Dual Citizenship: Two-Natures Christologies and the Jewish Jesus

Description

Jesus’ particular Jewish existence (his human nature) and his universal transcendence (his divine nature) are brought together here in the construction of a Christology that proposes the equality, unity, and full participation of both natures. Using frameworks from multicultural theory, it identifies the processes by which Christologies have historically negotiated difference in the Incarnation, and explains why uniting the two natures of Christ consistently and problematically supplants Jesus’ Jewishness. This conceptual framework unites the two natures without sublimating their differences, by proposing a contextual universalism. ’Overlapping membership’ offers the means whereby the particular, Jewish, human nature and the universal, divine nature of Jesus Christ engage in an ongoing dialogue and formation in the one person of the Incarnation. This work offers a new way of understanding the two natures of Christ that brings together historical understandings with contemporary contextual Christologies, enabling us to find a way to understand Christ as both truly human and fully divine. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Part 1: Dual Citizenship 1. Nonsupersessionist Theology and the Challenge of Incarnational Christology The theological necessity of Jesus’ Jewishness The matrix of diff erence – Jewishness, humanity and divinity, particularity and universality Processing difference Definition of terms Supersessionism, antisemitism, and anti-Judaism Jewishness Chapter Outline Summary 2. ‘But You Can’t Be Both!’ – Multiple Loyalties in Theories of Multiculturalism Theories of difference – processes and agencies Processes for negotiating difference Assimilationism Fragmented pluralism Cosmopolitanism The possibility of multiple loyalties Interactive pluralism and rooted cosmopolitanism Summary Part 2: Constituent Parts 3. Contextual: Jesus as Human Citizen Jesus is consubstantial with us Jesus the Second Adam/New Being Critiquing the representative Second Adam/New Being Jesus the Jew Critiquing the representative Jew Jesus as one of the oppressed Critiquing the representative oppressed Consubstantial with particularities – citizenship based on contextual universalism Summary 4. Universal: Jesus as Divine Expatriate Jesus is consubstantial with the divine The divine nature as immutable Logos The divine nature as Spirit – Revisiting Logos The divine nature as transcendent Other Critiquing the transcendent Other Relational transcendence A new interpretation – Transparticularity and the ‘unassimilable Other’ Summary Part 3: Establishing Relationship 5. You Never Leave Your Homeland Behind: Contextual Universalism in the One Person Approaching unity The Chalcedonian Definition Unity and singularity Unity and multiplicity A process for uniting difference Summary 6. Living in the Diaspora: Overlapping Memberships and the Two Natures Difference and isolation Difference and hybridity (the third space is no space) Thinking both/and A process for differentiating unity Summary Part 4: The Transparticular Person – Passing through Chalcedon 7. At Home: The Contextual Universals of the Jewish Jesus Contextual universals Jesus and non-Jews Jesus and Torah Suffering and not-suffering Death and not-death 8. Living Abroad – The Overlapping Memberships of the Living Christ Overview Jesus today – Normative and not normative Conclusion Acknowledgements Bibliography Index