The Humanity of God by Edmond Barbotin (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 519 The Humanity of God. By EDMOND BARBOTIN. New York: Orbis, 1976. Pp. 310. $Hl.95. The author proposes to employ an anthropological approach to Christian mystery " that will consist in a very simple analysis of lived experience, to the exclusion of every systematic approach" (p. fl4). No cursory exposition can do justice to Barbotin's analysis of human experience of God, but it may be possible to give some appreciation of his context by rehearsing a few of his major themes. God reveals himself to us through the humanity of Jesus Christ, making use of the same means we use to make ourselves known to another: that is, he uses voice, eyes, facial expression and gestures to manifest himself. This means that it is necessary to know man in order to know God's will in relation to man. The author presents and refutes what he sees as possible objections to this approach. To those who might claim that this method risks measuring the revelation of God by man's own scanty knowledge, he replies that using our human experience to deepen our knowledge of God does not deform God's revelation of himself any more than do the words of the Bible. Another possible objection stems from man's ignorance and suggests that this approach seeks to clarify the obscure in terms of the more obscure. But, Barbotin notes, to say that man does not know everything, does not mean that he knows nothing. Furthermore, even the most ignorant man possesses experiential knowledge of himself. He knows what it is to live, to think, to speak, to act, to rejoice, to sorrow, etc. God does not choose the way of science, but the way of universal human experience, to reveal himself. Because God's saving love is meant to encompass the whole human race, God presents himself in a form that is familiar to everyone-the form of a living man. Finally, to the objection that this approach is necessarily anthropomorphic, really treating of man under the pretext of talking about God, Barbotin replies that when God reveals himself at the beginning of salvation history, he does so, not by revealing the mystery of his inner being, but by showing what he is in relation to man-the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since human experience is the only experience we know, it is only in terms of such experience that communication with God can be established. In speaking in an anthropomorphic way, God does not in any way compromise his transcendence. He uses human language to manifest himself as the Most High and Wholly Other. The Incarnation abolishes anthropomorphism as a stylistic form by making it a reality. There will never again be danger of talking about God in a too human way. In the communication between God and man, God always makes the first move. Therefore, man may legitimately " respond " to God by traveling the same road in the opposite direction. This 520 BOOK REVIEWS approach is saved from the danger of anthropomorphism because it is a response to God's initiative. Basically, Christianity is an encounter, a meeting of two persons, and it cannot, therefore, be defined in terms of only one of the persons involved in the meeting. While it is true that we go to the Father through Jesus Christ, it is also true that we go to the Father only through Jesus Christ. There is no danger in following this road since it is the one Jesus Christ Himself pointed out. The book is divided into three sections-all within this overall intentionwhich deal respectively with Measures of Existence (Space and Time) ; Media of Revelation (the Word, Hand, and Face of God); and Two Encounters between Man and God (the Visit and the Meal). Old Testament writers use spatial language to express what is nonspatial, and the language of immanence to express transcendence. Spatial language shows how divine perfections infinitely surpass the virtues of man: " 0 Lord, your kindness reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness to the clouds " (Ps. 36) . God's transcendence, presence, dominion, and jud~ ments reach all creatures wherever they are in the universe. Since man...