PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY OF ST.

THOMAS AQUINAS THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY

Ds 2912 Readings in the Schillebeeckxs Christology Prof. C. Barwasser, OP

Experience as the Starting Point of Schillebeeckxs Christology KanjirakuzhuppilSarish Francis/10415

Rome 2010-2011

Contents I. Introduction ...................................................................................... 3 II. The Primacy of Experience ............................................................... 3 III. Category of Experience .................................................................. 5 IV. VI. The Experience of God as Abba ..................................................... 6 The Experience of Jesus as Lord .................................................... 8 V. Easter Event as Experience of Resurrection ..................................... 7 VII. Conclusion ................................................................................... 10 Bibliography ......................................................................................... 12

I. Introduction The terms most frequently used when offering analysis of alternative approachestodevelopingaChristologyarefrombelowandfromabove.1Thesa mepairofideasisoftenexpressedbymeansoftheimagesofascendingand descending.2Christologiesfromabovebeginwiththeconceptoftheincarnation ofdivinityina historicalhuman lifeandworktoward theapplication ofthisconcept tothepersonJesus.Christologiesfrombelowbeginwiththeman,JesusofNazareth,c onsideredfirstofallasaman,andthenmoveontoconsiderhissignificance andhisrelationtoGod. TheChristologyofEdwardSchillebeeckxmaybetheclearestcontemporary exa mpleofaChristology frombelow,becausehisdoctrineofChristemergesfromacomprehensive and detailedcriticalanalysisofthebiblicalwitnessconcerningJesusof Nazareth.3In other words reflection on Christology by Edward Schillebeeckxis tied to the central notion of experience. This allows Schillebeeckx to update the Christian experience of salvation inChrist from one cultural period to the next. And for Schillebeeckx experience is the starting point of Christology. And in the coming pages let us see how he develops a Christology that is based on experience. II. The Primacy of Experience In the Interim report, Schillebeeckx vigorously defends the epistemological primacy of experience. c He understands that there has to be a critical correlation between the tradition of Christian experience and present-day experiences. Related to one another in a mutually critical fashion, these two are what Schillebeeckx understands as encompassed by the term experience. In this correlation, we attune our belief and action within the world in which

JohnMacquarne, JesusChristinModem Thought(Philadelphia:TrinityPressInternational,1990),342-43. 2 WalterKasper,JesustheChrist(NewYork:PaulistPress,1976),37-38. 3 Wesley J. Wildman,Basic Christological Distinctions, Theology Today 64 (2007),287. 3

we live, here and now, to what is expressed in the Biblical tradition.4 The Bible remains the norm by which all experience is assessed. Schillebeeckxproposes,constant structures to the experience of salvation in Christ. This basic experience, interpreted in a variety of ways but nevertheless the same, then shows up the points of juncture, elements which have structured the one New Testament experience.5 These elements are expressed through four structural principles. The first, which Schillebeeckx labels theological and anthropological, is that God wills salvation for human beings, and has willed it through our history. As humanity searches for meaning in the midst of meaninglessness, salvation coincides with human self-realization. As we come to understand ourselves and our nature better, we discover that God who acts in our history. To find salvation in God is at the same timemeans to come in terms with oneself.6 The second structural principle, labeled Christological mediation, provides dogmatic Christian particularity. Jesus of Nazareth discloses perfectly and definitively the starting point of God, and thus has be the starting point for humanity's search for meaning. The third structural principle relates to the message and lifestyle of the church. The story has been handed down so that we ourselves can follow Jesus and thus write our own chapter in the ongoing history of Jesus. Schillebeeckx s fourth and final structural principle is labeled eschatological fulfillment. By this, he means that the ongoing history of Jesus cannot come to an end in our history, and thus looks for an eschatological denouement. Belief involves an implicit already now and not yet.7 It is important to draw a connection here between what Schillebeeckx is calling constant structures of the experience of salvation and the constant unitive factor that he spoke of in the Jesus book. The constant unitive factor discussed earlier is the experience of the Christian community itself. These four principles are the content of the experience of the Christian movement. They describe the constant experience of the Christian community.
Edward Schillebeeckx, Interim Report on the Books Jesus & Christ (London: SCM Press, 1980),50. 5 Schillebeeckx, Interim Report on the Books Jesus and Christ, 51. 6 Schillebeeckx, Interim Report on the Books Jesus and Christ, 51. 7 Schillebeeckx, Interim Report on the Books Jesus and Christ, 52. 4
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III. Category of Experience In Jesus books, one finds reflections on theological hermeneutics and the central role of experience in his theological methodology.Three reasons for this concern with experience can be identified. First, he seeks to understand the self-development of the Christian message, which is the hermeneutical problem. Secondly, he promotes concern for the dialogue between the different forms of Christian self-development, which causes for an ecumenical problem. Thirdly, he favors the further exchange between Christians and non-Christians which constitutes the inter-religious dialogue8. There are two types of experiences-experience then and experience now. Because these experiences belong to different historical cultural horizons, one may ask how these two horizons of experiences can be melted, since different cultures, philosophical systems, and frames of interpretation are involved. Schillebeeckxs lengthy trilogy intends an updating interpretation of the Christ-event for and by the present-day faith community. Here Schillebeeckx wants to escape from the danger of two extremes: relativizing the revelation of God in Christ and its dogmatic petrification.9Schillebeeckx always focuses on the universality of human experience as the central interpretative element for theology and especially Christology. Furthermore, since this flows from an experience of reality, the interpretation has to bridge horizons, past and present, here and then, ours and theirs. The question is whether this can be achieved by anchoring a theological interpretation in contemporary experiences that manifest radically different parameters of feeling and thinking from those that prevailed at the time of first-century Palestine. Schillebeeckx commences his Christology in the experiential situation of the New Testament world10.

