In this “little Christology,” Boff incorporates elements from his extensive research in Christology over the past fifty years and builds a concise, overarching narrative of what he sees as essential to Christology. This narrative is anchored in the historical (earthly) Jesus’s consciousness of his unique relationship with God as the “Son of God,” which leads him to call God “Abba.”
Like liberation and many other contemporary Christologies, Boff starts “from below” with the humanity of Jesus. Though affirming later dogmatic Christological statements, Boff maintains that an “essential Christology” for today must begin with the historical, human Jesus. To take seriously the humanity of Jesus is to recognize his particularity as a brown skinned, marginal figure whose existence emerges from the materiality of the earth with its deep cosmic relations over billions of years. The recognition of these intimate connections leads Boff to argue that Christology must attend to development of integral ecological awareness and action.
This grounding of Christology in the humanity of Jesus moves Boff not only to attend to Jesus’s peaching and praxis but to questions about Jesus’s own self-awareness. This latter focus sets this volume apart from his earlier works as Boff develops in more detail a view on what and when Jesus realized his special relationship with God. Boff maintains that Jesus had a transformative experience of being loved by God. Boff places this event at the time of his baptism by John the Baptist. This experience became the pivotal touchstone for Jesus’s self-understanding and ministry. Boff is emphatic in noting the uniqueness of the experience (i.e., more than a “religious/spiritual experience”) because it reached beyond experiential knowledge and was a trans-empirical event captivating Jesus’s “essential (ontological) character” (41).
This experience of being enveloped by the infinite love of God explains Jesus’s utilization of the most intimate and familial term available in calling God “Abba” and thereby claiming his sonship, a designation that Boff maintains is “without parallel in all Jewish Literature” (30). This experience becomes the hermeneutical key to understand the significance of Jesus’s preaching, storytelling, and miracles, and his willingness to undergo suffering and the ultimate humiliation of the crucifixion. The resurrection is the final ratification that the God-Abba love experienced by Jesus and witnessed by him was and is real. It is now the task of the followers of Jesus to enter the relationship Jesus embodies and makes real to work to create a society based in, and expressive of, the boundless unconditional love that includes all of humanity, especially the poor and marginal. Boff notes that this task is grounded in and sustained by the infinite love of God-Abba and ultimately will reach its goal only in the eschaton—an eschaton that will bring all creation and humanity to its consummation in God.
Boff’s “little Christology” is an important contribution to the growing literature that presents contemporary Jesus research in an accessible format to a wide audience. Grounding his understanding of Jesus’s life in his experience of the intimacy of God-Abba provides a meaningful entry point for contemporary persons to relate personally with Jesus. This experiential emphasis is particularly relevant in evangelization efforts with their focus on forming a personal relationship with Jesus. Boff’s centering his portrait of Jesus on his God-Abba experience creates an overarching narrative that is succinct, comprehensive, and integrative as he traces the impact of that experience upon his life and ministry. This narrative is focused and compelling in its simplicity and inspiring impact.
The experiential focus and succinctness of Boff’s “little Christology” is not without its challenges and limitations. His attempt to get into the mind and heart of the earthly Jesus is reminiscent of the many failed attempts over the past century of “quests for the historical Jesus”—attempts that have consistently ended in frustration and failure. In a sense, Boff’s portrayal is even more audacious as he attempts to get into the very consciousness of Jesus.
Consequently, he is open to the same criticisms that have undermined these previous attempts: selective use of material, glossing over inconstancies in the resources themselves, making highly questionable connections, and introduction of categories that are anachronistic. Following are three substantive examples of statements from his work that are contested and highly questionable: one, Boff’s assertion that Jesus calling God “Abba” is an expression “without parallel in all Jewish literature” (30); two, his contention that the powerful realization of God-Abba occurred at the moment of Jesus’s baptism; and three, that Jesus experienced and understood himself as the Son of God. This designation is fraught with complex theological baggage and controversy, and contradicts the consensus that the earthly Jesus called himself “Son of Man.”
Although these challenges are significant, they do not discount the genuine value of this work. Boff presents a focused, coherent narrative that is accessible, relevant, and inspiriting to contemporary believers and seekers. It serves as a superb starting point for serious conversation and would be a great resource for seekers, adult faith formation classes, and college-level theology courses.
