High Low Jack A Lo (Christology)

My reading has gone into overdrive recently. As my time committed to basketball coaching is decreasing, my time devoted to reading and preparing for my masters in September has increased.

I have loved all the time I’ve had to read and am making steady progress (although I’ve been getting daily headaches and am wondering if they’re from all the reading)

Anyways, an increase in reading equals an increase of blogging (that’s the theory anyways…)

A lot of the following blogging will be thoughts and quotes from a book Ive recently finished : Kingdom, Grace and Judgment- Paradox, Outrage and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus. Robert Farrar Capon


I was accused the other day of having a low Christology. I say ‘accused’. That was maybe the wrong word. The gentleman (and I use this word seriously, with no sarcasm, I love this man) I think was merely pointing out that he probably disagreed with me.

A low Christology, to me, means that when it comes to understanding Jesus as God and man, one focuses more on his humanity (thus a high Christology being when one focuses more on Jesus’ divinity).

I’m quite happy to be a low Christologist (I think I just made up a word). I am not happy that we have to fit into such either/or understandings of Jesus. However, if you’re going to make me choose, then ok…

‘some Christians…feel obliged to maintain that, right from the beginning, he [Jesus] had everything figured out completely and that any apparent developments in his awareness were simply due to the way he deferred to our slow-wittedness by doling out his revelations piece by piece. But to put it that way is to expose their fallacy. ‘From what beginning?’ such theologians should be asked. Presumably, they are thinking of the beginning of his public ministry or perhaps those first words of his at age twelve when he told his parents he had to be ‘about his Father’s business.’ But those are plainly not beginnings enough’.

Cappon continues his thoughts as he considers the temptation of Jesus-

‘But those two natures…are distinct and unconfused. The Incarnate Lord is not a mismash of divinity and humanity. There is not a scrap of human nature in his Godhead, and most important here, there is not a smitch of deity in his manhood, any more than there is in yours or mine…

In Scripture it is precisely the Holy Spirit, the Thrid Person of the Trinity, who is given credit for enabling and guiding the humanity of Jesus. For example, Jesus casts out demons not by means of some more-than-human power that he has in and of himself, but by the Spirit- by, as he puts it, the Finger of God…

To all of this Jesus simply replies from chapters 6 and 8 of Deut, the sections recapitulating the ten commandments in chapter 5. Do you see what that means? It means that when the devil talks messiah, Jesus answers with passages that are not messianic at all, but simply addressed to humanity as such. He says, in effect, ‘You can’t conceive of a messiah unless he’s dedicated to a lot of superhuman, right handed punching and interfering; but as far as I’m concerned, just plain human obedience to God’s prescriptions for plain old humanity will do the messianic trick. Thank you very much, but peddle your phone booth somewhere else.’ ’