Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T17:46:27.399Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Polanyi and Christological Dualisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Robert J. Palma
Robert J. Palma
Affiliation:
Hope College126 East 10th St Holland, Michigan 49422–9000
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The problem which this article addresses comprises representative Christological dualisms, long in the making, which have come to a head in the twentieth century. They include the Jesus of history and Christ of faith dichotomy, Christology from above as opposed to Christology from below, and ontological Christology over against functional Christology. Behind such dualisms are genuine and fundamental dualities whose integration has been severely damaged in modern theology through the compounding of longstanding dualisms in Western Thought with modern critical thought as shaped by rationalism, empiricism, and scepticism. In this essay I wish to show how Michael Polanyi's theories of being and knowing have much to offer in overcoming the above dualisms. The prospect of such was already made evident to me several years ago in the work of Thomas F. Torrance, and more recently in the work of Colin Gunton. My present purpose is not just to repeat what they have already said, but rather to carry this project forward by applying major theories of Polanyi especially to Christological dualisms. While Torrance has made extensive use of Polanyi in addressing dualisms in theology, it is not in such Christological texts as Space, Time and Incarnation or Space, Time and Resurrection, that Polanyi is especially utilized. However, in The Mediation of Christ Polanyi's influence seems implicit where Torrance addresses the dualist, including gnostic, threat to Christology in the early centuries of the Christian church.

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , May 1995 , pp. 211 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Torrance, Thomas F., The Mediation of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), pp. 11–14, 57–63.Google Scholar

2 Torrance, Thomas F., Transformation & Convergence in the Frame of Knowledge: Explorations in the Interrelations of Scientific and Theological Enterprise (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984), p. 93.Google Scholar

3 Gunton, Colin E., Yesterday & Today: A Study of Continuities in Christology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), p. 47.Google Scholar

4 Polanyi, Michael, Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1962), p. 266.Google Scholar

5 ibid., p. 4.

6 Polanyi, Michael, Scientific Thought and Social Reality: Essays by Michael Polanyi, ed. Schwartz, Fred (New York: International Universities, 1974), p. 117.Google Scholar

7 Gunton, Colin E., Enlightenment and Alienation: An Essay Towards a Trinitarian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985), p. 43.Google Scholar

8 France, R. T., ‘The Worship of Jesus: A Neglected Factor in Christological Debate?’, Chiist the Lord, ed. Rowdon, H. (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity, 1982), p. 34.Google Scholar

9 Pannenberg, Wolfhart, Jesus-God and Man, trans. Wilkins, Lewis L. and Priebe, Duane A. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968), p. 28.Google Scholar

10 Palma, Robert J., ‘What God Has Joined Together’, Family Dialogue, No. 15 (Fall, 1991), pp. 119–130.Google Scholar

11 Personal Knowledge, p. 284.

12 The Mediation of Christ, p. 63.

13 Scientific Thought and Social Reality, p. 116.

14 ibid., p. 130.

15 Personal Knowledge, pp. 388–404.

16 Polanyi, Michael, The Tacit Dimension (Garden City: NY: Anchor-Doubleday, 1967), p. 35.Google Scholar

17 Polanyi, Michael, Knowing and Being: Essays by Michael Polanyi, ed. and introd. Grene, Majorie (Chicago: U. of Chicago P, 1969), p. 236.Google Scholar

18 The Tacit Dimension, p. 13.

19 Personal Knowledge, p. 284.

20 The Tacit Dimension, p. 35–34.

21 ibid., p. 4.

22 Scientific Thought and Social Reality, p. 126.

23 Knowing and Being, p. 129.

24 ibid., p. 128.

25 Moule, C. F. D., The Origin of Christology (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1977), p. 152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Knowing and Being, p. 128–129.

27 Marshall, I. Howard, The Origins of New Testament Christology (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1976), p. 128.Google Scholar

28 The Origin of Christology, p. 158.

29 Runia, Klaas, The present-day Christological Debate (Leicester, England: Inter-varsity, 1984), p. 96.Google Scholar

30 The Tacit Dimension, pp. 11–13.

31 ibid., p. 17.

32 Knowing and Being, p. 136.

33 Scientific Thought and Social Reality, p. 126.

34 Personal Knowledge, p. 266.

35 Scientific Thought and Social Reality, p. 118.

36 Pannenberg, Wolfhart (ed.), Revelation as History, trans. Granskou, David (New York: Macmillan, 1968), p. ix.Google Scholar

37 Personal Knowledge, p. 286.

37 ibid., p. 199.

37 The Worship of Jesus: A Neglected Factor in Chistological Debate?' , p.34.