11.8.2013 review of THE SUFFERING AND VICTORIOUS CHRIST by richard j. mouw and douglas a. sweeney

if non-western critics are right,
american christians have a skewed view of Jesus.
asian and african american theologians have consistently emphasized
the suffering, compassion and humiliation of Jesus
-not just on the cross but in all stages of his earthly life and ministry.

...claims one japanese theologian,
'christianity in the west has become an anomaly.'
but perhaps it's no wonder.
theological traditions in the protestant west
have plenty to say about christus victor
-the triumphant Christ
-but little to say about christus dolor
-the grief stricken Christ.
is the american theological tradition deficient in its view of Jesus?

...the authors 'have mined their own traditions (..lutheranism and..calvinism)
for resources that articulate a more compassionate understanding of Christ,
who stands with the marginalized.

..they 'lead readers on a brisk walk through 19th century american theologians
that typify reformed thinking during that era..

reformed theology of the era tended to emphasize sin and conversion
as the linchpins of christian faith
while deemphasizing other doctrines...

a generation later, franz pieper, a prussian immigrant
and later president of the germanic lutheran church-missouri synod,
argued that because Jesus suffered,
God Himself also suffered.
this did not please calvinists.
reformed thinkers preferred to emphasize the distinction
between Christ's two natures,
to the point of suggesting that sometimes Jesus operated from His divine nature,
and at other times operated from His human nature.
martin Luther had said that Christ's divine and human natures
were so completely united in the incarnation that
'mary suckles God with her breasts, bathes God, rocks Him and carries Him;
futhermore, that pilate and herod crucified and killed God'.
pieper presented 'a passionate God who truly MAKES HIMSELF AVAILABLE
to finite, fallen sinners,
drawing near to those who seek Him in their distress.'

within the reformed traditions were tools for constructing
a more compassionate christology.
but these theoretical affirmations of a suffering savior
went only so far.
they still needed to connect to the realm of ACTUAL SUFFERING.
as the authors say, reformation formulas lacked
'immersion in the realities of the human condition'.

this is where african american perspectives provide an important correction.
...'the suffering that is latent in lutheran and reformed dogmatics,..
comes boldly to life in the hymns, sermons and prayers of
subjugated american slaves and their descendants.'...

...younger evangelicals are sensitive to the plight of the poor
and eager to embrace a faith that serves the homeless, illegal immigrants,
and those underserved by typical church or government programs.
the authors share these concerns, but they are not willing to embrace
a compassionate Christology at any cost.
they acknowledge in a short interlude that the roman catholic tradition
speaks of Christ's association with human suffering explicitly and movingly.
but it does so in ways that violate protestant doctrine.
the key weakness, they argue, is an overemphasis
the 'real presence' of Jesus in the suffering.
mother teresa believed, for example, that to touch the bodies of the poor
was literally to touch the body of Christ.

(note: in 'inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these my brethren,
you have done it unto Me' and 'this is My body..My blood'...can they not,
by all who believe in Him, be viewed in different ways
without fussing over semantics?)

some readers might be disappointed to discover
that the book is not an introduction to asian or african american christology.
asian critiques of western theology are ultimately a springboard
into the questions the authors are asking of their own traditions.
..that said, if you are interested either in asian or african american sources,
the appendix is thorough...