Contemplating Jesus Risen

Abstract

This chapter argues that a contemplative attitude toward Scripture’s portraits of Jesus helps one appreciate the credibility of the proclamation that Jesus rose from the dead to glorified life. The alternative consists in taking a reductive approach that is inadequate to the testimony as a whole. The chapter first attends briefly to certain elements of what Aquinas has to say about contemplating Jesus Christ, by way of providing some background in the Christian tradition. Second, it examines the efforts of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI to perceive the face of Christ through the biblical portraits of Christ. In his Jesus of Nazareth, his meditation upon the New Testament narratives about Jesus’ Resurrection provides him with grounds for judging the historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection. Third, the chapter surveys the case for the credibility of Christian claims that is offered by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his book Love Alone Is Credible.