Jesus: God and Man [Paperback]

Wolfhart Pannenberg (Author), Lewis L. Wilkins (Translator), Duane A. Priebe (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1977 | ISBN-10: 0664244688 | ISBN-13: 978-0664244682 | Edition: 2

This highly acclaimed work demonstrates Wolfhart Pannenberg's belief that at the heart of every Christian theology lies its teaching about Jesus Christ. The second edition, available for the first time in paperback, contains an Afterword in which the author reviews other theologians' responses to his thesis and methodology and shows the progression of his own interpretation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A model of how doctrine should be done". Theology "This book is a must for all serious students of contemporary theology". Expository Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 428 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 2 edition (May 1, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664244688
• ISBN-13: 978-0664244682
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #639,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding piece of scholarship!, February 21, 2007

By 

Derrick A. Peterson (Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jesus: God and Man (Paperback)

I have been a reader of Pannenberg for some time now, but it was not until recently that I finished Jesus: God and Man, and I must say that I was left, after finishing this book on a second read-through, simply amazed. Pannenberg is, in my opinion, one of the most profound theologians of the 20th century, though, unfortunately (especially at conservative Bible-colleges like the one I attend) there is a surprising reticence on the one hand, and an unfortunate ignorance on the other, that truncates any viable discussion of Pannenberg. The same could, of course, be said about Moltmann, or Jenson or (as my friend Halden would undoubtedly champion) about von Balthazar's theology (of which I myself am admittedly fairly ignorant).

Reviewing a book of this scope always makes me pensively deliberate with myself how I could possible isolate key parts of the text to present a viable synopsis. This book is no different. One of the additional difficulties with Pannenberg is due to his systematic nature: it is hard to "isolate" pieces of his work, say a quote or an idea, without running the enormous risk of completely misrepresenting moments of Pannenberg's systematic flourish. Hence, and this is very important for those of you who stumble across this review: it is probably going to be long. So, without reading the whole thing, here: Buy this book! I wholly and totally recommend it for reading in Christology. It is a classic that should be in every theologians library. No one will agree fully with Pannenberg, but this book will nonetheless stimulate converstation and thought! With that disclaimer then, I begin.

As one can easily ascertain from the title, this monograph by Pannenberg is on Christology. Though to speak of this as "Christology proper," would be to overstate what Pannenberg is attempting to do. This is really a book of Christological methodology, rather than material conclusions (though, of course, these are present as well.) Pannenberg is attempting to put forth the program he hinted at in his very first publication Revelation as History, which runs decidedly obverse to the anti-historical leanings of Bultmann's demythologization, and the so called "neo-orthodoxy" of Pannenberg's mentor, Barth. Though the term is frequently misunderstood, especially in reference to Pannenberg's use of it (to which we shall return) one could roughly describe the program as "from below." Whereas in theology "from above," Jesus' divinity and the doctrine of the incarnation stand at the center, Pannenberg's is an attempt to show why the confession of Jesus as divinity is materially legitimated by Jesus' own life and from within the horizon of Jewish apocalyptic expectation. Indeed, one of the repeating themes that resonates throughout this book is a tireless drumbeat evaluating the evolution of Christian belief in Jesus through the history of traditions. If a belief in Jesus (say, Divinity) can be shown to be a foreign addition of Greek metaphysics (ala Harnack's thesis), or say, the idea of a descending and ascending redeemer to be a Gnosticizing tendency of the tradition, then the basis of authentic proclamation has been defeated.

This leads to another central theme of the book, in dialogue with the concern for material legitimation: the Resurrection as the center of theology. This is perhaps the most misunderstood part of the book, in my opinion, and so garners the largest portion of this review. What occurs here is a wholly unique and (at least in my opinion,) convincing "demonstration" of the hypothesis of Jesus' divinity, centered around his Resurrection. To understand the importance of the Resurrection, we must understand 3 things: 1.) Jesus' pre-Easter proclamation, activity, and commission 2.) What exactly was entailed in so called "apocalyptic eschatology" of the Jewish tradition(s) and 3.) how the Resurrection ties these first two together:

Jesus' pre-Easter proclamation, according to Pannenberg, was to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was near, and that the fate of men in relation to this coming kingdom was decided in relation to Jesus (e.g. the Son of Man sayings in Luke 12:8 and parallels) where people's current community with Jesus would determine their relationship to the coming Son of Man who would stand as Judge. On top of this, of course, Jesus also freely interpreted the law, which implicitly gave him authority higher than that of Moses. Jesus placed his "but I say to you..." (e.g. Mt. 5) in the center of the proclamations. Since in Jewish tradition the only authority that was higher than Moses was God, this is a claim to equality with God. Related to all this is Jesus' claim to forgive sin, which is an important part, but doesn't stand as an "isolated" or "immediate" claim to divinity as many conservatives have supposed, but stands in a meaningful relationship to the proclamation of the kingdom of God (which will be explained in a moment).

