Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 38:4 (Dec 1995)
Article: The Convergence Of Narrative And Christology: Hans W. Frei On The Uniqueness Of Jesus Christ
Author: James Patrick Callahan

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JETS 38:4 (December 1995) p. 531

The Convergence Of Narrative And Christology:
Hans W. Frei On The Uniqueness Of Jesus Christ

James Patrick Callahan*

In recent years there have been few as articulate, and yet enigmatic, in the defense of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as Hans W. Frei (1922–1988). Consider Frei’s own declaration: The “Gospel story presents Jesus’ identity as that of a singular, unsubstitutable person.” “It is simply the unsubstitutable person about whom the story is told—his unsubstitutable deeds, words, and sufferings—that makes the real difference.” 1 It is of central importance in his work The Identity of Jesus Christ to display how the Christological claim of the unsubstitutable uniqueness of Christ stands at the heart of Christian self-description: “We take the New Testament picture of Jesus as our norm,” and one feature of that norm “is the personal and unsubstitutable center that is Jesus, his personal uniqueness.” 2

Yet—and here is the puzzling element in Frei’s Christology—he based the assertion of the uniqueness of Jesus upon what he saw as the fictive or novel-like characteristics of the gospels. This means that “we cannot, for instance, inquire into the ‘actual’ life and character of Jesus inferred from the records.” “With regard to the Gospels, we are actually in a fortunate position that so much of what we know about Jesus … is more nearly fictional than historical in narration.” 3

* James Callahan is a Bible teacher at Village Church, 1657 North Oak Park Avenue, Chicago, IL 60635.

JETS 38:4 (December 1995) p. 532

I. Evangelicals And The Christology Of Hans Frei

Evangelicals can profit from embracing both the method and assertions of Frei’s defense of Jesus’ uniqueness. While he did not propose a typically exhaustive historical Christology, Frei provided a truly Protestant defense of the uniqueness of Christological truth-claims by means of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. Nor does Frei’s work comprise a narrative Christology per se. He thought such enterprises were exaggerations of the nature of Biblical narrative, although he certainly articulated a Christology almost exclusively dependent on the narrative form of the gospels. 4 It is better to represent Frei’s work as a depiction of the convergence between the gospel narratives and their representation(s) of Jesus Christ, the identity of Christ being rendered at this point of intersection.

Evangelicals can certainly enjoy the rhetoric of Frei�...

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