Book Review by Brian Stanfield
The Transparent Event:
Post-Modern Christ Images
The Transparent Event is scholarly, readable and evocative of faith decision. It begins with the evolution of the author's thinking about Jesus and goes on to confront the reader with contemporary Jesus thought. John Cock compares the christologies of ten Christian thinkers of the last half of the 20th century who have most informed his christology. Next come exercises to help readers rearticulate their Christ image. The last section of the book, "Edifying Discourses," is a series of powerful proclamations grounded in everyday life experiences. A fourteen-page study guide ends the book.
The prospective reader can look forward to ongoing debate with those who have brought Jesus to secular popularity over the last few decades, i.e., the Jesus Seminar, the Q researchers and other popular theological spokespersons, such as Bishop Spong. Though John Cock applauds the resurgent Jesus dialogue of late, he sees major deficiencies in its thinking. As
it is not enough to live out of supernatural images of Jesus, likewise it is not enough to live out of the facts about Jesus or the notion that Jesus is simply a spiritual person.
In trying to speak to the post-modern woman or man, too many popular Jesus spokespersons are not only deliteralizing the biblical accounts -- no problem for Cock -- but denuding them of the decision of faith: this is the problem as he sees it. Where the author makes his stand is on the Christ event that happens in life and brings us to the yea or nay of faith in God. Cock is most passionate when he lays out the dynamics of the event of faith, especially in an idiom that will resonate with seekers outside as well as inside the tradition. In this regard, he is of the lineage of pure evangelists such as Paul Tillich.
John Cock is not a fundamentalist, a conservative, a liberal, a new-quester, nor a new-ager. He is espousing the gracious activity in life that happens to us and reunites us with God, others and self. Maybe we can call him an eventist since he uses the phrase "transparent event," by which he means the Christ event built into life. In his christology, Cock excludes no one from the possibility of faith in God through this transforming event that has happened universally from the beginning till now. His is therefore a christology that will enhance interfaith dialogue.
The author says, "I expect readers to dialogue with what I have written: neither swallow it whole nor burn it. We can only believe what we honestly believe, not what we are supposed to believe. I trust a new Christ image that makes sense to our real lives will help us to get along and will help bring us together as individuals, families, nations and as the earth community. This is the bottom-line, unity."
The Transparent Event is for clergy, serious laypersons and the enlightened agnostic. Reflections by readers emphasize the impact of the book upon them to renew their faith journey.
--Reviewed by R. Brian Stanfield, editor of The Art of Focused Conversation and author of The Courage to Lead. He lives in Australia.
