Autobiographical Christologies: "Who do you say I am"?

Jesus asked his disciples the constant question "Who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15; Mk 8:29) to reflect the place of Christ in their lives. Their understanding of Christ and response were based on their experiences, perspectives, context and time. Therefore, there is the same eternal question to answer, who is Christ for us. This notion of articulating the knowledge of Christ based on our context or our personal life experience with Christ leads us to formulate autobiographical Christologies. To be precise, the characteristic style of blending Christ (autobiography of self through the question...who do you say I am?) and the individual self (autobiography with Christ) is called autobiographical Christology. One such well-known autobiographical Christology is that of Gregory of Nazianzus, who shows remarkable sensitivity in expressing the mystery of Christ in terms of his own life.[1]

Jacques Dupuis argues that Peter's answer to the question of Jesus' identity can be considered the very first Christological statement. Nevertheless, it was an anticipation, a foreshadowing of Christ's faith that was born with Easter. Thus, Peter's kerygmatic statement was "... that God made Jesus both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36).[2]

 

Who do you say I am?

Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" his disciples to Caesarea Philippi. According to Calvin E. Shenk, when Jesus went to Caesarea Philippi with his disciples, the area was full of temples of the Syrian gods. There Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They mentioned the Jewish prophets. Then he asked, "But who do you think I am?" Here, Schenk argues, Jesus intended to place himself in the context of the entire history and beauty of the religious world. He asked Him to be compared with them and hear the verdict of the disciples. Their verdict, as delivered by Peter, was emphatic: “You are the Messiah.”[3] The logic behind Jesus' question about his identity is that the disciples would discover for themselves who he was to them. The same question awaits our response to the mystery of Jesus within our personal life/community.

 

 The necessity of developing autobiographical Christologies

Autobiographical Christologies are necessary for three reasons: to recognize the mystery of Christ, to name who Jesus is in our life/community, and as a tool for mission. Autobiographical Christologies are also necessary because the context is full of questions and meanings to be appropriated. In order to name who Christ is, it is necessary to start from a context that primarily seeks an answer to the problems that the contemporary world brings to individuals and society in the story of Jesus. It means living the faith in the context and confronting the contextual reality with Jesus and his gospel. It consists of a continuous circular movement, first from the context to the revealed data, then back from this data to the context and so on (the "hermeneutic circle"). In Christology, this means that the context turns from the questions to the life of faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ and vice versa. Dupuis therefore maintains that every Christian generation, like every local church, is obliged in space and time to enter into a hermeneutical process. The hermeneutic circle represents the dialectical process that in hermeneutic theology gets between the concrete context and the revealed data; in other words, between text and context. Diverse contextual realities therefore require diversified Christologies.

 

 From Christology to Christology

Contextual diversity is to be matched by the need for theology to be pluralistic. Theology understood as

contextual interpretation must be local and diversified, as the Christian experience always is

conditioned by the context in which one lives, with its socio-political, cultural and religious dimensions. No contextual theology can therefore claim universal meaning; but not the other way around theology claiming to be universal is indeed contextual. This means that no single theology can claim to be valid for all times and places. Widespread technological progress with the consequent process of secularization in the West requires a Christology for the "maturity of man" in a secularized world. Such a Christology will above all be "fundamental" in the sense of laying the foundations of faith in Jesus Christ in a secular city. In contrast, Third World countries are characterized by dehumanizing poverty and the underdevelopment of large masses of people, which require a Christology of liberation, a Christology of inculturation, and a Christology of religious pluralism. Shenk states that Christology in the New Testament clearly varies according to cultural situations because Jesus is translatable in every culture. But all Christologies must be rooted in biblical witnesses. Otherwise, we interpret Jesus for our own purposes. Therefore, Shenk states that the contextualization of Christ must not underestimate his essential person and work. According to Shenk, whenever the person and work of Christ recede in our consciousness or are not explicit in our theology, we easily succumb to a theological pluralism that either diminishes or defies Christ. A preoccupation with faithful Christology must be consistent with our determination to follow Christ. Therefore, we must formulate a Christology in a novel way that responds biblically to the challenges presented by our context and time.

It is a challenge for us to present Jesus in a relevant way in our context and time. The formulation of autobiographical Christologies is not only an academic interest, but the goal is to propose a coherent approach that will be placed within the framework of the Christological enterprise of today.

 

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[1]Andrew Hofer,  Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 5.

[2] Jacques Dupuis, Who Do You Say I Am?: Introduction to Christology (Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis, 1994), 1.

[3] Calvin E. Shenk, Who Do You Say That I Am?: Christians Encounter Other Religions (Scottdale, Pa: Herald Press, 1997), 156.