Dennis Rochford,Theological Hermeneutics of Edward Schillebeckx,Theological Studies 63(2002),253. 9 Rochford,Theological Hermeneutics of Edward Schillebeckx,253. 10 Rochford,Theological Hermeneutics of Edward Schillebeckx,254. 5

IV. The Experience of God as Abba Schillebeeckx speaks of Jesus special experience as the Abba experience which becomes the foundation for his life praxis.11 Jesus experience that theory and practice are scandalously separated and hypocritical in Judaism shapes his own interpretation. And the experience of a new and unique praxis of love, shared by his disciples, forms an alternative religious and theological interpretation. Of course, it is not easy task to identify the religious experience of another, either directly or through their conduct of life. In the case of Jesus this can be deduced by the prayerful but extraordinary reference to God as Abba12. Furthermore, his manner of living, under the rubric of the coming reign of God, constituted the experience from which the disciples interpreted the meaning of religion. Schillebeeckx gives the following description: . . . this message was given substantive content by Jesus actions and way of life; his miracles; his dealings with tax-gatherers and sinners, his offer of salvation from God in fellowship at table with his friends and in his attitude to the Law, Sabbath and Temple, and finally in his consorting in fellowship with a more intimate group of disciples. The heart and centre of it all appeared to be the God bent upon humanity.13 For Schillebeeckx, Jesus is the subject of a unique religious experience of God beyond the Torah and Synagogue. It is the experience of an intimacy with God that is direct, one that emphasizes the conviction of Jesus, the certainty, even the inevitability that salvation is imminent and universally given. Also, that human community with sinners and disciples alike is but a foretaste of salvation, accompanied as it is by changed attitudes toward the Law, Sabbath and Synagogue. Schillebeeckx constructs the whole Christian message around the Abba experience. Georges De Schrijver adds the praxis of Jesus, then and now, as the central experience of the disciples and for Christians now. He refers to Schillebeeckx on this point: Its effect [the praxis of Jesus] is to reveal that the factor mediating between the historical person Jesus and his significance for us now is in concrete terms the practice of Christian living within our continuing
Edward Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (New York: Crossroad, 1979), 8283. 12 Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology, 259. 13 Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology, 26667. 6
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human history.14 Antoine Vergote also emphasizes this relationship between Jesus very personal experience of God and his integrally ethical way of life: Jesus is eminently a religious-ethical person, but not the man of ritualistic religions. Rituals do not constitute the essence of Jesus religion. He does not function as a Priest, does not encourage the practice of religious rituals, and does not seem to give importance to sacrifice, generally the most important ritual. The essence of Jesus religion is his private, very personal relationship with God his Father. The ethical disposition and behavior he conveys lies in the religious observance he stresses.15 The Abba experience is the irreplaceable foundation for the initial and subsequent construction of the Christian message.16 At the same time, Schillebeeckx allows for the possibility that this unique experience of God, including the hope and promise that come from faith in Jesus, his trustworthiness, may be an illusion. The authenticity of this experience of Jesus, resonant in the unique categories of interpretation given to this experience by the New Testament, is subsequently always a matter of faith. For, in fact, the direct quality of the experience is lost. One more fruitfully looks to the traditions in which others have worded and framed their witness to Jesus in the whole post-paschal period17. V. Easter Event as Experience of Resurrection It follows that Schillebeeckx defines Easter as being converted, on Jesus initiative, to Jesus as the Christsalvation found conclusively in Jesus.18 In this way he follows the line of relating the historical Jesus, his life and praxis, with the Christ, who brings salvation from God. But it is the disciples who have an experience of dislocation after the execution of Jesus, followed by their re-grouping, fellowship, and proclamation of the still Living One. This situation demands an explanation. For Schillebeeckx this becomes the Easter and Resurrection event that is both historical experience and interpretation that followed the shocking, lonely and unwarranted death of Jesus. He takes as his
