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As many times as I have read it, I remain uncertain about just what Marxsen's point is in "Grenze der Moglichkeit christologischer Aussagen." Some formulations, at least, would seem to indicate that his point is to accept and argue for one kind of christology ("christology from below"), while rejecting and arguing against another kind ("christology from above"), namely, because the first remains within the limit of possible christological assertions, while the second goes beyond that limit. Among the formulations that appear to call for this interpretation are those right at the beginning of the essay that appear to associate "christology from above" with an incarnationist christology in danger of not taking seriously the vere homo of the human being Jesus, and "christology from below" with an adoptionist christology having the opposite difficulty of stopping with the man Jesus and never reaching the vere deus, and so never attaining any christology at all.

But there are other indications that Marxsen's real point is different. The choice he calls for is not really a choice between two kinds of christology, but a choice between two ways of proceeding in doing christology--one of which begins, as it should, with the experience of Jesus' activity out of which all christological formulations have arisen; the other of which begins, as it should not, with certain christological formulations-namely, those deemed to be "right," e.g., because of the dogmatic decisions of the church at Nicaea and Cha1cedonChalcedon. That this is the choice he really calls for seems to me the best way to take his concluding statement: "It is a 'mortal sin' of theological work to take assertions that have arisen in one direction and to argue with them in the opposite direction." The choice here, obviously, is between two ways of "arguing" theologically, or christologically. And this same choice is evidently called for when he says, "One may not make what others have formulated as the consequence of their faith into the foundation of the faith of those who come later" (12).

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