Abstract
Evolution of an Indigenous Christology involves an inculturated interpretation of the mystery of Christ arising from within the cultural context or hermeneutic of a uniquely Australian people. Being open to the Spirit in such a context generates an authentic dialogue between the revealed Word and the human and spiritual experience of Indigenous Christians. The Word has taken root in this ancient culture and the world has yet to discover the richness of its flowering.
Introduction
Centuries
of interpretation of the person the world knows as Jesus the
Christ have given rise to both ascending and descending Christologies
that may have been assisted (or hindered) by the biblical
faith-portraits of the Jesus of history, the formulation of doctrinal
and credal statements about Jesus the Christ of God within the
lived Christian faith experience, and more recent attempts to
interpret him in a variety of contexts. There continues to be
an ongoing search to create a balanced Christology acceptable
to what people perceive as the revelation of the numinous, the
Supreme Being, the One-above-all-others. Meaning-makers (specifically,
Christologists) need to engage the previous generations of interpretation
in a creative dialogue with contemporary life experience and
understandings, multi-cultural worldviews and the lived experience
of theological reflection and expression across a pluralism of
religious revelation and traditions. The term, Universal Saviour,
ought to have genuine meaning in any Christology. If one
person, or race, is left out of such a Christological model,
then the search for an authentic “Christ” will have
been in vain. Faith, life and Culture are integrated in Jesus
Christ.
The original Christology
To answer the question posed by Jesus to his disciples: Who do people say that I am? three slightly different versions are provided by the gospel-writers, Mark, Matthew and Luke (Mk 8:27-30; Mt 16:13-20; Lk 9:18-21). The influence of oral tradition and interpreted facts evidenced in this brief pericope reveal the challenges faced by later theologians in reaching a single, uniform Christology. This incident in the biblical life of Jesus could serve as the major faith declaration within the community of Christ’s disciples. Peter, their leader, is the spokesperson of the ‘first’ Christology, one might say. Our biblical inheritance 1 is the foundation for all living Christologies since, and accounts for the suffering experienced by the emerging post-Resurrection Christian Movement. 2
Others have attempted to interpret the Jesus of history and faith with varying degrees of meaning for the people of their time and culture. While one era of interpreters favoured doctrinal formulations and definitions that served to refute heresy and unify Church doctrine, 3 others have sought a balance through critical historical investigations of the New Testament interpretations of the memory of Jesus. 4 Still others of our present time search for a meaningful Christology arising from their respective situations of faith, life and culture. 5 From each of these perspectives it can be deduced that culture, language, philosophy and the lived Christian experience significantly determine the hermeneutic adopted for such interpretations. 6
This paper aims to bridge three such models in an attempt to bring to light an integrated Christology from within the lived faith experience of Indigenous Christians of the Kimberley setting. Such models are termed: Transcendental or Incarnation Christology, Servant Christology, and Saviour of the World Christology. From such dialogue, it is expected that a pluralism model may emerge that reveals interpretations from various hermeneutical formulations faithful to the unity of the Christian faith. Consequently, one may arrive at a living, dynamic and meaningful Christology for our time (and for our nation) that expresses the mystery of Christ within modern (Indigenous Australian) experience. This could equate with what Eugene Stockton terms: the aboriginal gift—spirituality for a nation. 7
Christological Models—Definitional
a) Transendental or incarnational Christology
Briefly defined, transcendental Christology, an evolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, refers to the paradigm of the experience of Jesus’ human and historical life recorded in early Christian scriptures as perceived from the hermeneutic of human experience from which people arrive at knowledge and understanding of their human condition. This Christological paradigm calls for an acceptance of the Incarnation of Christ within humanity, but also implies a sense of the incarnational dimension of human existence and its final destiny. 8
This internal ‘knowledge’ of one’s human potential can move a person to transform human existence. Increased understandings of science when applied to human existence, and specifically that of a critical investigation of the person Jesus, lead people to new levels of awareness of what humanity can achieve because of their transcendental existential fulfilled in the Son of Man, namely, the Beatific Vision. In Christ’s human life experience, the human person discovers a resonance with the existential yearning for full potentiality as “being’ impregnated with transcendental powers that expand one’s existential horizons towards the ‘beyond’, to recognise the ‘more’ that is inherent in this human experience. 9
Kimberley hermeneutic
When the Christian story was introduced to the Indigenous inhabitants of the Kimberley, it was the person Jesus, whose exemplary humanness, particularly his kindness and inclusiveness, which attracted this new set of listeners. The mystery of God was made accessible and immanent through Christ who came to dwell among men and women.
