Rethinking Faith: A Constructive Practical Theology

4: Constructing a Process Christology

57 I believe in Jesus Christ, a divine and human being, who fully embodies the reality of God and humanity and discloses for humans both the character of God and the character of human life in the world. In the Scriptures, we see Jesus as a human being with extraordinary love and sensitivity for the full web of human and natural life. Because his attachment to life was shown in his actions of healing, teaching, and challenges to evil, Jesus was beloved by the people. Because of his truth telling and nonviolent symbolic confrontations of those with dominating power, he was crucified. Because of the resilient love and power of God, Jesus was resurrected and lives today to lure the faithful into communion with God and to reveal the stature of human life that is possible through communion with God. “Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again”—these liturgical words call us to embrace the historical reality and the real presence of Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity. Through Christ humanity is healed from the ravages of evil and transformed for ministries with others. Jesus Christ revealed that God and humans are relational, ambiguous, and resilient in the midst of evil. In this chapter, I confess my own understanding of what God has done in Jesus Christ that saves humans from evil and transforms humans to fulfill฀their฀creative฀purpose,฀and฀what฀human฀responses฀move฀toward฀ communion with God’s purposes and salvation for the world. Jesus is unique for Christians because he reveals the character of God and the character of human beings. The stories we have received about his life reveal a person who in many different circumstances showed loving sensitivity that moved toward communion with self, others , and God and who engaged in loving creativity that moved toward enlarged freedom for self, others, and God.1 FOuR Constructing a Process Christology 58 Rethinking Faith Jesus had what theologian Bernard Meland calls “an attachment to life.”2 Within process theology, this means that Jesus was able to give his full attention to the flow of the human experiences of others in all their complexity, and to respond creatively in ways that revealed a quality of truth and value that set people free. Bernard Loomer says that Jesus engaged in relationships that were able to overcome the contradictions of love and hate, life and death, in ways that seemed impossible before he came.3 Kathryn Tanner says that Jesus revealed that God is generous and merciful toward humanity, and that humans are capable of more generosity and mercy than they typically think is possible.4 In this sense, Jesus revealed the size of God and the size of humanity and the nature of the divine-human relationship .5 Jesus was important, according to Christian tradition, because his revelation about God and humans was a qualitatively new concept of God in human history, an emergent truth that had never been disclosed before. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection brought God and humanity together in a new, reconciled way, and revealed new possibilities for human faith and action.6 What is the image of God and humanity we see in Jesus Christ? JESuS AS RElATIONAl According to Scripture, Jesus said seven “words” on the cross before he died: “I am thirsty” (John 19:28); “Forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 22:34); “Woman, here is your son” (John 19:26); “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46; Mark฀15:34);฀“It฀is฀fi ฀nished”฀(John฀19:30);฀“You฀will฀be฀with฀me฀in฀ paradise” (Luke 23:43); “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). I submit that these sentences reveal Jesus’ attachment to life—his loving sensitivity and loving creativity.7 In the midst of violence and personal crisis, Jesus showed that he was deeply engaged in his relationships . He was aware of his body and its crisis of life and death; he was aware of the soldiers who were committing atrocities, and of two human Where do you see Jesus’ “attachment to life” in the stories from the New Testament? Constructing a Process Christology 59 beings next to him who were perpetrators and victims of violence; he was aware of his mother at the foot of the cross, and of his relationship with God; he was aware of the...