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By Thine Agony and Bloody Sweat Dogmatic Description of the Double Agency of Christ – a Modest Proposal

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By Thine Agony and Bloody Sweat Dogmatic Description of the Double Agency of Christ – a Modest Proposal BY THINE AGONY AND BLOODY SWEAT DOGMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE DOUBLE AGENCY OF CHRIST – A MODEST PROPOSAL by PATRICK D. M. PATTERSON A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF WYCLIFFE COLLEGE AND THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF TORONTO SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY. IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY AWARDED BY WYCLIFFE COLLEGE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. © Copyright by Patrick Patterson 2012 BY THINE AGONY AND BLOODY SWEAT DOGMATIC DESCRIPTION OF THE DOUBLE AGENCY OF CHRIST – A MODEST PROPOSAL PATRICK D. M. PATTERSON DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY Wycliffe College of University of Toronto 2013 Abstract It is a theological commonplace that 'classical' christology is incompetent to comprehend the authentic humanity of Christ. Alert to the charge but sympathetic to a ‘neo-classical’ approach, this paper addresses one aspect of the problem, namely, the properly dogmatic definition of Christ's divine and human agencies, with particular reference to the biblical locus classicus, Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. My thesis is twofold. (i) Neo-classical christologies are able sufficiently to comprehend the double agency of Christ because they are able sufficiently to comprehend even the most provocative of biblical texts, epitomised by the narratives of Jesus' agony in Gethsemane. (ii) Their sufficiency depends upon their taking into account as of the utmost significance that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and the seed of Abraham, in whom Yahweh the God of Israel has redeemed his people unto the blessing of the nations. My defence of the first part consists in careful exposition of the double agency of Christ according to John Meyendorff, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Karl Barth; defence of the second in theological commentary on the Gethsemane text in Luke. The final chapter rehearses the key dogmatic judgments that my readings of Meyendorff, Balthasar, and Barth and my exegesis of Gethsemane have demonstrated to be necessary to a sufficient dogmatic description of the double agency of Christ. ii All biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise indicated. The George Grant epigraph is an excerpt from notes entitled “Obedience” found among Grant’s papers after his death. Never intended for publication, the notes were probably musings for an article, lecture, or book. The notes were eventually published in their original format by G. O. in The Idler, No. 29, July and August 1990. iii ... in memoriam, George P. Schner SJ iv It is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2.16f A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. Nunc Dimittis By his agony … to save us from agony. Maximus, Opuscula 16 The classic case of obedience is X [Christ]. the lamb led to the slaughter – suffers, yields X. commands by beseeching. George Grant, unpublished fragment v Table of Contents Abstract . ii Acknowledgements . iii Epitaph . iv Epigraphs . v Abbreviations . viii Introduction . 1 1. Cooperative Synergy: The Double Agency Of Christ According To John Meyendorff . 16 The Deity Of Christ The Humanity Of Christ The Kenosis Of The Son The Mutual Orientation To Communion Of God And Humanity Gethsemane 2. Mutual Coninherence: The Double Agency Of Christ According To Hans Urs Von Balthasar . 59 The Deity Of Christ The Humanity Of Christ The Kenosis Of The Son The Kenosis Of The Son: Summary The Non-Competitive Relation Of Divine And Human Agencies In Christ Gethsemane vi 3. Correspondence: The Double Agency Of Christ According To Karl Barth . 110 The Deity Of Christ The Humanity Of Christ The Kenosis Of The Son The Mutual Participation Of Divine And Human Agencies In Christ Gethsemane 4. The Glory Of Israel: A Reading Of Gethsemane . 166 Taking Stock A Modest Proposal Interim Conclusion 5. Conclusion . 222 The Integrity Of Christ’s Divine Agency The Integrity Of Christ’s Human Agency The Unity Of Christ’s Person Appendixes 1. Balthasar’s Account Of The Mater Dolorosa: Christ's Female Counterpart . 230 2. Translations Of Maximus’ Opuscula 6 And Selections From Maximus’ Disputation With Pyrrhus . 234 3. Light From John’s Gospel . 