Synopsis "The Faith of Jesus"
Combining the faith-development theory of James Fowler with the psychodynamics of Viktor Frankl, and utilizing many of the insights of contemporary biblical scholarship, the author has here proposed a unique and provocative interpretation of the life of Jesus as described in the Epistle to the Hebrews as the ""leader and perfector of faith."" No doubt, many will find this approach to a ""life of Christ"" to be novel, even disturbingly ""unorthodox"". Yet it has been written in the conviction that the faith of most Christians, for the most part, has fallen into the heresy of ""monophysitism"", if not in theory, at least in practice amounting to a denial of Jesus as a human being and, as a result, a person of faith. In addition, in his ""Christological Postscript"", the author has sketched out the beginnings of a new, more evolutionary approach to understanding how Jesus might be understood to be divine, even while remaining the fully human character depicted in this book. Richard W. Kropf holds doctorates in theology from the University of Ottawa and Universite St-Paul, Ottawa, Canada. His previously published books include Teilhard, Scripture, and Revelation (Fairleigh Dickenson University/ Associated University Press, 1980), Evil & Evolution: A Theodicy (Fairleigh Dickinson University/Associated University Press, 1984; 2nd. Edition, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2004) and Faith: Security & Risk: The Dynamics of Spiritual Growth (Paulist Press, 1990; republished by Wipf and Stock in 2003). A former parish priest, college chaplain, and instructor in philosophy, psychology, religious studies, and theology, he now resides in northern lower Michigan.
