstruction...
...This general even further weakens the author's claim Varsity Press, which originally pub- framework is developed and enhanced that he is offering us a truly "post- lished the book, withdrew it from its throughout the book...
...It is an eclectic fusion of secularis- the complete absence of footnotes confusing shadow upon the entire book, tic approaches we have met before, throughout all but Part One...
...is it a Sheehan intensifies and probably exag- In any case, Jesus is presented as retrue "higher synthesis" which is more gerates the element of discontinuity be- ducing apocalyptic to its existential core...
...This absence points bility - or not - of theism...
...and even of the Christian reality...
...In fact, the language used is rather since they have become more widespread There are several controlling concepts consistently unattentive to sexist issues...
...I had been hoping that Sheehan Enlightenment (Freud, Marx, et al., with there's hope...
...in the book...
...Sheehan enlutely absent" in the normal sense such enment are truly legitimate and founda- thrones justice and mercy, and not simterms would carry, then of course christ- tional...
...The author clearly re- bolic sense, the empty tomb was the scholarship is to move away from the jects an afterlife: "A movement that last word that Jesus the prophet ut- neat, three-state schematization, arguing should have accepted the fact that Jesus tered...
...The First Corning express this conviction: "Jesus has been There is little in the biblical text to comraised from the dead...
...Which would cohere with a Report, is not tackled (and this is particu- and Fuller (who has nuanced his views) non-theocentric horizon of thought, from larly unfortunate, for some might read as it reconstructs the stages in the which the author seems to move (a true Sheehan's view as a popularized version emergence of biblical christology...
...Ulti- his hunches...
...The trend in the appearances...
...At times, too, it no sustained treatment (in fact, hardly a human mercy and justice...
...Maybe...
...building with only a bulldozer...
...But sive analysis, as inchoately set forth in Part Three follows the "older" more commonly, futurity collapses into his Jesus and then nuanced in the Interim schematization of scholars such as Hahn presence...
...In some repost-liberal and post-Christian...
...Along the way the author displays proposition, rather than real argumenta- This is Sheehan's central point...
...The risen Jesus is a hypostatized does have religious significance: it analysis render his . reconstruction less projection of this interior state...
...It be- Cornell...
...This is particularly the case overview of the issues...
...This is particularly important bemeaningful in the face of human evil and tions at the initiation of an individual cause he does not use a philosophical sin...
...The quandaries of conception A perhaps not unrelated issue is the relative absence of any soteriology - BRAVE NEW PEOPLE myself included, will find that judgment any theory of salvation or redemption - D. Gareth Jones astounding...
...This, I think, the three, is interesting in that Inter- by acting wisely and in love...
...As a, modern circuit-rider, speaking rays and the Reinhold Niebuhrs as well...
...future, in its place...
...tion he tries to argue in the book's reinterpretation of the Jesus event which but a cipher for human charity and jus- mainder...
...The issues of the "first" Enlight- radically secularistic option...
...from its positivistic methodology to its something like a cabbage warmed up for From my own perspective, however, austerely non-religious conclusions...
...bach we're encountering at the end of this Jesus (which the author tends to Schillebeeckx's own more comprehen- "tunnel...
...And at the end of tological christologies smacks of a proThe author's own reconstruction runs his mission he, so to speak, dis- jection of a much later, idealistic metasolved even himself, wiped out every somewhat like this: potential believers physics upon a more holistic biblical anhear the news that Jesus is risen and soon trace, left not even a corpse, only an thropology...
...The book is Peter Singer and Deane Wells twist were they to be developed in a cer- Scribner's, $14.95, 245 pp...
...In Sheehan's account, the programmatically announces in this sec"post-liberal" and even post-Christian "Abba" of Jesus seems (with emphasis...
...My own impres- tween the pre- and post-Easter Jesus, This seems to mean that he relativizes 20 June 1986: 377 Torah and futuristic speculations in the betraying him...
...a challenging analysis of us seeking and thus actualizes our peculinterests of charity and justice...
...How does divinity in a post-Jesus era...
...Still, in Sheehan gives us a sustained treatment of religious experience grows progressively fairness let me say that what Sheehan his major point...
...finally they con- mend this thesis, and Jaroslav Pelikan cretize the formula by connecting it with Finally, though, as von Hiigel once has questioned whether it makes much an empty tomb belief: an apocalyptic suggested, the issue of the resurrection is sense of the post-biblical early church angel announces Jesus' rising at the tomb but a corollary of believing in a loving either...
...I say "relative" Eerdmans, $8.95 paper, 224 pp...
...And where that "more" would engage in a more sustained treat- their deepened awareness of personal and gifts us with justice and mercy, there's ment of this issue of theism, perhaps in- social irrationality), not to mention our even more hope...
...I sources and conclusions...
...If a second time...
...This citing of tributes from cess...
...In a sym- probable than it could be...
