Here, following the example of Rahner and Pannenberg, John Macquarrie examines Jesus Christ's humanity to his origin as God. Part one considers the New Testament sources, including the "classical theology" period. Part two examines the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment critique of classical christology (i.e. studying Jesus Christ as him from above, as opposed to his humanity), while in part three, Macquarrie makes his own christological statement on who Jesus Christ really is for us today.
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John Macquarrie is Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity Emeritus in the University of Oxford.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Outstanding Review of the Modern Jesus,
By
This review is from: Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (Paperback)
In this excellent survey of modern Christological responses to the classical Chalcedonian conception, we are in Macquarrie's debt. He wears his learning lightly, but there is brilliance on every page. In Part One he works through the New Testament witnesses to Jesus, concluding with the heuristic vision of classical Christology ("Nicea/ Chalcedon"). In Part Two he surveys modernist critiques of this confessional Christology in an appreciative manner (without final approval). He then asks what it might take to "construct" a Christology today. This was riveting reading on every page and there was not a moment in which I did not learn something. This is not easy reading although it was very clear reading due to the literary acumen of Professor Macquarrie. If you want to think long and hard about Jesus--this is a book that will help you do so.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'.,
This review is from: Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (Paperback)
This is a book which was always going to be a well written and an interesting read by a noted writer and a theologian. The subject of Jesus Christ hols an eternal fascination for scholar and lay person alike and any contribution from Prof Macquarrie is to be welcomed cordially.
John Macquarrie (1919-2007) was latterly the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity (Emeritus) at the University of Oxford. In 1962, he had been appointed Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He served in the British Army from 1943-48, being ordained in 1945, he then served in the Royal Army Chaplains Department 1945-48. Later, he served as a parish minister in the Church of Scotland at St Ninian's Church, Brechin from 1948 until 1953. Among Macquarrie's other, numerous, works and publications we should perhaps note his 'Principles of Christian Theology' (1966) and 'Existentialism' (1972). His style can be demanding for those not au fait with Philosophical and religious terminology and this volume is no exception. The book is effectively set out in 3 sections; the first looks at the New Testament sources - a subject which Macquarrie was not completely at ease with; secondly, various Christological models and approaches are assessed; thirdly, the author pools his considerable scholarship and philosophical learning together and presents his own formulation on whom he considers Jesus Christ to be today, in the modern age. In short, this book is a stimulating read even if, at times, it is both challenging and even obscure occasionally. The title, of course, is not entirely accurate, nor can it be as modern critical 'thought' about the nature and relevance of the Galilean move, meander, or mutate on an almost daily basis. Michael Calum Jacques
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Macquarrie's Modern Jesus,
This review is from: Jesus Christ in Modern Thought (Paperback)
Jesus Christ in Modern Thought, by John Macquarie (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, c. 1990), details all the reasons assorted intellectuals have ceased to believe in much of anything other than their personal opinions regarding Jesus Christ. Macquarie provides us a compendium of information about modern biblical criticism and theology, so this book certainly helps one understand what's been going on of late. But so many modern theologians' general disbelief in traditional teachings concerning the nature of Jesus Christ makes one wonder why they take the trouble to even think and write "Christian" theology.
"Modern" thought means, to Macquarie, the type of thinking which came to prominence in the Enlightenment. It's succinctly identified by Immanuel Kant, who said: "Dare to know! Have the courage to make use of your own understanding--this is the motto of the Enlightenment." Loosed from traditional authorities, enlightened thinkers subjected all ideas to "reason," which generally meant their own personal judgment. For example, Macquarie favorably cites William Barclay's comment to him "that he was an adoptionist in christology because it was the only christology he could under¬stand! An excellent reason!" (p. 145). Which is hardly the way Athanasius or Augustine or Aquinas would have responded! After explaining the sources and describing the development of "classical christology," the doctrine of Christ which prevailed for 1500 years or more, Macquarie discusses the various critiques leveled against it. Rationalist, humanistic, idealist, positivist christologies all proliferated under the aegis of the Enlightenment, paving the way for the existentialist and liberation christologies of more recent decades. For folks like me, interested in the ins and outs, the ups and downs, of historical theology, Macquarie's presentation provides careful and readable assessment of such assorted speculations. The final section of the book, 'Who Really Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?' allows Macquarie to set forth his own position (which has been increasingly evident as he discusses other thinkers in previous pages). Little really remains of the Nicene Creed when he asserts: "If there is any truth in the idea of incarnation, then this must mean meeting people where they are, and in a secular age that means meeting them on the level of their everyday humanity" (p. 343). What "incarnation" occurred in Jesus took place gradually, as he somehow became more godly. Sharing the skepticism of Bultmann regarding N.T. claims, he allows for a "minimal core of factuality" concerning a few incidents in Jesus' life. He does believe Jesus was a historical man who died. In fact, he compares Him to Martin Luther King, Jr., going to Jerusalem much as King went to Memphis, willing to give of himself for others but hardly planning to die as he did. "The ascension of Jesus into heaven is . . . a piece of mythology, inconceivable as a historical happening because our modern cosmography is so different from that which prevailed in the first century" (p. 387). Jesus differed from other humans, but simply to a degree, not in kind--he was, above all, a bit more fully human than the run-of-the-mill guy and thus "transcendent" in some ways. Fully human, he could not have been sinless, though he surely lived an exemplary life. As McLeod Campbell declares, "Christ's atoning work 'took the form of a perfect confession of our sins'" (p. 402). The "empty tomb" was a story the apostles circulated to just¬ify belief in Jesus' resurrection, which was not, Macquarie insists, a physical resurrection of any sort--after all Jesus appeared to his followers as a purely "spiritual body." All in all, Macquarie says, Jesus was much like other "saviour figures," illuminating our minds and bringing us into contact with a "holy reality" (p. 418). To the litany of heroes listed in Hebrews 11, Macquarie would add Mohammed, the Buddha, Krishna and Confucius, pathfinders in the true faith! Jesus is one of the best--and for Macquarie-style Christians he is the most accep¬table--but clearly not essentially superior to the rest. Well . . . from the "Jesus Christ of Modern Thought" deliver us LORD JESUS!
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