Expressed in an Indigenous idiom: When the life-giving Creator Spirit took human form, God camped among us as a human being; God became one of us in our land, and became part of our culture. 10
What is so profound in this way of thinking is its inherent belief in an incarnational transcendence as being their God-given destiny identifying them with Christ in a totally inculturated manner. This is stated as follows:
This Christ is truly Aboriginal. When Aboriginal people become Christians, we believe the power of the Holy Spirit takes us back to our Aboriginal culture and beliefs, and back to the life-giving power of the Creator Spirit. 11
Much of the Kimberley religious art testifies to an abiding Presence in and around the people. Most depictions of the Christian event display, symbolically, the life-giving Presence of God as an overshadowing and integral, activating Participation. The Holy Spirit is a constant symbol, particularly in women’s art. One artist depicted his image of the crucifixion with an overarching cloud suspended over the horizon behind Calvary. This represented God the Father’s presence with his Son during his hour of struggle and pain. The artist commented that the Father was saying: It’s all right, my Son. I am here with you. A profound impression from an artist’s hermeneutic!
A similar understanding comes from a south-eastern Australian Aboriginal perspective of God’s abiding presence in creation (using cultural names for the Creator Spirit-God):
There is a Presence there—in a spiritual sense—because God, Darama, the Great Spirit, has touched everything, from the smallest hanging moth to the oxygen that keeps us alive 12
Heightened awareness of Divine transcendence and immanence is real!
The narratives of Christ’s life-story did not present difficulties for a people already steeped in traditions of transformation, which are often referred to in cultural ‘legends’ or myths. Rather, these narratives, many now recorded in written word and art, are parallel ‘scriptures’ or ‘parables’ embedded in the Aboriginal worldview. They serve to explain the origins of landscapes, the hidden mysteries of the land and its creatures, and the responsible relationship of people to all that exists. They also embed the possibility of future transformation, sometimes referred to as reincarnation.
The sense of fulfilment in a form of after-life is strongly accented by such religious beliefs within the indigenous cosmology. It is significant in understanding Christ’s continuing risen presence through his Spirit that most Aboriginal people here believe that no person who dies is not in some way ‘near’; the spirits of the deceased are believed to be transformed and ‘reside’ in significant sites or created shapes such as trees or rocks, awaiting their reincarnation in the process of impregnation of women. The cycle of life is eternal. The ‘interpretation’ of it in an indigenous worldview may not be congruent with a western formulation, but it does add new dimensions to the search for meaning…of incarnation, resurrection, transformation and even divinisation. 13
The Jesus-narrative was so often the key to understanding the absolute power and love of the Creator-Spirit in bringing into being a world that was their ‘mother’, their nurturer, their provider and protector. Creation, redemption and sanctification are connected as one great act of God’s love for humanity. God has done all this for them. 14 At times, there seems to be no clear distinction of ‘persons’ within the nature of God: where Creator, Father, Supreme Being is of one spirit and life with Jesus, (the Saviour, Lord, Redeemer) and the Holy Spirit, the abiding Presence of God with them.
Religious artworks depict the redemptive action of Christ in one comprehensive sequence of events from the Last Supper to the Pentecost-outpouring of the Spirit. Catholic artists from the Great Sandy Desert area do not always separate the work of each Person of the Trinity in the great salvific act of God: Father, Son and Spirit are integrally involved in the death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus and descent of the Spirit. These are essential tenets of their Christology and their faith in Jesus the Christ.
Would Chalcedonian philosophy agree? Maybe the western mind has difficulties with the concept of a Trinitarian God, whereas Aboriginal worldview seems to ‘condition’ a less problematic receptivity towards this eternal mystery of one God, three persons. After all, some of the local mythical figures are frequently presented as ‘twosomes’ carrying out one mission, eg an abiding story recounts two Lawmen bringing the Law to various tribal groups.
