Tidiga Jesusbilder. Om erfarenheten bakom och framför kristologin

Abstract

This article discusses traces of an early prophet christology in New Testament texts. To what extent was such a christology based on experience and what effects did this have on early Christian practice and ethics? Taking two common designations for Jesus (Son and particularly Messiah/Christ) as reflecting the earliest images of him, it is argued that Jesus was historically experienced as an anointed eschatological prophet, and that such a christology is expressed in the «christopraxy» of the earliest churches. This is explained by believers relating their own social and religious experiences to historical (primary) experiences of Jesus, through narrative (secondary) experiences, mediated by tradition. It is argued that such an experience-based christology was relevant for early Christians by reflecting what Jesus’own practice rather than his ontological status meant for them. It is suggested that contemporary christologies ought to be similarly experience-based, in order to be relevant to Christian practice and ethics today.