Prof. Joseph Aké – Abidjan – 29.9. – English
Contemporary Christology, the developments since Vatican Council II and the characteristics emerging from it
The theme chosen for the Video Conference goes back to the content of the text whose richness is based on important books and on documents by the Magisterium quoted in a chronological order, and attentively done. Reading the text of the Conference we can clearly see the characteristics of the developments of Christology during the last decades. As has been already stated: undoubtedly this is a Trinitarian, historical and Paschal Christology. Holding to this completely exact presentation, we would like to direct our intervention toward the structure of the text starting from an essentially Biblical sensitivity.
In the first part that begins with the existence or the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, apart from what has been said, it might prove useful to also refer to the Biblical verses where one realizes the simultaneous manifestation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the three persons of the Trinity, through the sole presence or action of Jesus who reveals their unity, for example on the occasion of the Baptism of Jesus when the Spirit of God descended upon Him… (see Mt 3:16; Mk 1:9-10; Lk 3:21-22; Jn 1:32-34). At the same time, one may say the Trinitarian Christology also appears in Lk 4:18 where, in the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus read the verse by the Prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me… He has sent me to proclaim…" Why this omission?
What we would have wished for at this point is the reference to many other verse of the Holy Scripture, which could highlight the Revelation of God the Father in Jesus Christ. All of this was done on page 3, but other quotations would suffocate the content of the aforementioned part even more.
In this part, we can see that there are no differences between the historical figure of Jesus and the Christ of faith. This is the same person, Son of man and Son of God who takes on our humanity, interested in the history of men. Along from this, we can also see that the Redeemer wanted His historical action to be a permanent and historically tireless action. Therefore, He chose the disciples, the Apostles to continue, in time and space, the mission received from the Father.
For this reason we wish the Historical Christology, to be complete, be open to the mission of the Church: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven…" (Jn 20:21-23). This shows the continuity of the redeeming mission of the historical figure of Jesus and the Christ of faith in the history of men.
c.) A Paschal Christology: the singularity of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the world
A Paschal Christology may be supported on a Biblical text with the binomial "death-resurrection" of Christ, to add also an important and authoritative reflection that takes the Encyclical Redemptoris Missio as its starting point. For example, we could quote from its beginning Mt 27: 51-53. As for the salvation of non-Christians, Gaudium et spes 22,5 may help lead to a better understanding. One question remains: "how to present this theme of Paschal Christological: the singularity of Jesus and the salvation of the world to the non-Christians, that they too may accept Him without reservations."