Abstract
This volume of essays collected by Andrew Meszaros for the purpose of honoring Fr Robert Imbelli is edifying in the best sense of the word. Without sacrificing rigor of thought or accuracy of expression, the contributions manage together to convey a sense of grateful reverence before the fact of Revelation in Christ. Almost all take as their point of departure some aspect of the inclusive Christocentrism recommended in Imbelli’s most recent monograph, Rekindling the Christic Imagination (Liturgical, 2014). The individual chapters, many of them by authors quite eminent in their respective subdisciplines, exhibit a consistently high quality.
After Andrew Meszaros’s exposition of Imbelli’s Christocentric vision, the rest of the book divides into four parts. Part one turns on Christ as the ‘Center of Revelation.’ In this vein, Jared Wicks offers a historical contextualization, translation, and exposition of Ratzinger’s De voluntate Dei erga hominem, a Denkschrift on Revelation later substantially incorporated into the ‘Rahner-Ratzinger schema’ circulated during the drafting stages of Vatican II. Especially intriguing is Wicks’s conjecture that the oft-cited conciliar affirmation that Christ ‘reveals man to man himself’ (GS 22) may find its origins in Ratzinger (p. 31). Frederick Lawrence offers a Lonerganian meditation on the Trinitarian character of conversion and salvation, emphasizing how both Son and Spirit mediate ‘God’s understanding of himself’ (p. 55). Khaled Anatolios paints a timely portrait of Irenaeus as the first systematic theologian, one whose anti-Gnostic polemic rests on twin pillars: God’s (dis)similarity to creation, and the consequent reasonableness of relying on ecclesial testimony. It reminded this reviewer of Balthasar’s many profiles of patristic authors, all of which seek in one way or another to verify the presence of the analogia entis. Thomas Guarino maintains the theme of analogy, showing how many of the signature doctrines of Vatican II—on the difference between common and ordained priesthood, on Mary as mediatrix, and on the ‘partial commensurability’ (p. 104) between Christianity and other religions—exemplify the Thomistic analogy of intrinsic attribution, with Christ playing the role of primary analogate. Even if Vatican II abandoned scholasticism in style, Guarino observes, it did not do so in substance.
Part two considers Christ as the ‘Center of the Economy of Salvation.’ There Gerald O’Collins substantiates Augustine’s claim that Christ was ‘beautiful in laying down his life,’ combining historical-critical and patristic insights to unusually happy effect. Matthew Levering continues in the vein of biblical interpretation, arguing that the Gospel of Matthew has a ‘(proto-)Trinitarian Christology’ (p. 152). Weaving together historical-critical exegesis and the interpretations of canonical theologians (Chrysostom, Aquinas, Calvin), he argues convincingly that Jesus’ capacity to act in the immediate power of the Spirit (Mt 12:28) implies his divinity, and that the stiffer penalty for blasphemy against the Spirit (Mt 12:32) need not imply subordinationism. Shifting gears to the 12th-century Cistercian theology, Nathaniel Peters shows that for Isaac of Stella the mystical body makes possible an affective participation in the Trinity. Isaac’s position that Christ both offers and receives the eucharist sacrifice nicely illustrates (to this reviewer, at least) the lex orandi – lex credenda principle. Such a eucharistic theology would scarcely be conceivable today, when the revised missal scrupulously conforms to Jungmann’s principle that the liturgical prayer should address the Father alone.
Part three, the ‘Center of the Christian Life,’ offers a similar mix of medieval and contemporary perspectives. Christopher Ruddy’s chapter on Ratzinger’s liturgical anthropology and Christology is rich even for one who, like myself, spends a good deal of time with Ratzinger’s texts. Drawing heavily from less known papal addresses, it highlights ecclesial concerns that Benedict shares with Francis—self-referentiality, scandal, ‘worldliness’ (p. 186)—while subtly defending the plausibility of the remedy Benedict prioritizes: right worship. Ryan Connors turns from Benedict back to John Paul II, arguing that Veritatis Splendor restored Christ and connaturality to the center of the moral life, contributing greatly thereby to the renewal of moral theology. Boyd Taylor Coolman’s study of ‘divine affectivity’ in Hugh of St Victor is one of the most fascinating in the volume. Adding to the burgeoning field of studies on the history of emotion, it shows how Hugh of St Victor praised a ‘bivalent capacity for fellow feeling’ (p. 209), an ability not only to compassionate but to co-rejoice. Even if the Victorine emphasis on congratulatio may not be unexampled as is sometimes implied (one thinks of the importance of shared enjoyment in Aristotelian friendship), the intensity of its expression in Hugh makes for fascinating—and even spiritually convicting—reading.
The final essays of the volume are grouped under the theme, ‘The Center of Evangelization.’ Brian Daley’s delightful essay on Augustine the Preacher takes the reader on a tour of De Doctrina Christiana and De Catechezandis Rudibus, extracting their relevance for the contemporary preacher. Were Augustine preaching today, Daley suggests, he would make diligent use of exegetical findings, but largely as means to illuminating the figurative and theological senses of the biblical text. Andrew Salzmann mines Imbelli’s own writings for resources to answer a question that his work inevitably raises: Is it possible to have Christocentrism without Christomonism? Particularly valuable is his exploration of Imbelli’s debt to the philosophical theologian Josiah Royce, whose insistence on the communal nature of self-construction suggests that atonement must be completed in a community of ‘liberating con-spiracy’ (261). Angela Franks, clearly writing from her expertise, offers a Balthasarian take on the theme of becoming persons in Christ. She argues that Balthasar reserves the fullness of personhood to Christians on Trinitarian mission, but does so without undermining the natural dignity of non-Christians and the disabled. Because mission flows from identity in Balthasar’s thought, ‘ontological individuality . . . is in potency to finite theological personhood’ (p. 298). Here the reviewer is reminded of the many patristic reflections on the relationship between humanity as imago Dei and similitudo Dei. Thomas Weinandy rounds out the collection by exhuming the Chalcedonian underpinning of Imbelli’s vision of evangelization. Only if Christ is truly the God-man, Weinandy observes, does it make sense to seek not just his message but his living presence as well, especially in the eucharistic Church.
A short review of this nature cannot hope even to summarize adequately, let alone evaluate, each contribution. A few words, however, should be said about the character of the Festschrift as a whole. First, the contributors take up themes that faithfully render Imbelli’s own emphases as a teacher and scholar, especially his resolute Christocentrism (full disclosure: I too am a former student). Second, this inclusive Christocentrism manages to provide a kind of cohesiveness to what might otherwise have been a mere miscellany. Whether departing from Scripture, the fathers, 12th-century Cistercians, or 20th-century systematicians, each chapter offers a complementary perspective on Christ as the fullness of grace of truth. Theologians looking for models of theologizing that escape the gravitational pull of church journalism or grievance studies will do well to look here. Finally, the volume under review reveals that many of today’s finest theologians are linked to Imbelli by ties of friendship and intellectual sympathy. Performatively, the collection as whole reinforces what some of its outstanding contributions propose: that theology is best done as a ‘liberating con-spiracy,’ with a healthy dose of congratulatio.