Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus.

At the center of the gospel narrative stands the perennial Christological question: "Who do you say I am?" In response, the canonical New Testament bears witness to a variety of confessions of the mystery of Jesus. "You are the Messiah ... the Son of God ... the Image of the invisible God...the Word made flesh ... Lord and God." By contrast, the "canon," as a "ruler" or "measuring rod," rules out other responses as inadequate to the mystery. Clearly, "one of the prophets" does not measure up to the uniqueness of Jesus or the good news of Christian faith.

Whoever follows the current academic reports on the identity of Jesus knows that not since the second century has there been such a farrago of differing portraits and presentations: Jesus the cyruc philosopher; Jesus the social reformer; Jesus the therapist; Jesus the protofeminist. Though some of these views capture recognizable traits of Jesus, many of them are decidedly reductive: the latest chapter in the age-old postic saga that divorces the "Jesus of history" and the "Christ of faith." The Christian disciple, schooled in the church's Scriptures and liturgy, finds in many contemporary studies neither illumination for the mind nor nourishment for the spirit. Thankfully, Gerald O'Collins's new book offers both.

O'Collins, an Australian Jesuit, longtime professor in Rome's Gregorian University, has already written widely on Christological themes. The present book represents the distillation of years of study, reflection, and writing. It is a work of informed scholarship, careful critique, and mature theological insight. It shows how deep fidelity to the tradition can stimulate, not constrict, creativity. If Jesus is who the church's tradition confesses him to be, then his mystery is inexhaustibly fecund and patient of ever-deepening, prayerful appropriation.

No appropriation is without its governing perspective. For Cycorins, the "primary interpretative key" of his systematic Christology is "the Resurrection of the crucified Jesus and his presence." This option surely reflects the optic of the New Testament itself, which views the life and ministry of Jesus in the light of the Resurrection and the Lord's continuing presence in his community. Moreover, it renders O'Collins's study particularly relevant for the church's liturgical fife -- a relevance further enhanced by his path-breaking exploration of the theme of "presence' as a systematic category.

From this perspective he weaves an account of the life and ministry of the historical Jesus that is instructed by the exegetes, but also critically alert to presuppositions that color allegedly neutral findings. The outcome is a portrait in which the unmistakable originality of Jesus emerges in bold relief. Rather than attribute much of the newness of Christianity to nameless prophets in the early communities, O'Collins traces its source to Jesus himself. He contends, persuasively, that "Jesus' innovative reinterpretation of `kingdom','father' (and by implication `Son of God'), and Son of man' sums up much of the thrust of his message."

Important as is the quest for the historical Jesus, the disciplined effort to discern Jesus' own intention and self-understanding, it is clearly not sufficient for Christian faith. The Resurrection of the Crucified represents a true breakthrough to a new realm of existence. Here the identity of Jesus is fully revealed in the transformation of his humanity effected by God's Spirit. O'Collins, who has published several studies of the Resurrection, cogently supports his insistence that the Resurrection "concerns Jesus' own living and glorious destiny after death' and cannot be reduced to a subjective disposition of the apostles, whether their experience of forgiveness or their conviction that Jesus' cause continues.

Moreover, the development of the church's Christological faith through the early councils hardly represents a "hellenization" of the "simple gospel" (as theological "liberals" from Harnack to the present lament), but the Spirit-guided guided discernment of the truth of the narrative proclaimed in the Scriptures Indeed, for all the difficulty for us of language and conceptuality employee by Nicaea and Chalcedon, the conciliar confessions passionately affirm the new understanding of the divine and the human revealed in Jesus Christ. The exposition of the teachings of the great councils (all the more needed in view of what O'Collins terms contemporary "neo-Arian" positions that, in effect, reduce Jesus to "superstar" status), serves as norm for the properly systematic treatment that forms the final third of the book.

Here O'Collins outlines a Christology that honors Chalcedon's affirmation of the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ in unique personal (hypostatic) union. However, O'Collins sketches an explicitly relational understanding of "person" that, while owing much to the theological tradition, draws further its implications. Thus he emphasizes the filial relationship of Jesus to the One he calls, "Abba, Father." In so doing, O'Collins argues cogently the legitimacy of speaking of the "faith" of Jesus. Since "faith" is not yet "sight," O'Collins questions the position of those like Aquinas who hold "that the earthly Jesus already enjoyed the "beatific vision": the full vision of God in his essence. For O'Collins such a view risks compromising Chalcedon's confession of the genuine humanity of Jesus.

Perceptive reflections upon "love" as the heart of Christ's redemptive work and upon "presence" as a possible integrating concept structure O'Collins's Christological synthesis. In both cases I appreciated the freshness of his approach. Yet I found the treatment somewhat too "harmonious," striking notes evocative of Easter's "the strife is o'er." I missed the dissonant and agonistic undertones that could provide needed counterpoint. O'Collins's sensitive analyses would gain from more explicit consideration of the "pathological" elements of human experience: the willful refusal of love; the demonic denial of presence. The can to discipleship will then resonate still more clearly as the following of the crucified Christ in the work of redemption -- realistically aware of its cost, yet sustained in the Spirit by the hope of sharing Christ's Resurrection.

Hans Urs von Balthasar once wrote: "A truth that is merely handed on, without out being-thought anew from its very foundations, has lost its vital power." Gerald O'Collins has thought Christological truth anew, thereby displaying its vital power.

Robert P. Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, teaches systematic theology at Boston College.