In Search of the Christ-Sophia: An Inclusive Christology for Liberating Christians

The search for Christ has continued for the last 2000 years. It started on that famed Easter Sunday when Mary Magdalene, Salome and Mary (mother of James) went to the empty tomb. Since that day the search for the risen Christ has never stopped. Some say they have found Christ, but their announcement is often greeted with the same skepticism that these three women encountered: "The apostles did not believe the women for their words seem like nonsense." (Luke 24:11) Jann Aldredge-Clanton writes that she has found Christ in Sophia. Sophia is the term for the feminine, incarnate, personified Wisdom of God. Jann's Sophia Christology seeks to "save Christianity from an exclusively masculine divine image" and she desires to resurrect an image that can hold divine masculinity and divine femininity in equal balance. Her metaphorical use of "Sophia-Christ" represents a feminine symbol for God's presence and the saving actions of Jesus. Recovering this metaphor means developing a Christology less restricted by gender. This is a Christology that replaces the exclusive masculine gender concept of God. This is liberating approach for understanding Jesus Christ, especially for women, who, with this Christology, can equally represent and reflect Jesus. The resurrection of Christ is critical to Jann's "Sophia Christology." For Jann there is no Christian faith without the resurrection, and the resurrection is more than an event, the resurrection "proclaims the presence of God alive in the world today." Her Christology is not new, for "Wisdom Christology" predates the more traditional Son of God and Logos Christologies. What is refreshingly interesting is how she weaves "Wisdom Christology" into a strong feminist Christology. However interesting this maybe it is still sexist. A feministic "Christology" places gender at the forefront of understanding God, thus, it too distorts our ability to move beyond seeing God through the eyes of gender. From chapter three onward, Jann diverts from Wisdom Christology, and, for the remainder of the book, she propagates a feminist theology. Her sections are titled: Jesus' Feminist Actions, Jesus' Feminist Words, Jesus' Feminist Inclusiveness, Feminist Biblical Interpretation, A Feminist Vision of Ministry etc. Though the remaining chapters are informative and engaging those who buy the book to learn more about Wisdom Christology will find themselves shortchanged (Aidan O'Boyle's, "Towards a Contemporary Wisdom Christology" is a thorough treatment on this subject). The book lacks an index of names and index of subjects. Still, Jann Aldredge-Clanton has given us a fresh interesting Christology. Strongly recommended.

Jann Aldredge-Clanton delivers in this encompassing book. She is scholarly and inspiring at once and reawakened a spirituality based in the Christ figure that I'd lost in patriarchal christianity. Worth every cent and any wait in receiving!