Robert Schreiter 15 recommends that local churches develop their own local theology. This will be achieved when Indigenous Christian leaders and theologians articulate the Christology, soteriology and salvation theology in a way that maintains unity with the faith of the Church, but which is an authentic expression of Indigenous Christian faith. Perhaps it is the following model that speaks most powerfully to the Aboriginal Christian because it highlights what Rahner calls the hope of an absolute saviour.16
b) Servant or political Christology
By definition, political or Servant Christologies present Jesus as liberator, the Lord and Redeemer who acts as God’s Anointed One to bring salvation and freedom into a world crying out to be released from the misery and evil inflicted upon it through human intervention and wrongdoing. Jesus the Christ is the Bearer of the Good News of God’s compassion, the One who lifts people up into the friendship of an eternally-loving God, Mystery of Hope for all. Jesus not only inspires, but also empowers, people to take a political stance against the injustices and oppression that burden them and hinder them in their search for freedom, peace and true fulfilment.
For the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Kimberley, one major realisation in hearing the story of Jesus and applying it to their human, historical experience is that Jesus has carried their pain before them and with them.17 He is THEIR liberator, in advance of experiencing life that is just, free of discrimination, and giving rise to equality and dignity; they look forward in hope, as the Israelites did before them, to the day of salvation and the Year of the Lord’s favour (Isaiah 61:1-2). When they hear Luke’s account (4:16-20) of the Spirit empowering Jesus for his mission, they see that liberation from all that oppresses them as a people can be overcome, eventually, through God’s Good Spirit bringing Christ’s resurrected transformation within their grasp. This becomes manifest within the different faith-communities as they re-live, through dramatic form, the events of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.
Stations of the Cross by Marjorie Hunter, Wyndham
One significant factor influencing many Aboriginal people to ‘receive and accept’ the Christian Way has been their experience of ‘lived kindness’ and solidarity from early missionaries to the Kimberley.18 Those who learned their language and something of their culture, those who worked to bring better conditions to a displaced people; those who provided them with the education to reach levels of self-determination here, have brought reality to the Christian message. The Spirit of God has initiated this work, and Kimberley Christians have come to recognise the action of the Spirit as part of Christ’s revelation to them. Both in the east and west Kimberley, the Pentecost event brings communities together for a weekend of faith celebration that expresses profound and dynamic faith in God’s compassion poured out in Jesus and his Spirit.
It is obvious that Aboriginal spirituality is one of survival, endurance and immense hope. Christ redeems and transforms the pain of history and nourishes them with strength. There is an intense longing for healing among these people. Where the Church has walked with them to heal the painful memories and bring them fresh hope, they have discovered unity and joy…what many often glibly call: reconciliation. Jesus is accepted as the great political hope as well, because he is expressed to them through the living witness of followers of Jesus who enter into their pain, walk beside them in solidarity, and who ‘go into bat for them’ when they no longer feel the strength to resist those things which oppress them, or when the struggle against the socio-political structures which bind them in chains as second-class citizens of this nation, seems insurmountable. Australian Indigenous Christology arises from a strong reconciliation hermeneutic which surfaces as a Universal Saviour model.
c) Saviour-of-the-world Christology
The third model or paradigm which speaks to a globally-conscious world is that of Universal Saviour. Just how the Christian Church has expressed this notion has not always been conducive to inclusiveness of other-than-Christian worldviews or religious traditions. Aboriginal people feel this deeply. So often they recall the comforting words of Pope Paul 11 during his 1986 visit to Alice Springs:
“…for thousands of years you have lived in this land and fashioned a culture that endures to this day. And during all this time, the Spirit of God has been with you.” 17
The Christian Church’s emphasis on the Jesus of history entering one particular tribe and encountering its environment of culture and experience has somewhat limited the successive interpretations of ‘the Christ of faith’ and his purpose of bringing God’s pathos and compassion to all peoples and races of this world. Contemporary Christologies cannot fail to include reference to salvation-encounters within all cultures that exist. Within the human context, yearning for ‘salvation’…transformation, fulfilment, happiness, peace and love…is everyone’s experience. Only ‘Christ’, that is, the incarnation of God’s love, can bring satisfaction to this ache in the human heart. Just how “Christ’ is made manifest to people outside the parameters of the Christian Movement has been labelled ‘evangelisation’, bringing the good news of God’s salvation to every tribe and nation under heaven. But is it solely the prerogative of Christian missionary activity to bring “Christ’ to all people, or does God’s promise of salvation present itself in other forms and through other ‘Christ-figures’? Experiencing the Cosmic Christ needs to be for all tribes and nations, within their own context and historical experience. From the Rainbow Spirit Elders comes a cry for recognition and freedom to experience Christ in a way that is meaningful to them and to other societies like them:
