Joe Sparks, Catholic Household: Cardinal Walter Kasper is enjoying something of a resurgence in popularity of late. Following his controversial proposals at the 2014 Consistory, the German-born theologian has seen quite unprecedented attention. The mainstream media has dubbed him “the pope’s theologian.” The Catholic University of America recently awarded him their prestigious Quasten theological award for his service to the Church.
From his book, Jesus the Christ: “A number of miracle stories turn out in the light of form criticism to be projections of the experiences of Easter back into the earthly life of Jesus, or anticipatory representations of the exalted Christ. Among these epiphany stories we should probably include the stilling of the storm, the transfiguration, Jesus’ walking on the lake, the feeding of the four (or five) thousand and the miraculous draught of fishes. The clear purpose of the stories of the raising from the dead of Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son at Naim and Lazarus is to present Jesus as Lord over life and death. It is the nature miracles which turn out to be secondary accretions to the original tradition.”
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