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130
book reviews
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen
Christ and Reconciliation, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic
World Series, volume 1 (Grand Rapids, mi: Eerdmans, 2013). xiv + 468 pp. $40.00
paperback.
The Fuller Seminary systematician produces the first installment of his five- volume magnum opus when summa theologica has not been the norm for decades. Why this urge, when postmodernity has dispensed with grandeur the- ological vision? Kärkkäinen explains that although he is not writing a summa, he cannot sidestep the need to engage religious diversity with genuine open- ness and for seeing other religions as equal partners in conversation in a Chris- tian quest for comprehending and the making of truth. Hence, the Finnish- American theologian offers his constructive proposal, which reads like a summa.
ChristandReconciliationdevelops in two parts after an introduction explain- ing his prolegomenon of inclusive, dialogical and hospitable approach. Kärkkäinen sets up theology as an “intratextual” and “extratextual” inquiry besides the necessary “hermeneutics of human experience of religiosity” to ground its claims (11). Theology, more than just Lindbeck’s rules of ecclesias- tical practices, is a post-foundational epistemologism in that theology is inher- ently provisional, perspectival, and historical; thus, theology “must engage in continuous ecumenical and interdisciplinary dialogue” (p. 12) and use “non- theological resources” (p. 15). Then Part i, in ten chapters, lays out the heart of Christian theology (p. 35): focusing on Christ, he clarifies his dynamic Chris- tological method in a global matrix of contexts. The Christ as the prophet and messiah is the center, with meanings provided by classical Chalcedonian understanding of the two natures of Christ and the second Council of Con- stantinople’s (553ad) resolution of apollinarianism, docetism, and monothe- litism debates. This Christology is developed in conversation with multiple currents, such as Jewish messianic meanings, formulations of medieval Byzan- tium theologians, and conversations with contemporary notions of liberation, egalitarianity, and hybridity studies. The resurrection is understood eschatolog- ically and historically with the setting of Christ’s pre-existential nature prior the incarnation. Logos Christology and Spirit-Christological proposals of kenosis, replacement, revisionist, complementarity, and trinitarian readings are exam- ined for their implications to ministry, and as a response to religious pluralism in the Global North and Asia. Readers can expect treatments of Jesus and Bud- dha, miracles and healing in Islamic and Christian traditions of Jesus, titles of Christ in western and African Christological proposals, and messianic roles of Jesus and various religions, among others comparative inquiries.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03701008
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Part ii, which has six chapters, turns to themes of reconciliation such as atonement traditions, violence of the cross, contemporary trinitarian theol- ogy of reconciliation, reconciliation’s interpretative keys as Christian mission and liberation, and Christian salvation among religions. This section makes a heuristic and pedagogical distinction between the person and the work of Christ. Kärkkäinen hopes to show the deeply soteriological dimensions to the identity of Christ developed in Part i and to develop “a fully trinitarian account of reconciliation” (291–293). He presents an inclusive theology beginning from “the whole history of Jesus” (298) in an intertextual reading of biblical, histor- ical, and contemporary sources. He presents Christ as an insider who totally identified with and represented humanity even as God extends grace to the whole of creation. He urges the “continuing value of received tradition in its diversity” (208) to address the contemporary concerns about a “sadomasochis- tic” and “inhospitable” interpretation of God and divine action (319–321). He argues for diverse biblical metaphors (for example, God as giver and reconciler, and his suffering cry of dereliction in ordo salutis) as tools for comprehending the trinitarian work of the atonement (345–353). The volume also engages con- cepts of the demonic in African religiosity and Christ’s missionaryChristus Vic- tor motif, and other liberational issues, no less limited to trajectories in works by Amos Yong, C.S. Song, and Walter Rauschenbusch. The book’s epilogue sum- marizes Christology as the “unfolding of the whole Christian doctrine” (404).
pneuma readers would find some treatment of Pentecostal spirituality and theological works cited; the interest is to refine Pentecostal theology. For in- stance, when the five roles of Christ as savior, sanctifier, baptizer, healer, and coming king are mentioned, the author defends a Christocentrism so as to correct what he saw as an overt pneumatocentrism (p. 207). This fact does not obscure his credentials as a Pentecostal theologian. However, Kärkkäinen seeks a broader evangelical systematic constructive contribution that attends to many theological voices.
The book makes a compelling read because it is truly a rare gem—compara- tively interreligious, biblical, systematic-historical-and-contemporary-theolog- ical, and interdisciplinary. The scholar’s contextual Lutheran roots and appreci- ation for international Christian ecumenical horizons are clearly demonstrated as well. The volume achieves a breadth beyond the comparative religious methodology of Mircea Eliade (1958, 1969), and the comparative interreligious theological contributions of Keith Ward (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2008), Robert Neville (2000), and Francis X. Clooney (2010) among others. The work engages thoughtfully with African religiosities, Chinese religions, Theravada Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism not as a missiological concern exclusively, but with a focus on theological discipline. The volume interacts throughout with
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principal ideas in theoeuvreof his teacher, German Lutheran Wolfhart Pannen- berg, even as the undertaking also surpasses secondarily the postwar emanci- patory contributions of German Reformed Jürgen Moltmann: Kärkkäinen takes human experience in multi-dimensional terms and not limited to the libera- tion of human suffering as the modality of comprehending the incarnation, which was the main focus of Moltmann’s theological imagination. Kärkkäinen also engages many prolific philosophers and theologians from various cultural contextualities, and diverse ecclesiastical, religious, and ideological traditions and trajectories. He demonstrates a rigorous mastery of crossing diverse tra- ditions, and contexts that are often lacking in the scholarly contributions by evangelical systematicians. The project’s breath extends to interdisciplinarity, and engages behavioral science, cultural and literary studies, natural sciences, and philosophy. Contemporary issues like violence, race, ecology, ethnicity and colonialism are discussed in pertinent sections (it is something classical sys- tematic theological approaches do not covered adequately). This volume and its sequel represent a systematic constructionism fitting for the twenty-first century that should pique the interest of serious learners of theology.
Timothy Lim T.N.
Regent University School of Divinity, Virginia Beach King’s Evangelical Divinity School, London, uk
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