This brings us to the Jewish apocalyptic expectation. Only at the end of history, according to such expectation, could God be fully revealed: "In the Old and New testaments do speak of the subject matter (revelation) as a self-revelation of God, although it is not terminologically so designated. In the Old testatment this involves especially the so-called erweiswort ("word of demonstration") formulas that designate knowledge of YWHW's divinity as the purpose of the divine activity in history. The more all happenings were perceived in Israel as a single great historical unity, the more the full knowledge of YHWH became an event that would be possible only at the end of all happenings. YWHW would complete the entire course of world events, world history, in order that man might thereby know his divnity. Only at the end of history is he ultimately revealed from his deeds as the one God who accomplishes everything...correspondingly, Jewish apocalyptic expected God's full revelation as an event of the end of time." (p.128)

This sets up the relation of Jesus' proclamation of the coming kingdom (essentially the end of time) and his ability to forgive sins. What is salvation (i.e. forgiveness of sins)? Pannenberg defines it at its core as "openness to God," being open to God's future. This is in line with the Jewish apocalyptic understanding where salvation, and the ultimate "forgiveness of sins" in the judgement of God, is not only an "immediate, vertical" reality, but precisely is immediate because of the promise of God's coming at the end. Only in this way is it present: because it was beleived that God would judge justly *at the end*, already then his servants stand justified because God is Lord of the entirety of history, not the other way around. The presence of salvation has a proleptic, anticipatory structure: it is "now" because the "it will be" is present through the promise---the fulfillment being what retroactively confirms the presence of salvific reality "already" present. Hence in the proclamation of the kingdom, in Jesus' immanent expectation, because salvation, the fulfilled destiny of man, consists in the fulfillment of openness for God, it is already present for those who accept Jesus' message, and so are placed in a relation of immediacy and openness to the God-who-is-coming. For this reason Jesus could grant salvation directly: "Blessed are the eyes which see what you see!" (Lk 10:23) Jesus' claim to forgive sins is an *eschatological* concept that stands related to the proclamation of the kingdom (an insight lost to many evangelicals), and is an intimate effect or conclusion from Christ's eschatological consciousness. Moreover, stated in another way: "the nearness of the immanent Kingdom of God [calls men to repentance and obedience, and] puts all things into that relation to God which belonged to them as God's creatures from the very beginning. It is just this that demonstrates the universal truth of Jesus' eschatological message: it reveaals the 'natural' essence of men and things with an urgency nowhere achieved outside the eschatological light." (p.231)

Yet, as Pannenberg notes critically regarding several theologians, if we leave it here, what have we really "shown?" All of this up to now has remained at the level of assertion. How are Jesus' claims, his immanent expectation, verified? Indeed, as has been pointed out, the kingdom did not come, at least not in the way perhaps expected. This is where Pannenberg really shines. Jesus' immanent expectation was fulfilled in his own resurrection. We have to understand the the resurrection is not just an isolated or individual occurence, but one that stands in relation to the end of history, according to the apocalytpic expectation (e.g. Is. 26:7, Dan. 12:1-3 etc...) Pannenberg, from this, puts forward several thesis, a couple of which I will touch upon: If Jesus has been resurrected, then the end of the world has begun in him. This is the first closely related to a second: If Jesus has been raised, in the Jewish mind this could be nothing else than a verification by YHWH of Jesus' past life. No Jew would have thought such an occurance as happening outside the jurisdiction of their God. These two thesis interact: If Jesus' past life has been validated, not only through the validation of his immanent expectation of the end in his own resurrection, but also since Jesus' claim to forgive sins (an eschatological concept, remember) has been retroactively validated, this means that *the end is present proleptically in Jesus*. Jesus' resurrection verified his claim to authority, and hence it is also a confirmation of his proclamation that the kingdom of God is near. This is the basic structure of salvation, that Jesus proclaims the nearing kingdom and hence places everything in its `natural' relation to God, because at the end of all events in the eschaton the essence of things will be... Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Christology with Eye Opening Eschatological Insights., August 24, 2011

By 

Bror Erickson "Your Brother in Christ" (Tooele Utah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jesus: God and Man (Paperback)

Jesus - God and Man

By Wolfhart Pannenberg

This is the first book I have read by Pannenberg, I will be reading more because of it. It was thoroughly fascinating. It is not an easy read, but a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Christology, or Christian thought at all. It is a classic of Twentieth Century theology and I fail to see how it cannot be a major contributor to theological thought hence forth. If you are a student of theology, it is simply a must read.

The essential main thrust of the book is a "theology from below". Wolfhart Pannenberg starts and ends his discussion on the historical person of Jesus Christ. Investigating the claim of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and finding that do be solid, meaning he makes a good case for the historical veracity of that event, he begins to plot out what that means in relation to Jesus claims about himself, and how that translates to meaning for our lives. He does this in an absolutely stupendous manner, and with great scholarly acumen. In other words, he starts with Jesus Christ's death and resurrection and works from there to establish his divinity. He then goes into great detail parsing out what that means for theology and especially eschatology.

One thing that is fascinating through it all, is Pannenberg does this all the while buying into Higher Criticism. He assumes the gospels are written late, the Q hypothesis is a given, and yet he comes to conclusions regarding the central claims of Christianity far different than those of say Bart Ehrman. In this manner he defies classification as a liberal or a conservative. He does not get into justifying any claims of Higher Criticism though, but even working with the claims of higher criticism, comes out with a theology as conservative as that of Athanasius or Augustine.

Throughout the manuscript, Pannenberg takes you on a joy ride through the history of Christology, showing what different theologians have thought at different times and why they were right or wrong. All the while establishing not only the divinity of Christ, but also the inner workings of the Trinity. All this though has great importance for Eschatology, and reading this has opened my eyes to aspects of biblical eschatology that I had never considered, and strengthened my resolve that Pre-millennialism is a satanic lie, a pseudo Gospel that has no place in the church.

I will be re reading this book, and highly recommend it to others. I don't agree with everything in the book, but I think twice about disagreeing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesus-God and Man by Wolfhart Pannenberg, September 15, 2008

By 

Thomas A. Nibbe "moby61" (Pacifica, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jesus: God and Man (Paperback)

Patristic-style (true catholic) Christology doesn't get any better than this. It would be a great idea for

Benedict XVI to read great stuff of this high quality. It may change his mind regarding the folks that are,

not only Roman Catholics, but true catholics. Pannenberg is THE apologist for the Nicene Fathers in our age

and time and this is his most important single work on Christ.