"America Magazine" puzzled about Christology

I don’t subscribe to America Magazine. I find that giving some people money only encourages them… But I do get emails giving me advanced warning of the content of their upcoming editions, so that I can be on the lookout at the Daniel Mannix Library when a hardcopy finally makes its way over the Big Pond.

I am looking forward to reading the September 17 edition, which includes the following juicy tid-bits:

What Are Theologians Saying About Christology? “Six experts”, we are told, will “weigh in on the questions raised by the Vatican’s recent notification to Jon Sobrino, S.J.” I wonder if the “six experts” will include my favourite Christologians, Joseph Ratzinger and N.T. Wright? Probably not. Remember, these six commentators will not be catholic popes or evangelical expounders of scripture; they will be EXPERTS, which gives them oh-so-much more authority and clout.

The second one might be even more interesting, if only because it is by our own fellow-Aussie, [Sir–or at least he would be “Sir” if Australian gongs still held that title] Fr Gerald O’Collins SJ. The second article is called A Challenge for Theologians, and comes with the description: “Examining three puzzling positions in the Sobrino notification”. I wonder what the three puzzling positions might be? At least we can be assured that they don’t include either the full divinity or full humanity of Our Lord, as Fr O’Collins himself says at the beginning of the article:

In its notification on two works by Jon Sobrino, S.J., the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recalls and re-affirms some utterly basic Christian teachings about Jesus Christ–above all, that Jesus was truly divine and fully human. Such doctrines, embodied in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of A.D. 381, which is accepted by all Christian communities, require a firm assent from any Catholic theologian worthy of the name.

That is at least a heartening start.

As I said, I haven’t read any of these yet, and will have to wait for the hardcopy to arrive. But you know me, dear Reader: not having read something never kept me from offering an opinion on it…

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