Dennis Rochford, The Theological Hermeneutics of Edward Shillebeekx,Theological Studies63(2002),255. 15 Rochford, The Theological Hermeneutics of Edward Shillebeekx,256. 16 Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology,26970. 17 Rochford, The Theological Hermeneutics of Edward Shillebeekx,256. 18 Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology,379. 7
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frame of interpretation the Jewish Conversion model. After the death of Jesus this is described as the experience of unfaithfulness and fear being forgiven by the One who was always unconditional love. He who was an offer of salvation-from-God remains and the life of Jesus has not been closed. Grace and mercy continue to be experienced as an open project.19This experience of the renewal of their lives and the grace of Jesusforgivenessbrings the disciples to the conclusion that the dead do not proffer forgiveness.23 In other words, their experience of forgiveness for their cowardice and lack of faith, reflected upon in light of Jesus historical living praxis, formed a matrix in which the faith proclamation in Jesus as the Risen One emerged. While this is not absolutely conclusive, it became for the disciples the venture of faith through which they were involved in an ongoing drama of mercy and grace. Opening up the subject of a metahistorical resurrection, as in fact is done in the New Testament, presupposes of course experiential events that are interpreted as saving acts of God in Christ. It presupposes a particular experience and an interpretation of it. The question then becomes: What, after Jesus death, were the concrete, experienced events which induced the disciples to proclaim with such a degree of challenge and cogent witness that Jesus of Nazareth was actually alive: the coming or risen One?20 This is a question of experience and how to interpret that experience in terms that surface the activity and revelation of God in a specific historical and cultural situation. VI. The Experience of Jesus as Lord In the second book in the trilogy, Schillebeeckx moves to a consideration of the experience of Christian faith in the life of the believer. Here, his understanding of experience takes on greater importance. Experience is more than a hermeneutic category; it also has epistemological significance. It is a necessary component of interpretation and knowledge: "the experience

Schillebeeckx, Jesus: An Experiment in Christology,380-381. EdwardSchillebeeckx, Christ: The Experience of Jesus as the Lord Hubert Hoskirts (trans), (New York: Crossroad. 1979), 380.
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influences the interpretation and calls it forth, but at the same time the interpretation influences the experience."21 As such, Schillebeeckx rejects the Cartesian dualism of subjectivity and objectivity. There are no pure experiences. Every experience is mediated by interpretive elements derived from past experiences. Every proposition is the product of interpretation that follows from experience. Here Schillebeeckx is hardly original. His earlier discussion of the "hermeneutic circle" in God the future of man carefully rehearsed these same themes. His own contribution is the application of this epistemological insight to the problem of tradition22. As we have seen, in his earlier work Schillebeeckx had recognized the contextual character of the doctrines and dogmas known to us through tradition. Each had arisen in a particular context, and in response to particular challenges. In later centuries, the challenges may not necessarily persist, and yet the doctrinal formulations remain. Are these earlier formulations binding upon successive generations? The necessary relation of experience and interpretation in the formulation of doctrine both challenges us and provides an answer. Historical-critical research of the formulation of doctrine provides a great deal of insight into the meaning and intention of the doctrinal formulations that we have inherited from the past. However, we should remember that for Schillebeeckx there is a "constant unitive factor" in the various hermeneutics of the Christian community. This factor is the experience of the community itself. Schillebeeckx also applies this insight to the relation between experience and tradition. The essential tradition is reflected in light of the experience of the community of salvation. His earlier critique of hermeneutic solutions that distinguish between the essence and the articulation of faith is worth note here. His critique was that the selection criteria that distinguish the essential from the non-essential are subject to human arbitrariness and sin. In his own proposal, he is using the experience of the community of faith" as a constant unitive factor that distinguishes the essential tradition from its articulation. In order for experience to be a sufficient criterion to avoid the
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Schillebeeckx, Christ: The Experience of Jesus as the Lord, 32. Schillebeeckx, Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord,32. 9

