Christocentrism of Charism – Buggert - CarmelStream

instance of this theological principle. What is instructive here is that growth in faith, growth in the
spiritual life, growth in prayer, if it is genuine growth, can never be dehumanizing. It must always be
humanizing. In a very true sense, given Rahner's view of the human person as capax Dei, one can
say that grace does not divinize. Grace humanizes. Or perhaps it would be more precise to say that
grace divinizes us by making us more and more human.
In view of this theological principle, of which Christ is the highest and fullest example, the
life of faith or the spiritual life should never alienate us from our genuine humanity or true selves.
Jesus' sonship as the radical realization and hence celebration of the human militates against all
gnostic, Manichaean, Albigensian and Jansenistic tendencies in spirituality to denigrate the human.
Christ as the New Adam, as the one totally actualized human being is the witness par excellence to
the words of Irenaeus. "The glory of God is the human person fully alive."
Christology from Below cl
One concern common to most contemporary Christologies is to take seriously the
significance of the historical humanity of Jesus. cli Hence, many Christologies today, e.g. that of K.
Rahner, E. Schillebeeckx, W. Kasper, W. Pannenberg, J. Sobrino, are characterized as Christologies
"from below" or "ascent" Christologies, i.e. Christologies which move from the "the historical Jesus"
to the Christ of faith and dogma. clii The "historical Jesus" is actually a composite image of Jesus (his
words, deeds, self-understanding, claim, understanding of his fate) which is reconstructed through
the use of historical-critical methods applied to New Testament texts. cliii It is with select aspects of
this historical Jesus that I am concerned, for they can most help us rearticulate the Christocentrism of
the Rule. cliv
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