Why Jesus Matters -- A Review
WHY JESUS MATTERS
. By George W. Stroup. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.
Viii +152 pages.
A
future President of the United States offered up Jesus as his favorite
philosopher. It’s an interesting answer
since Jesus really wasn’t a philosopher, but more importantly no one asked the
follow up question – what is it about Jesus that has formed your world
view? Many people say they admire Jesus
or follow Jesus, but how many of us truly attend to his words? We say that Jesus matters to us, but in what
ways? It’s obvious that many amongst us
affirm Jesus as savior, but assume that what has to say about life is rather
extraneous to the way we live our lives.
George W. Stroup, a Presbyterian
theologian teaching at Columbia Theological Seminary, believes that Jesus does
matter, but he also believes that if we affirm this premise we need to
understand what that means for us. It
needs to be an informed statement, one that is informed by Scripture,
tradition, and our own experience of life. And, if we can assume that Jesus matters for
Christians, we must, as Stroup shows us, recognize that Christians are not of
one mind on this issue. For some Jesus
is the one who died to save them from their sins (and maybe born of a virgin
and resurrected bodily on the third day, with the expectation that he will
return in judgment – someday). For
others, Jesus is a prophet, a preeminent teacher, whose teachings and death
offer us insight into the things of God as well as offering us a way of living
life. For some he is human and for others he is
divine, and for still others he is in some way both fully human and fully
divine. The early church spent several
centuries trying to sort this question out. He may be liberator or he may be black, and
for some his gender is problematic – especially if he is seen to be in some way
divine.
Jesus may matter, but the way in
which this is true is a rather complex issue, and it has been from the
beginning. Indeed, Jesus himself posed
the question: “Who do the people say
that I am?” The answers were rather
diverse. Then he turned the question to
his disciples and Peter took up the question and offered an answer that seemed
to suffice for Jesus, but does it suffice for those who seek to understand him
today?
George Stroup believes that
Christians should wrestle with this question, and therefore he writes this book
for the lay person/general reader. He
does so thoughtfully and judiciously. He
points out pitfalls and suggests pathways.
He hints at his own preferences but writes in such a way that he doesn’t
shut down the conversation. He’s left
of center, but seeks to offer a moderating voice, pointing out the risks
involved in embracing extreme positions.
Thus, this isn’t a radical book, but it does invite the reader to push
the envelope and consider carefully the choices that are available.
Why
Jesus Matters is a revision of an earlier book entitled Jesus Christ for Today (Westminster
Press, 2012). In explaining why he
revised this earlier book, Stroup notes that much has changed since the book
was written in the early 1980s, necessitating a reexamination of the question,
for what mattered in 1982 is very different from what matters in a post
9-11/Iraq War era. Much of the new
material is found in chapters five and six, which deal with the way theologians
have envisioned Jesus since the Friedrich Schleiermacher’s reformulations in
the early 19th century, and continuing up to day with the advent of
such approaches as Feminism and Liberation Theology. This new material also highlights the growth
of Christianity outside the Euro-American West, suggesting ways in which this
has transformed the discussion, especially as the discussion is being done in a
much more pluralistic context.
Before Stroup gets to these more
recent conversations about Jesus, he takes the reader through a series of
chapters that begin with an exploration the basic questions of Christology,
such as whether Jesus the center, is God, is savior, and the role of Jesus in
the church. From there we move on to the
biblical stories, especially gospels.
From there we explore further the idea of Jesus as savior, prophet, and
Lord – these key titles that define Jesus’ identity. In chapter four Stroup introduces the reader
to the variety of voices present in the early church, those who took that
biblical message and further defined it – especially as the message about Jesus
became codified in the creeds. He ends
this chapter by asking the question – why do some find these ancient
understandings unhelpful and perhaps irrelevant today? Answers include the way we use language, the
focus of the creeds on the birth, death, and resurrection, but not the life and
teachings of Jesus. The creeds may
affirm his humanity, but they don’t focus on the reality of that humanity. Indeed, there is the concern that the ancient
church overemphasized the confession of deity over humanity. Pointing to Calvin’s response to the question
of why the creed jumps from birth to death, Calvin’s catechism states that
“nothing is said here about what belongs properly to the substance of our
redemption.” If this is true, Stroup
suggests, it’s no wonder that his life is ignored. There may be contextual reason for this
emphasis, but is this sufficient for today?
The answer is – no, the ancient
formulations do not address many of the questions raised today. It’s not that most theologians have thrown
out all that came before, but they are seeking to answer different questions
while seeking to avoid many of the pitfalls encountered earlier. The point is making the faith understandable
today. Stroup suggests that at least
five basic types of answers have developed over the past two centuries,
beginning at least with Friedrich Schleiermacher. These include Jesus as one with “perfect
God-consciousness” (Schleiermacher); as mediator of the salvation experience
(Albrecht Ritschl); as liberator (Jon Sobrino); eschatological hope (Pannenberg
and Moltmann), and embodiment of wisdom (Rosemary Radford Ruether). He also explores the possibilities offered by
Narrative Theology, a position that appears to be close to his own.
The task of understanding who Jesus
is and why he matters is not only the work of theologians, but it is part of
the Christian experience in an increasingly globalized and pluralistic
context. The church is no longer defined
by the European/Western worldview. The
language, context, questions, have all changed as the church has exploded in
Africa, South America, and Asia. In the
course of this expansion, Christianity has faced the prospect of not only being
a religious minority, but also itself and Jesus in conversation with other
religious traditions. These
conversations are helping mold new answers to the question – who is Jesus
Christ for us today? Helpful in this
conversation, interestingly enough is historical criticism, which reminds us
that there is a rather large chasm separating the modern Christian and the
world of the Bible. We all bring
presuppositions to the conversation, including our own existential
realities.
Our approach to the question of
Jesus’ identity, in all its complexity, is summarized well in the closing
paragraph of the book:
Finally, there is good reason – in the witness of Scripture – to believe that neither Christians nor anyone else will ever understand the full glory of Christ until all things – all of creation – finally stand before him and sing doxology (p. 148).
The question asked by the book is an important one. We cannot simply parrot the answers of
previous generations, assuming that what they said reflects who Jesus was or
said. We can’t assume that there is a
foundational culture (Greek?) that defines reality for us. But, we need to keep in contact with the
touchstone of the original story – understanding that we cannot fully bridge
the gap between then and now.
George
Stroup has done a masterful job of laying out a thoughtful reflection on why
Jesus matters. He writes with grace and
understanding. He seeks to be fair to
the various positions, while maintaining a moderately liberal perspective on
the topic. He seeks to walk between the
Scylla and Charybdis of the two ancient heresies of Docetism and Ebionism,
noting that both are present in the current conversation. This is an especially helpful book for a lay
audience, which makes it unfortunate that there isn’t a study guide or at least
discussion questions, as this would make for an excellent study book. Nonetheless, even without a guide, this would
be of great value to a church that is struggling to understand how Jesus fits
into their faith.
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