Christ The Heart of Creation by Rowan Williams (review)

Rowan Williams is Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In this elegantly written book, he seeks to clarify how the Chalcedonian Definition's affirmations that Jesus was fully human and fully divine can be coherently understood and why this is important. Williams argues that central to a coherent understanding of these affirmations is realizing that finite human nature and the infinite divine being exist on ontologically different levels. Because they are qualitatively different kinds of being, there is no incompatibility, competition, or conflict between them. The union of the two happens through Jesus's finite human nature being informed and defined by the infinite divine agency of the Word. As there is no incompatibility between them, this involves no disruption of Jesus's human nature. For Williams, this clarifies how God relates to finite creation as a whole and leads to an ethic of being there for others.

While Williams focuses on these particular issues, his attention has a wide sweep. His thesis is drawn from the thought of Austin Farrer but is developed through discussions of how Jesus is typically understood in the New Testament, the issues that gave rise to the Council of Chalcedon, the meaning of the Chalcedonian Definition, and how subsequent early church, medieval, Reformation, and modern theologians have sought to understand Jesus's person. Williams sees an organic process of doctrinal development happening over the centuries here. As New Testament affirmations of Jesus's divinity and humanity were reflected upon, a technical vocabulary developed and was refined to conceptualize what they expressed. The Chalcedonian Definition did not end this process as much as set an agenda: to conceptualize how divinity was incarnate in Jesus's person without disrupting his finite human nature. Subsequently, Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus made major contributions to this agenda. According to Williams, Thomas Aquinas's synthesis of preceding reflection on Christ's person represents a kind of permanent achievement. The first part of Christ The Heart of Creation begins with how Farrer and Aquinas understood the incarnation; it then follows the development of christological doctrine from the New Testament to Aquinas.

The second part of the text begins with Duns Scotus, William of Occam, and Martin Luther, who all departed from Aquinas's synthesis. Williams argues that Luther's understanding of Christ's person failed to respect the Chalcedonian Definition's emphasis that the union of divine and human natures in Jesus's person did not disrupt the integrity of Jesus's humanity. Through a lengthy discussion of Calvin's thought on these matters, the author argues that without having read Maximus and Aquinas, Calvin also developed a position that stressed the absolute difference between finite human nature and the infinite divine being, and the freedom of the latter to engage the former.

From here, Williams moves to Bonhoeffer's Christology, with a detour through contemporary discussion of Karl Barth's understanding of the incarnation. Although Bonhoeffer was deeply influenced by Luther and eschewed explicit ontological speculation about how divinity and humanity were united in Christ's person, his Christology is portrayed as implicitly representing the understanding that Williams champions. What Bonhoeffer adds is the ethical orientation that his Christology anchors: the refusal of a posture defending one's self and an accompanying readiness to stand in the other's place for their benefit. In his conclusion, Williams recaps his central ideas and adds an extended discussion of Erich Przywara's understanding of analogy. The book ends with an appendix enlisting Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's philosophies of religion as supporting Williams's understanding of Jesus's person.

Williams seeks ontological precision in understanding Christ. Liberation theologians and Black theologians such as James Cone have typically sought to understand Jesus in a historically concrete way. They have studied how Jesus located himself in the society of his day in order to know where and how he is present in the social conflicts of today. Both ontological precision and historical concreteness...