241 Bibliography vii Abbreviations CD Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics KD Karl Barth, Die kirchliche Dogmatik PG Patrologia Graeca PL Patrologia Latina GL Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord TD Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama TL Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Logic viii Introduction It is a theological commonplace that 'classical' christology is incompetent to comprehend the authentic humanity of Christ.1 Numerous endeavours have been undertaken, especially in the past two centuries, to provide more or less radically alternative descriptions. In recent years however there has been a renewal of interest in the classical formulae, yielding myriad and diverse christologies that we may loosely gather under the heading 'neo-classical'.2 Their concern has been not merely to repeat unaltered, but to enlist as fruitful resource, the old formulae in the service of contemporary christological discourse, – to speak of Jesus Christ and the God of the gospel with an eye and ear open to holy scripture and tradition but also to contemporary concerns with agency, freedom, conflict, and culture. Sharing a heightened sensitivity to the persistent accusation levelled against the tradition that it slights Christ's humanity, their diversity is due in part to the very different solutions they offer to that problem. Alert to the charge but sympathetic to 1 'Classical' is here used to refer to christology as defined in the dogmatic decrees of the ecumenical councils, especially Chalcedon (451) and Constantinople III (680-681). 2 I have opted for 'neo-classical' only as apparently less problematic than others (e.g., incarnational, neo- chalcedonian, neo-orthodox, alexandrian, enhypostatic) that have been used to describe this family of christologies. For a helpful discussion of this mode of theology, see John Webster, “Theologies of Retrieval”, in The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology, eds. John Webster, Kathryn Tanner, Iain Torrance (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 583-599. 1 2 the neo-classical approach, I propose to address one aspect of the same problem, namely, the properly dogmatic definition of Christ's divine and human agencies. My thesis is twofold. (i) Neo-classical christologies are able sufficiently to comprehend the divine and human agencies of Christ because they are able sufficiently to comprehend even the most provocative of biblical texts, epitomised by the narratives of Jesus' agony in Gethsemane. (ii) Their sufficiency depends upon their taking into account as of the utmost significance that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and the seed of Abraham, in whom Yahweh the God of Israel has redeemed his people unto the blessing of the nations. With a view to a modest contribution to a more sufficient dogmatic description of Christ’s double agency, I have apprenticed myself to three recent theologians who have devoted serious attention to the subject. The Orthodox, John Meyendorff, offers a creative retrieval of the neo-Chalcedonian terminology and affirmations forged in the original controversy and its diothelite resolution at Constantinople III (680-681). The Catholic, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and the Protestant, Karl Barth, alert to the history, provide a more strictly dogmatic treatment of the theme. All three address the Gethsemane texts. Paying minimal attention to secondary sources, and for the most part ignoring current controversies particularly in Barth and Balthasar studies, I concentrate on meticulous exposition of their own work. In Meyendorff’s case, that includes almost his entire output. In light of the immensity of Balthasar’s and Barth’s work I limit myself (more or less) to those works in which the theme receives its most intensive treatment: Balthasar’s Theo-Drama volumes 2 through 5 and Theo-Logic volume 2, and Barth’s Church Dogmatics volume 4, parts 1 and 2. Throughout, I endeavour to let “the matter itself”, dogmatic description of the divine-human agency of Jesus Christ, hold centre stage. 3 3 “… what can be fruitfully said and argued theologically … comes not out of all the familiar dialogues old and new, even granting an implicit or explicit regard to what this or that person had to say and still has to say, but … out of the matter itself and with our faces set toward Jerusalem” (Karl Barth, Letters: 1961- 1968, ed. Jürgen Fangmeier and Hinrich Stoevesandt, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981], 61 [hereafter cited as Barth, Letters: 1961-68]). 3 My analysis of their work is centered on their treatment of the delicate interrelationship between two distinguishing features of neo-classical christologies. They are also hallmarks of classical christology, but my authors define them and especially their interrelationship in significantly new and different ways, though not essentially in contradiction with the tradition. (1) All are agreed upon the primacy of the active agency of God the Son and Word of God, in the human existence of Jesus Christ. For them all, the acting subject who is the man Jesus Christ is the second Person of the triune God. (2) Yet, as complementary to this affirmation, indeed precisely because of it, they are equally attentive to the integrity of his humanity, including specifically his peculiarly human agency and activity – in perfect communion with, but also distinguishable from and not to be confused with, his properly divine agency and activity. I focus my attention on the different ways in which they relate these two affirmations. My fuller treatment of their handling of the two themes may be briefly summarised.
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