Developing a New Christology for a Postmodern Culture

Knowing Christ Today

Donald D. Phillips, Honorary Fellow, St. John

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English

Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
15 November 2024

Christian liturgy, prayerbooks & hymnals; Christian theology; Christian life & practice

In an increasingly secular, contemporary (postmodern) culture, many people have no understanding of Christianity or the importance and relevance of Jesus Christ. As a result, the Church’s traditional liturgical texts, as well as the church-oriented language often used by Christians to explain the Gospel, are not helpful or accessible to those outside the Church. To respond to this challenge, the author uses a semiotic method, based on the work of Robert Schreiter, to engage and describe the nature of contemporary postmodern culture. Using a narrative approach to the Gospels based on the work of the 20th century historical theologian, Hans Frei, the author derives a more modest, open-ended Christology which will ‘converse’ with its cultural context and continue to be interpreted within contemporary Christian communities. Using social values analysis from a particular contemporary culture, the author then forms biblical statements about the person of Jesus Christ that are congruent with those values, and uses them to construct a new Eucharistic Prayer. The result is a liturgical prayer that is accessible and enables members of that local culture to be embraced by, and to embrace, the identity of Jesus Christ.

By: Donald D. Phillips Honorary Fellow St. John
Imprint: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781978716087
ISBN 10: 1978716087
Pages: 230
Publication Date: 15 November 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Chapter 1The Challenge Chapter 2Understanding Local Culture(s) Chapter 3Local (Contextual) Theology Chapter 4“What about the impact of the Gospel in a local culture?” Chapter 5Developing a Contextual Christology in a Postmodern Culture Chapter 6Transformative Potential of Inculturated Texts in the Liturgy Chapter 7Examining the Christology of Canadian Anglican Contemporary Eucharistic Prayers for Cultural Reflexivity Chapter 8Bringing Together Culture and Christology in Proposed Eucharistic Prayer Texts Chapter 9The Way Forward

Bishop Donald D. Phillips, PhD, is honorary fellow of St. John's College, University of Manitoba.

Reviews for Developing a New Christology for a Postmodern Culture: Knowing Christ Today

Communication of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for transformation is Philipps’ goal in Developing a New Christology for a Postmodern Culture: Knowing Christ Today. He knows what’s been tried and failed in the past. On the one hand, faithfulness in the form of antiquated expression, while it is safe, leaves the Christian message hovering at 50,000 ft - it does not communicate to our time and place. The church is called to faithfulness for the time it is in. On the other, fitting in and uncritically reflecting the values of the time and place, while it aims at relevance, it hits redundance dead centre. It means that the transformative power of the Gospel is translated into cultural common sense for apologetic purposes. Deploying theological, social scientific and liturgical resources, Philipps articulates a missional theology that engages culture with the transformative message of the Gospel. And he shows us how it works in evaluation and articulation of Christologies of eucharistic prayers that are both faithful and intelligible for engagement now. -- Richard R. Topping, President and Vice-Chancellor, Vancouver School of Theology