God Sent His Son: A Contemporary Christology
Overview
In this work of Christology, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, a world-renowned theologian, takes as his starting point the Apostle Paul’s statement, “But when the time had fully come, God sent for his Son, born of woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4–5). Based on many years of lecturing on Christology, Cardinal Schönborn’s work moves from the solid conviction of faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel, the Son of the Living God, through the development of the Church’s understanding of this truth, to the consideration of contemporary issues and the views of various modern theologians. God Sent His Son has the comprehensiveness and scholarly precision of a textbook but the insights and personal relevance of a work of spirituality.
Top Highlights
“‘But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons’ (Gal 4:4–5). This key sentence, which sums up the heart of what the Apostle Paul was preaching, is the theme of the Christology presented here.” (Page 11)
“The entire canon of the New Testament is reviewed, assembled, and filtered tradition. Scripture and tradition are indivisible from the very beginning; Scripture is unthinkable without tradition; it is itself a ‘product’ of tradition.” (Page 33)
“The first pillar is Scripture. What we know (historically) about Jesus of Nazareth derives almost exclusively (apart from a few mentions in Pliny, Tacitus, or Jewish writings) from the New Testament, above all from the Gospels.” (Page 33)
“the living experience of the Lord as present and active is one of the foundations of Christology” (Page 34)
“The first crack is the Reformation. It calls tradition into question” (Page 35)