What is Christology Essay

Tags: christology jesus faith theology

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Rausch what is Christology?
According to Rausch, Christology is the in-depth study of the question "who is Jesus?" There are many different approaches to Christology, including an analysis of the different names used for Him, and ways Jesus has been depicted in different cultures such as the uniquely Eastern Orthodox conception of Christ as Logos. Christology can also address some of the theological and metaphysical questions related to the nature and role of Jesus. The dichotomy between Jesus as a human and Jesus as the incarnate Son of God is also addressed under the rubric of Christology, according to Rausch. According to Rausch, "popular Christianity today tends to focus on the divinity of Jesus, often at the cost of his humanity," (p. 2). Christology should be developed "from below," meaning that Christologists need to look to scripture and historiography instead of becoming distracted by the diversity with which different cultures and creeds have depicted or conceptualized Jesus (Rausch p. 4). However, there are methodological problems with an approach that only reverts to historical documentation because of the lack of reliability in the New Testament sources, which were already written from a Christian perspective and were therefore not intended to be unbiased or objective.

What is the difference between critical and pre-critical Christology?
A critical approach to Christology is one that is based on historical scholarship and divorced somewhat from faith.

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Rausch refers to the "historical-critical approach" to refer to the elevation of historical fact over idealization and mythology (p. 5). As ideal as a historical-critical approach to Christology would be to elucidating the historical personage of Jesus of Nazareth, there are several drawbacks to the critical approach that Rausch addresses. Those drawbacks include the insufficiency or inability of historical methods to discuss the resurrection and other spiritual issues, and also the tendency for the historical-critical methods to be inherently biased towards secular worldviews. Christology needs to also be a theological study, which is why reverting to a pre-critical Christology helps provide a more accurate and meaningful analysis of Jesus. A pre-critical Christology is unlike critical Christology, particularly when it eschews historical methods out of fear of losing track of the essential nature of faith in the Christian narrative. The most effective Christology is one that weaves and blends theology and history. Moreover, a pre-critical Christology did not rely on multiple sources and methods including scripture, historical artifact, and the phenomenon….....

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References

Rausch, Thomas P. Who is Jesus: An Introduction to Christology. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007.

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