Walter Wink: Collected Readings

13. Introduction

13 Introduction In this introduction to The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man, Walter Wink indicates that his purpose is to construct a “Christology from below.” It is not a purely academic enterprise; he has a much more practical purpose. He is driven by his conviction that an encounter with the human Jesus just might enable us to learn something about becoming human ourselves. He gives us a series of questions, the answers to which he hopes to uncover, but he does not presume to be able to deliver “the historical Jesus” at the end of his study. The historical Jesus is beyond our grasp, but Wink will be satisfied if his work contributes “to a new myth: the myth of the human Jesus”—a narrative that facilitates the humanizing work of God. Source: Wink 2002: Introduction The historical Jesus will be to our time a stranger and an enigma. —Albert Schweitzer I am puzzled that a species that has subjected virtually the entire universe to its analytical gaze and that has penetrated to the tiniest constituents of matter still knows next to nothing about how to become human. I am greatly agitated that our society seems to be losing the battle for humanization. Violence, domination, killing, disrespect, terror, environmental degradation, and want have reached intolerable levels. Likewise, I am bewildered, having lived the greater part of my life, that I know so little about becoming human myself. I am shocked that I am still largely an amalgam of conventions and opinions and so little in touch with my real thoughts and feelings. Who am I? What might I become? Why have so many of us sold out to miniaturized versions of ourselves? 235 These are some of the questions that prompt this study of the biblical expression “the son of the man.” The farther I penetrate into the mystery of this term, the more profound and provocative it seems. I have struggled with this puzzle long enough to suspect that the real reward lies not in deciphering the riddle but in wrestling with it. It may be that “the son of the man” is a genuine enigma, an irreducible riddle. But nothing so piques the curiosity of humans as the inexplicable. Perhaps our curiosity is a symptom of a desire to become more human. Like those who have gone before and who will follow, I rise to the bait. In this book, I explore the hypothesis that this opaque figure, the son of the man, is a catalyst for human transformation: unchanging and unchanged, yet changing those who dare to come in contact with it. It seems that within us, deeply buried or just below the surface, is something that knows better than we the contours of our true face, or that “new name that no one knows except the one who receives it,” as Rev. 2:17 hints. A word, then, about the spirit in which I conduct this inquiry. This book shares in a growing effort to cast the original truths of Christianity in molds that have more appeal for people in our day. For my part, I have been searching the records of Judaism and Christianity to see if there are other ways to interpret, and to live out, the original impulse of Jesus. I want to reflect both exegetically and theologically on how that impulse, which Jesus inaugurated, can open us to the present possibilities of the past. I do so as one deeply committed to what Jesus revealed. I believe that the churches have to a tragic extent abandoned elements of that revelation. I do not, however, wish to throw the whole enterprise overboard. The Gospels continue to feed me, as does all of Scripture, even the worst parts, and some churches are impressively faithful. But if Scripture is to speak to those who find its words dust, we will have to radically reconstitute our reading. My supposition is that something terrible has gone wrong in Christian history. The churches have too often failed to continue Jesus’ mission. I grant that the church fathers sometimes understood the implications of the gospel better than the earliest Christians who lacked the perspective of hindsight. But there is a disappointing side as well: anti-Semitism, collaboration with oppressive political regimes, the establishment of hierarchical power arrangements in the churches, the squeezing of women from leadership positions, the abandonment of radical egalitarianism, and the rule of patriarchy in church affairs. Those of...