Contemporary Christologies by Don Schweitzer

Contemporary Christologies by Don Schweitzer

While many know of the signal contributions of such twentieth-century giants as Paul Tillich or Karl Barth or Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the important work since their time often goes unremarked until some major controversy erupts. Here is a smart and helpful survey of the chief approaches and thinkers in today's understanding of the person, significance, and work of Jesus Christ.

Schweitzer offers an insightful introduction to the contemporary context of Christology, in which basic questions in the discipline (and soteriology) are being rethought in light of globalization, postmodernity, and the contemporary experience of evil. He then offers a kind of typology of the current approaches and voices:

Jesus, Revealer of God (like the Gospel of John): Karl Rahner, Dorothee Soelle, Roger Haight

Jesus, a Moral Exemplar (like Abelard): Rosemary Radford Ruether, Mark Lewis Taylor, Carter Heyward

Jesus as Victor (like Origen): Luis Pedraja, James Cone, Elizabeth Johnson

Jesus as Representative (like Anselm): Douglas John Hall, Marilyn McCord Adams, Jurgen Moltmann

Jesus as Source of Openness (like Francis of Assisi): Raimon Panikkar, John B. Cobb, Jacques Dupuis

Schweitzer's volume concludes with a reflection on the recent past and present imperatives of a discipline that virtually defines what Christianity has to offer the present age.

Don Schweitzer is McDougald Professor of Theology at St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In addition to dozens of articles on issues in contemporary theology, Schweitzer is coeditor of Intersecting Voices: Critical Theologies in a Land of Diversity (2004) and past president of the Canadian Theological Society.