Doing the Will of the Father: Jesus’ Freedom and the Beatific Vision

Abstract

Popular conceptions of ‘doing God’s will’ often draw upon images of some pre-existing plan, which we need to follow even though its details are not clear to us. Equally similarly popular conceptions of Jesus’ knowing, informed by his beatific vision, entail Jesus knowing his life-plan as mapped out by God from the beginning, with him simply having to do what has been pre-ordained. What is not clear for us is taken to be transparent for him. This position robs the human Jesus of any creativity or originality, since his only degree of freedom is to do what has been pre-determined. This paper will compare two approaches, one by Thomas Joseph White in his work on Christology, the other by Bernard Lonergan, in his recently published and translated work on Christology. The question which drives the investigation is whether and in what ways Jesus is the creative agent of his life’s mission.