...Jesus, we Christians be- gaged the theological response to the En- out in praise, not of a closed and dogmatlieve, should be able to develop people's lightenment in a somewhat prolonged ic rational system, but of a human questGod-consciousness and praxis, but the manner...
...Jones rejects 20 June 1986: 379...
...human situation with real light...
...demonstrated that Christian faith had valthe Christian faith as a singularly power- Historian William E. Leuchtenburg re- idity by reason of its profound analysis of ful force, capable of illuminating the counts an incident from his experience at the human venture...
...But where there's a "more," dancing...
...idolization...
...The auappears into justice and charity...
...Ethically, humans are tion of the historical Jesus (which strikes Brave New People, the most general of to echo the moral responsibility of God me as rather anachronistic...
...Such expositions might ered the summons was the Jewish girl feel that the American poet, Edwin Arnot lead others to accept the faith as truth, who was president of the campus chapter lington Robinson, has given us in a but no longer could Christian faith be of the Young Communist League...
...compelling, first, because Jones is a protain direction...
...At first the stages of the Markan Resurrection iarly human ability to search and know...
...It should indi- that today no Protestant preacher could we kneel cate that not only do the Fulton Sheens make anything like Niebuhr's impact on To consecrate the flicker, not the and Billy Grahams deserve the status of the academic and intellectual commu- flame...
...But soon we are told that God Disappointingly, the reader will find absence opens up a space for simple abdicates his presence...
...But they weren't...
...So let us be patient...
...According to in Jesus and reconstituted religion...
...He breaks ology is futile...
...transparent...
...The in- rants does he accept or reject evidence...
...market, presumably because it was Two examples will help orient readers I would suggest that the book's vintage too liberal...
...Incidentally, why a-theism of the author casts a supinely ment...
...intriguing analyses of the Jesus' risen "absence" is but an example people the Father's presence, a presence tomb's rock-door and the angel-young of this absolute absence behind our seeking a response of mercy for the man...
...and raise public policy issues...
...some powerful insights into the possible tion on its behalf...
...troductory survey of the quests for the This all remains unstated...
...academia could go on and on because about forty times a year in college and There are many illustrations of Reinhold Niebuhr, refusing to practice a university chapels, he confronted the ac- Niebuhr's impact...
...But there was to be none of this...
...tunately, we get only the statement of this disappeared into justice and mercy...
...Here, I The book's final conclusion: "Jesus is the tomb is empty...
...modem" restatement of christology...
...likes of Schillebeeckx, Kasper, Rahner, christology as we progress from the early Part Two is an intriguingly deconstruc- O'Collins, etc., the author somewhat Palestinian, to the Jewish-Hellenistic, tive (Sheehan's word) analysis of the exuberantly believes in the plausibility of and on to the simply Hellenistic horizons genesis of the Resurrection belief...
...The person who deliv- temporary theological scene makes me destiny of man...
...In others, that's like sayitatively, is the book a true sublation of ical aspirations...
...and indeed Jesus must be risen because and faithful Divine Mystery...
...U.S...
...How we might even In the end, I would suggest that the cluster of events constituting the Resur- know about something so absolutely ab- major issue the book raises is the plausirection experiences: a moving and poetic sent isn't explained...
...If we (when the tomb's emptiness becomes a Sheehan, human seeking finds its cor- would hear Jesus' message "without "historical fact" proving the Resurrec- relative in "absolute absence...
...So too are means the end of religion...
...Second, Jones writes from the permight look different were he to confront Basil Blackwell, $8.95 paper, spective of evangelical Christianity, (in the text, of course...
...Religion kenosis or self-emptying is probably thor has done a lot of reading, but it's is transcended, and there is a kind of what's meant...
...Unfor- Christ," we would find that "God has tion...
...The relevant biblical material...
...This touches upon the important con- human life have raised profound reli- method but relies on an examination of tribution of political, liberation, and gious, legal, and moral questions...
...Technically, Jones warns of The references to justice and mercy are The three books under review examine the potential for dehumanization and renever spelled out, and seem to be inter- many of these questions, moving from ductionism in technological medicine...
...Books:ABSOLOiELY ABSENT TWO YEARS ago, in the summer and THE FIRST COMING never effectively engaging the large body fall of 1984, it almost appeared as if Thomas Sheehan of scholarship which argues for a sigCommonweal had space for no one ex- Random House, $17.95, 272 pp...
...Why the neglect of Schillebeeckx responses to Sheehan's lengthy review on this same point, especially since essay, "Revolution in Catholicism," Sheehan seems to refer (at least indifirst published in The New York Review of sion is that the book moves, not in the rectly) to him throughout...
...Addi- unattainable and absolutely absent pipe us a tune, but we must do some tionally, the issues of the later, second "more...
...In any fessor of anatomy and uses his scientific case, Sheehan's seeming enthronement A QUESTION OF LIFE background to set a context for the is(and possible...
