Well I hope the formatting is more readable!
Pannenberg goes on to argue that in each of these we need to inquire as to the relationship of the conceptions of man’s essence to the historical figure of Jesus himself. So, for example, Paul’s use of the Adam typology in 1 Cor 15 and Romans 5. What happened to Jesus - the resurrection - happened with the horizon of universal human hope found in apocalyptic literature (though P says "the experience of Jesus as risen occurred within the horizon of universal human hope", carefully hedging his historical bets). In Paul there was a shift of course: he took the pattern of true humanity found originally in the distant past and threw it into the eschatological future, picking up what had already been hinted at in Daniel 7 and so on. Jesus is the “last Adam” – in other words, the “last-first”… a future-type, not a prototype...
The NT certainly picks up traditional (not necessarily OT) anthropologically related themes/titles and relates them to Jesus – especially the idea of the image of God. P. thinks also the Johannine logos idea is true here, though what OT provenance this has he doesn’t mention.
WP positively evaluates Luther’s “Jesus as prototype of justifying faith” model, by claiming that it best reflects the reality of Jesus “perceived behind the Synoptic tradition.” That word "behind" is revealing...
Intriguingly he also points out: “Our understanding of man today is deeply stamped by the centuries-long influence of Biblical thought, and especially of the figure and message of Jesus…the correspondence of anthropology and Christology has been operative in the whole history of ideas in Europe since the rise of Christendom” p.203
This would be an interesting thesis to develop: that is can the correspondence of anthropology and Christology be demonstrated from an analysis of secular anthropologies? Where would one go to find out? The classical humanist tradition? The Enlightenment? What would be the most interesting period to isolate, or who would be the most interesting figure to study in this regard?
5 comments:
can the correspondence of anthropology and Christology be demonstrated from an analysis of secular anthropologies?
BTW how do you use the tags in html?
I believe we can, especially if the anthropologist is recording the history of the people group they are studying.
For instance in many tribes and nations there is a similair story of Babel, and a major flood.
Even a secular anthropologist has to study the religion and belief system of those being studied.
I think a place to start would be to study 10 - 12 people groups / nations from around the world, going as far back as possible to their roots / foundations of their religions and belief system, so for white anglo Australians a study would have to eventually get back to the time of Christ and then even further.
Great question to ask, though the real hope of what happened through Christ is that we are brought into a real relationship with our living God, and it is through that relationship that we have real hope.
craig bennett
I guess I mean anthropology in the broadest possible sense as any philosophy of humanity (rather than the people who study people in grass huts)
MJ, the formatting is MUCH improved. Would still like to see a line between paragraphs though (some have, some dont)
Is there a correspondence between Christology and anthropology? Wow, big question. Problematic because there is no such thing as a "definitive" anthropology.
And I dont know what use it would be if there was. For example, the most prominent 20th century anthropologist was Margaret Mead. I can't see her conclusions informing Christological debate very much...
like I said, I didn't mean "anthropology" in this specific sense. Pannenberg quote shows what I mean here: is the figure of Jesus behind the ideas that Western thinkers (generally) put forward about humanity?
My knowledge of philosophy is not great, but I suspect it would be hard to generalise an "idea of man" in western thinking.
I have a couple of philosophical friends who may be able to add value here...
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