The first of five volumes in a series on constructive theology for the pluralistic world, Christ and Reconciliation sets a markedly ambitious agenda that is as daunting as it is necessary. The second volume, Trinity and Revelation, will be published in 2014. At the time of this writing, Kärkkäinen is completing the third volume on theological anthropology and creation, with two more volumes scheduled: Spirit and Salvation and Community and Hope.
The first ten chapters make up part 1 of the volume, entitled “Christ,” and include extended discussions on method, Jesus' ministry, global testimonies to Christ, the Council of Chalcedon, and Spirit and Logos Christologies. Part 1 concludes with a chapter critiquing John Hick's theological pluralism and a chapter on religiously diverse engagements with Christological issues. Chapters 11 through 15 comprise part 2, entitled “Reconciliation,” and address atonement theories, the critique and legitimation of violence in atonement, reconciliation of relationships, and Christian salvation amid the religions of the world.
One will look in vain for a single-volume treatment on Christology and the doctrine of reconciliation that is more global and polyphonic than Kärkkäinen's. For this reason alone the volume is a success. Because all theological voices are contextual, tradition is least helpfully understood through binary categories like mainstream and marginal. The introduction courageously calls for a paradigm shift in which the presentation of Christian truth is “inclusive to the cultural and global diversity of Christ's followers” who “learn from and make a contribution to other living faith traditions” (33). One hopes the five-volume series sets a precedent for inclusion of World Christianities and that Kärkkäinen's principle of integration or catholicity becomes a criterion for adequate constructive theological proposals going forward.
Despite its length, near-encyclopedic content delivery, and thorough research, the volume's richness simultaneously gives rise to several ambiguities that may be corroborated or ameliorated in forthcoming volumes.
First, the writing includes copious references and quotations from major figures, creedal statements, and biblical texts, and undoubtedly helps to convey rich description. Stylistically, Kärkkäinen's own voice occasionally recedes in favor of a litany of others, which can render less clear the constructive turns he wishes to make. The writing style also raises the question of the intended audience: is this book directed to scholarly peers, or to advanced university students, to whom the book would be assigned as a comprehensive textbook? The latter appears most likely.
Second, what is meant by biblical and historical tradition could be clarified. The relative ubiquity of Moltmann and Pannenberg would seem to affect what is meant by tradition, possibly implying a difference between traditional and contextual perspectives. One wonders if contextual perspectives are understood as added to rather than constitutive of the biblical and historical tradition, despite Kärkkäinen's stated “inclusive, dialogical, and hospitable vision” (13). So too, the use and authority of Scripture could be clarified. How can and should Scripture function to warrant systematic theological proposals concerning, for example, atonement, reconciliation, or postcolonial Christology (81–84)? Are commentarial and exegetical perspectives compatible with scriptural authority? Are they helpful in avoiding the impression that Scripture speaks as a homogenous whole, or in discerning the relationship between contextual voices and the received tradition their praxis might problematize and rehabilitate?
Third, the discipline of comparative theology is invoked in chapter 10 to report on moments of dialogue representatives of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have had with Christological sources. Here Kärkkäinen leans heavily on two anthologies—Jesus beyond Christianity (Oxford, 2010) and Jesus in the World's Faiths (Maryknoll, NY, 2008)—as source materials, but these anthologies render the discussion rather general, whereas experiments in the discipline of comparative theology tend to be narrow in scope and therefore nuanced in detail relative to the presentation here.
Fourth, the writing contains traces of what might be called the ‘political’ in contemporary theology. Particular representatives of feminist and marginalized perspectives are objects of dismissive language not appearing elsewhere in the volume (242–45, 343), while the terms ‘feminist’ and ‘feminism’ could be used with greater nuance to signal differentiation among those claiming the labels. Kärkkäinen is unique and to be lauded for how broadly he reads and invites global and feminist voices into conversation, though it is a conversation in which a select few are presented as if with a view to their perceived inadequacy vis-à-vis tradition. Consideration of these voices along the lines of Ricoeur's second naïveté would be a welcome alternative.
Fifth, in light of the previous four ambiguities, the qualifier “constructive” in Kärkkäinen's volumes may benefit from emphasis on the particular contributions and differences made by the contextual voices he rightly engages. Are they dialogue partners appearing alongside of Christian tradition, though not necessarily internalized, or might they be internalized so as to generate materially new texture to the theological picture of biblical and historical tradition? Otherwise, the reader might be forgiven for speculating whether the qualifier “constructive” occasionally functions as “apologetic.”
These ambiguities notwithstanding, the volume breaks new ground by convincingly demonstrating not only that but how theological construction must be globally literate and accountable. This volume and the forthcoming volumes deserve space in every university library and should be on the horizon of every student of theology.
