God Sent His Son

Book excerpt: In this work of Christology, Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, a world-renowned theologian, takes as his starting point the Apostle Paul's statement, "But when the time had fully come, God sent for his Son, born of woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5). Based on many years of lecturing on Christology, Cardinal Schonborn's work moves from the solid conviction of faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel, the Son of the Living God, through the development of the Church's understanding of this truth, to the consideration of contemporary issues and the views of various modern theologians. Cardinal Schonborn sees Christology as based on the original Illumination granted by the Father in manifesting his Son, which divides, as if through a prism, into a rainbow of Christological themes. "Christology," he writes, "in every phase of its development, follows its path by this light: 'in thy light do we see light' (Ps 36:10)." Christology is always faith seeking understanding-trying to understand that to which the believer already says, "Yes!" God Sent His Son has the comprehensiveness and scholarly precision of a textbook but the insights and personal relevance of a work of spirituality. It carefully explores ancient and medieval questions, but also modern issues of Christology.