...at this stage horizon presupposed is one of genuine of a secularistic "consensus" dominates of his search he claims to meet only an openness to a Divine Mystery...
...book...
...In fact, the recommendations...
...He says he is Chronologically the book is surely historical Jesus announces the theme: building upon the questers...
...Somehow this absolute neighbor...
...The task is not so cloistered kind of theological existence, ademic and intellectual community with much one of discovery but of selection...
...Yale couple of lines a fitting description, when dismissed with supercilious condescen- historian David Brion Davis notes, in he speaks of: sion...
...Sheehan puts a lot of weight mately Sheehan embraces a species of the lack of articulated warrants and on the parousia's delay as the catalyst the "illusory projection thesis": what criteria of argumentation, a problem per- resulting in Jesus' divinization, a step occurred was a change of awareness on vading the book as a whole...
...By what criteria and warat the heart of being is now a bit more the flow and pathos of the text...
...Many readers of the book, to his method of analysis...
...The ended up trying to hope him out of the cal mercy, the living of the present- distinction between functional and ongrave...
...An in- Thomas A. Shannon thorough and cogent in his argumentacarnational theism sounds a bit more T ECHNICAL innovations and interven- tion...
...When Justin Martyr spoke of Jesus' Part One attempts an "imaginative refor Sheehan, destroys the notion of God- "first coming" as the abandonment of construction" of the historical Jesus on in-himself, who now abdicates and dis- privilege and divine form, the divine the basis of the various quests...
...But besides not engaging the exalted to a more ontological and "high" scendence...
...The seeming tremely secularistic wing of that move- out in the text, if at all...
...During that time misinterpretation of Bultmann on this nearly three entire issues were devoted to William M. Thompson point...
...we're told that the prophet Jesus offers subnarrative...
...Readers are offered a truncated...
...To be sure...
...sustained world...
...Again, this is the problem of of thought...
...As it is, the horizon of thought ing and seeking...
...Thus, futurity to the kingdom would presup- of Schillebeeckx - in fact, they are con- we move from a more functional and less pose, I think, a doctrine of divine tran- traries...
...Thus the "hardly" think, is the issue upon which Sheehan ultimately dispensable...
...The "name- think...
...I only wish the author had en- ply the human ego or reason...
...of humanity Mary Warnock sues...
...Now, with the direction of being more comprehensive, fusal to engage the possibility of publication of The First Coming, but less...
...This was no small service to render line with Dennis McCann's observation, books that are as altars where the faith in Niebuhr's era...
...The authors are from are limited in their options because they author rather consistently separates poli- Australia and the United Kingdom, are creatures in a God-ordered and Godtics and religion even in his reconstruc- where these activities originated...
...The reality and range of human discontinuity-within-continuity...
...It provides a good even a mention of this throughout the technologies...
...preted in a more early Enlightenment, general issues to specific public policy Religiously, Jones argues that humans quasi-Feuerbachian mode...
...But, qual- Jesus entertained no divine or christolog- spects, surely...
...ter: data) that the parousia's delay was on one particular apocalyptic formula to 'Thomas Sheehan such a big crisis for, the early church...
...which takes the Bible seriously but not the humanum, in both its individual and literally...
...And where is the proof (betfind themselves believing it...
...adequate to experience...
...Jesus can the work in a rather foregone way...
...It is Chrisapocalyptic message of Jesus finds itself should concentrate his considerable tianity which hypostasized the Kingdom reapocalypticized and even historicized powers of exposition...
...nificant measure of continuity...
...Jones presents an exceptionally comabsence, since the references to justice MAKING BABIES pelling analysis of the major issues at the and mercy could be given a soteriological commencement of life...
...His mission had been to undo for a constant interpenetration between was dead, and then gone on from there, religion and its God and to put radi- Jewish and Hellenistic influences...
...Still, it merits a further there is a hint of a move beyond the God really is "unattainable" or "abso- look...
...human questing...
...they settle absolute absence...
...Is this Feuerseems as if the Kingdom preached by mention) of alternative reconstructions...
...A survey of the confound interpretation of "the nature and unusual preacher...
...basically abolishes christology...
...Fourth, the feminist theology to the refurbishing of first use of in vitro fertilization started an book is comprehensive, both scientifichristology, but there is, I believe, not ongoing debate over these birth cally and analytically...
...Why the cept Thomas Sheehan...
...But Sheehan reads this as very difficult to trace the links between "undecidability" between humanity and meaning the divine disappearance...
...which constitutes the disciples' "original Simon's part, from feeling that he had let sin...
...Third, Jones is exceptionally its sociopolitical manifestations...
...Sheehan make his choices among differless and unattainable mystery" inscribed Readers will not be disappointed by ing accounts...
...Jesus, tice...
Vol. 113 • June 1986 • No. 12
