Filipino Christological views in relation to salvation : a biblical-theological evaluation and proposal

Abstract

Jesus Christ is the foundation of Filipino Christianity. One evidence is the prevalence of christological understandings espoused by Filipino thinkers. This study evaluates the prevalent Filipino christological views and then proposes a Filipino contextual understanding of Christ by employing the biblical-theological-dialogical approach. Chapter 1 introduces the background, problem, purpose, significance, delimitation, and methodology. Chapter 2 presents the development of Filipino christological views, which were shaped by the Philippines’ religious, socio-economic, and political conditions. Chapter 3 describes and analyzes the five prevalent christological views espoused by Filipino theologians. These christological views are termed Popular, Adult-Christ, Christology of Struggle, Third Look, and Experiential Christology. Chapter 4 evaluates the five christological views in relation to salvation, employing the Scripture as the basis of evaluation. Chapter 5 proposes a biblical christological view through the Filipino honor and shame cultural elements—Honor-Shame Christology. Chapter 6 provides the summary and conclusions of this study. This study concludes that Filipino christological views are shaped by the religious, socio-economic, and political situations in the Philippines. These conditions influenced these views to equate salvation with social equality and economic wellbeing. Despite the evident strengths of these views, they appear to lack support from the biblical teachings on Christ and his salvation on certain significant factors. Thus, this study proposes a biblical and contextual understanding of Christ—Honor-Shame Christology—as an alternative view for making Christ and his salvation relevant and intelligible to Filipino audiences. Lastly, this study recommends the continual theological task of making Christ rooted in Filipino minds, employing contextual elements that are faithful to the biblical Christ, so the Filipinos better understand him.