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Christ the Key (Current Issues in Theology)

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I just had to write a review of this fine book by Theologian Kathryn Tanner. Its a sequel to her book "Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity". It was in that book that she makes a very understandable presentation of the Apophatic difference between God and everything else. That its a dangerous conceptual error to put God and everything Created on the same level. God is Other and not in competition with Created Reality. This new book focuses on the centrality of Jesus Christ for Christianity. And as a Christian, I feel the center of all Reality. This Christological focus, is something that Christian Theology recovered mostly through the work of the great Swiss Theologian Karl Barth. It seems that most good Christian Theology has worked on spelling out that focus since Barth. "Christ the Key", is about the Incarnation of God. That God took on Human Nature and lived the life we were meant to live, of outgoing love, in the world. I was much helped by Her emphasis on God's taking the load onto himself, of living the life we can't live on our own steam. The first chapter on Human Nature touches on this somewhat. Christianity when its not twisted into its opposite, is all about Grace! Yet people resist that. Human beings hate to be beholden to anything, even benevolence! I think that there is a resistance even to kindness sometimes, because of the implications of it. If we are shown kindness, then we are to some degree obligated to be kind. The Gospel story of the ungrateful servant is a great example of this. He was forgiven a huge debt, yet was terribly unforgiving in a small debt owed to Him. Her Chapters on Grace are worth the price of the book. I loved her repeated emphasis on our need for Grace and that our Human natures are just not up to the task, without the help of God through Christ. She makes the point many times of the vast ontological difference between Us and the Divine Being. We are creatures and Not God and we never will Be at the level of God. This has been made even worse by the Fall of Human beings into Sin. Willful turning away from our source. Of course the age old question at least in my Mind, is how could the work of God, go so wrong? To Me, this is "the" question, that dogs Theology. Another good point she makes is on Desire, specifically, our Desire for God. This is according to her, not a natural disposition of our Human Natures. It comes from the greatness of God. God being God creates the desire in us because of God's greatness and goodness. Well I could go on and on. This book is a book of heavy theogical concepts and it will take repeated reading to understand all she had written. And who's to say that I have understood it? I hope I have. If you are interested in good insightful and thought provoking Christian Theology, then buy this book. Sincerely Richard Woodhouse, Bradford Pa USA.