Programme
Belief is a personal act. On the one side, it is an act directed toward God who is revealing himself in the person of Jesus; on the other side it is a personal act of confessing and witnessing proceeding from the “I” and “we” of believers. The personal dimension of faith is not just the detached mind’s assent to random idea but a conviction that people share as well as an attitude that people practice. Personalized Christology and personal faith are intimately connected and are manifested in narrations and argumentations about special experiences of individuals. The New Testament describes persons who are witnesses of faith, because Jesus Christ, who appears as a person, is offering God’s love to living persons to faith. In its many theological perspectives, the New Testament gathers and presents personal experiences and convictions of faith. In this respect, it makes transparent significant personal dimensions of Christology: in stylized biographies, in narrated stories, and in reflected creeds. This biographical approach enables exegesis to identify biographical patterns of Christology that mere historicism overlooks. A programmatic article of Thomas Söding published in ZThK 116 (2019) 133- 152 (Bekennen und Bezeugen) serves as kick-off for a deeper discussion of hermeneutical challenges and Christological differences which are to be compared in the workshop.
Keywords:
Christology, Person, Faith, Hermeneutics, Biographical Approach