Review article
Reflections on the Consciousness of Christ
Željko Paša
Abstract
From the definition of the hypostatic union we have obtained theological deductions which require, as does the Magisterium of the Church, that we believe that Christ was aware of His divine sonship from the very beginning, and that he possessed the power to behold the presence of God. However, the Magisterium does not relate the manner in which this consciousness existed in Christ.
There are diverse kinds of knowledge, diverse ways in which the perceived reality can exist in the consciousness of the perceiver. Encyclopedic knowledge expresses a human manner of perception which is imperfect. It may stifle a person's freedom and the self-actualization process. Jesus' contemplation of God’s presence is of the order of transcendental knowledge. This knowledge is His fundamental transcendental awareness of the self. The immediacy with which the man Jesus was able to behold God during His earthly life was not the "visio beatifica" which is to ensue from the Resurrection: the scope for suffering and growth remained. Jesus' transcendental awareness of His divine sonship strives, as does all transcendental knowledge, to be articulated as encyclopedic knowledge, and thus to fully express the ineffable which has been borne within from the beginning.
This self-interpretation is realized in the course of human history, which Jesus endured, thus subjecting himself to the universal law of growth and maturation.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
1197
URI
Publication date:
3.6.2003.
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