| Popis: |
For Edward Schillebeeckx, the Easter experience of the disciples constitutes the core of God’s initiative after Jesus had died. This experience preceded the later message of Jesus’s resurrection and His appearances. Schillebeeckx calls this experience a conversion: the fact that the disciples came to realize that their defection and denial of Jesus after his capture and death had been forgiven. Schillebeeckx does stipulate that the grace of forgiveness is a new initiative by God and the living Jesus. So, in the theological reflection on the resurrection, the conversion of the disciples plays an important role.In this article, I examine a few questions concerning the crucial role of conversion in Schillebeeckx’s theology of the Easter experience. First, I discuss Schillebeeckx’s understanding of conversion, explaining that conversion, in his view, is always also a human experience, resulting in a renewed assembly of the disciples. Next, I look at the exegetical evidence of the important role of conversion and demonstrate that Schillebeeckx’s hypothetical reconstruction of the Easter event, stressing the conversion process of the disciples, seems to lack a firm basis in the texts of the New Testament. It can be shown, nevertheless, that this interpretation of the Easter event delivered a fruitful insight into the way in which the early Christian community saw the continuity between the earthly Jesus and the present or coming Christ. Finally, I examine the attractive and convincing impact of Schillebeeckx’s theory of conversion. Although his hypothesis has not found many followers, Schillebeeckx’ vision of the Easter event has a number of theologically and apologetically interesting features. |
