In his 1983 book Interpreting Jesus, the Jesuit theologian Fr. Gerald O’Collins recalled an “artistic and prayerful icon” of the crucified Christ that a student had painted for him. “When I contemplated that icon,” Fr. O’Collins wrote, “I could see the face of the artist as well. Whether we do it through painting, words or some other medium, to identify and portray Christ is to identify and portray ourselves.” Fr. O'Collins added that what one writes about Jesus “betrays what we have experienced and done as human beings and where we stand as his disciples.”
According to a statement from the Society of Jesus in Australia, Fr. Gerald O’Collins, who died in Melbourne on Thursday at age 93, served in the Jesuit order for 74 years and was a priest for 61 years. The Australian native spent much of his priesthood in Rome, where he taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University for 33 years and was Dean of the Theology Faculty. “He taught many future bishops, supervising their dissertations,” the statement said.
An impressive bibliography
Fr. O’Collins was also a prolific author. Among his 70-plus books were Catholicism: A Very Short Introduction for Oxford University Press and Believing in the Resurrection, published by Paulist Press. He also wrote about the meaning of Vatican II, the theologies of Sts. Augustine and John Paul II, the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, and personal reflections on his friendships and experiences. The majority of his books were devoted to Jesus, however, rooted in both historical fact and a lively faith. A rigorous scholar, Fr. O’Collins was nevertheless dismissive of those who took a purely intellectual approach to the question of the “historical Jesus,” as he felt those interpretations inevitably descended into self-reflection or ideology.
Most famously, in 2010 he published Philip Pullman’s Jesus, a response to that writer’s novel The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. Pullman’s fiction takes the figure of the Gospels and divides him into two men: the popular revolutionary-philosopher Jesus and his twin brother Christ, who jealously betrays Jesus and distorts his teachings.
Critics raved about the novel, but as the Guardian reported at the time, Fr. O’Collins was less impressed. "What I think (Pullman is) doing is to distort the history of Jesus, in the interests of what he sees as higher truths. So it's not so much about fresh light as Pullman's personal ideology ... it throws fresh light not so much on who Jesus was, but on who Pullman is."
In relationship with Jesus
Fr. O’Collins believed that it was impossible to truly understand Jesus unless one lived a sincere relationship with him. As he wrote in Interpreting Jesus:
Theologians should have deeply experienced Christ in faith and been led by his Spirit before attempting a Christology. Only such a lived commitment will rightly support and guide their scholarly reflections. Their theology demands constant conversion as much as critical analysis. Christology above all should be born of prayerful discipleship and feed back into it.
That principle also applies to the greater Church as Fr. O’Collins concluded in the book. Proposing faith in Christ requires not just correct positions but changed hearts.
The credibility of that message will not depend simply on carefully argued conclusions about the history of Jesus, sound interpretations of his death, or a good case for his resurrection. A Church that embodies the redemption by the witness of free, reconciled, and loving lives shows that such a faith in Christ is truly worth holding and practicing. It is not so much right theory about him as loving discipleship which establishes that ‘Jesus is Lord.’
