Wolfhart Pannenberg

              In Chapter 11 of his Systematic Theology, Pannenberg, in the third part of his discussion of Christology, will explore the reconciliation of the world. He will discuss, within the context of anthropology and creation, what God has done to reconcile the world in Christ. The parallel in Karl Barth is Church Dogmatics, IV.1. Pannenberg is among the theologians who want to move away from the central place the crucifixion holds in other theological systems. Christ did fully accomplish our salvation at Golgotha. Yet, salvation has an orientation toward the Spirit and eschatology that such a cross-centered theology would not allow. Moltmann shares in this orientation, moving toward an eschatological Christology. [1] I should also say that he finally discusses the gospel as the close of his discussion of Christology and reconciliation of the world. This contrasts with Barth, of course, who discusses the Word of God, especially its three-fold form, in Chapter I as part of

            In Chapter 10, Pannenberg will deal with the deity of Jesus Christ. He will discuss the special humanity of Jesus based on what we are to say of his deity. He begins by offering a summary of what he will say in this chapter. In these compact and dense sentences, properly understood, you have what Pannenberg wants to say here. He says he wants to discover the contours of the divine sonship of Jesus in his human reality. The human history of Jesus is the revelation of his eternal sonship. The human relation of Jesus to God the Father reflects his deity and illumines the eternal being of God. To look at the deity of Jesus from the perspective of the Trinity, the Son, in becoming human, is not adding something alien to his deity. The human life of Jesus is the self-created medium of his self-actualization through the fact of the self-distinction from the Father. In this way, the Son fulfills his eternal sonship. He does so by leaving the sphere of deity by becoming a huma