Abstract

With the resumption of the quest for the Jesus of history in the second half of the twentieth century, the various portraits of Jesus drawn by exegesis raise new questions for Christology. Since it cannot abandon the confession of Jesus as being « true man », Christology must take them into account. But the discordant results of the « third quest » force a reversal of perspective, for they presuppose the anthropological question. Hence it is that Christology can no longer seek help from anthropological criteria taken for granted, but must instead integrate into its own epistemic field the question of man as such, starting from a singular humanity, namely that of Jesus, which is revealed to the exegete as well as to the theologian by the gift of Spirit alone.