critique that Schillebeeckx levelled at other theologians, he proposes that the common element of all human experience is language.Language is the deposit of a common experience.23 Language only has meaning because of a common experience. More than mere vocabulary, which is different in varying cultures, the very content of language expresses a common experience. This is the language of human struggle, suffering, quest for meaning and search for God. Language thus contains within it a transcendent quality. Revelation is experience expressed in the word; it is God's saving action as experienced and communicated by men.24 The transcendent quality of revelation derives from the common experience of salvation that is communicated in the word. The transcendent lies in human experience and its expression in the language of faith, but as an inner reference to what this experience and this language of faith have called to life.25 To move from experience to revelation seems a big leap, but it is important to keep in mind how Schillebeeckx understands revelation. Revelation is not propositional. It is, as might be expected, the contemporary and contextual expression of the collective experience of salvation in Christ. On the one hand the religious message is an expression of this collective experience, and on the other its proclamation is the presupposition for the possibility of its being experienced by others.26 Revelation is therefore not a series of propositions that must be believed but an experience of faith, which is presented as a message.27 VII. Conclusion Schillebeeckxs Christology has made a significant contribution to thetask of theology which attempts to bridge the tradition of faith with thechanging socio-cultural context. With other theologians of the post-VaticanII period, including Karl Rahner and Hans Kung, his method of correlationhas advanced the dialogue between Christian faith and contemporary postmodernculture. However, this post-Enlightenment preoccupation with experience presumes a
Schillebeeckx, Schillebeeckx, 25 Schillebeeckx, 26 Schillebeeckx, 27 Schillebeeckx,
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Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord,46. Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord, 46. Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord,48. Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord,62. Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord, 62. 10

more adequate grasp of its in-depth character. This exposes a methodological problem with Schillebeeckxs notion of experience that can no longer, in the postmodern context, automatically find a transcendent meaning within the Christian frames of reference. Rather, Schillebeeckx remains part of the grand Catholic hegemony that struggles to retain its identity through an interpretation of human experiences. While Schillebeeckx addresses the concreteness of human experiences, he retains his confidence in a transcultural and trans-historical meaning that necessarily constitutes a metaphysical reference. While he intends to maintain the primacy of experience, he remains accountable to the role of tradition and its frames of reference, especially the New Testament language and conceptuality that, after secularization and detraditionalization,shows increasingly less overlap with present-day cultural experiences.Of course, the experience of meaning is the absolute starting point for Christology. Such experiences have traditionally been captured by the prevailing frames of interpretation associated with Christendom in the Westand beyond where missionaries stamped their religion and culture. Finally an active reflection upon the experience of the community placed in critical relation to Scripture can become the voice of revelation. Reflection upon the experience of the modern or even post-modern secular world can be the occasion for proclaiming the Christian message to the world. And forSchillebeeckx this is the task of every generation.

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Bibliography Kasper,Walter.JesustheChrist(NewYork:PaulistPress,1976). Macquarne, John.JesusChristinModem Thought(Philadelphia:TrinityPressInternational,1990). Rochford,Dennis.Theological Hermeneutics Schillebeckx,Theological Studies 63(2002), 251-267. of Edward

Schillebeeckx, Edward.Interim Report on the Books Jesus and Christ(London SCM Press.1980). _________. Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (New York: Crossroad. 1979). _________. Christ:The Experience of Jesus as the Lord, Hubert Hoskirts (trans), (New York: Crossroad. 1979). Wildman,Wesley J.Basic Christological Distinction,Theology Today64 (2007), 285-304.

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