ABSTRACT

This chapter is concerned with the nature and identity of the Christian tradition, the distinctiveness and otherness of its particularity. In what ways does a vision of Jesus in terms of ‘the Shaken One’ properly resist his objectification and shape his corporate Body? For I am arguing it is appropriate to problematize the dichotomy between ‘Jesus’ as object and ‘I’ as subject or interpreter, since such a dichotomy underpins our idealization of him, denying his ‘shadow side’, or indeed our tradition’s shadow side. The point is that, by supposing there is the definitive, or final, Jesus, in absolute contrast to our partial glimpses of him, we are divorcing him from his social relationalities and thus dehumanizing him. Any such notion of an objectified Jesus, in history, in our knowledge or in our practice, will tend towards sectarianism, even imperialism, being disinclined to attend to the otherness within the tradition.