Jesus – God and Man

Wolfhart Pannenberg's "Jesus – God and Man" presents a groundbreaking approach to Christology that seeks to establish the divinity of Jesus Christ through rigorous historical investigation rather than dogmatic presupposition. Writing in 1968, Pannenberg challenges both the existentialist theology dominant in his era and traditional approaches that begin with faith commitments about Christ's divine nature.

The work's central thesis maintains that the resurrection of Jesus constitutes a historical event that can be investigated using critical historical methods. Pannenberg argues against Rudolf Bultmann's program of demythologization and Karl Barth's revelational positivism, insisting that theology must engage with historical research rather than retreat into fideism or existential interpretation. He contends that the resurrection, when properly understood within its Jewish apocalyptic context, provides the epistemological foundation for recognizing Jesus as the Son of God.

Pannenberg develops his Christology "from below," beginning with the historical Jesus and moving toward affirmations of divinity, rather than starting with incarnational doctrine and working downward. This methodology represents a decisive break with traditional systematic theology. He argues that Jesus' claim to divine authority becomes retroactively validated through the resurrection, which functions as God's vindication of Jesus' pre-Easter claims and actions. The resurrection thus serves as the crucial link between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith.

The monograph's philosophical sophistication appears in its engagement with concepts of prolepsis and retroactive ontology. Pannenberg maintains that Jesus' divine sonship, while eternally true, becomes revealed and actualized in history through the resurrection event. This temporal-ontological framework allows him to affirm orthodox Christological conclusions while maintaining methodological commitment to historical investigation.

The work's significance for the God debate extends beyond Christology proper. By grounding theological claims in purportedly historical events, Pannenberg offers a model for how belief in God might be rationally justified through historical investigation rather than abstract philosophical argument or immediate religious experience. His project represents an ambitious attempt to overcome the modern separation between faith and history, theology and critical scholarship.

Pannenberg's influence reverberates through subsequent theological discourse, particularly in discussions about the relationship between history and revelation, the possibility of natural theology, and the public character of theological truth claims. His insistence that theology must submit its claims to critical examination positions religious belief within the broader sphere of human knowledge rather than isolating it in a protected realm of faith.