"... a number of theological issues become central at about the same time and are obviously interconnected ... the very progress that man is making technologically is placing him at threat from what he produces ... is man as man becoming truly better that is to say more mature spiritually more aware of the dignity of his humanity ...  these are questions which the human predicament puts on the agenda of the world's discussion questions being asked not simply by Christians but by secularist humanists by Marxists by Bhuddists Hindus Muslims and all the rest."  [Quote p18]

(Continues) "Parallel with these questions imposed by the predicament of man there has been a specifically Christain questing directed at a deeper understanding of the centre and core of the Christian faith namely the meaning of the 'incarnation' of God in Jesus Christ ... to work out afresh the implications of the Christ-event for the life of the Christian in the world today and indeed for the life of the whole world.  ... the concern for the predicament of man that has forced christologians to return to a rew-examination of the centre of the Christian faith in order to find a more secure place to stand in the fulfilment of the Church's prophetic role  [and also]  it is on the basis of a fresh understanding of 'who Jesus Christ  is for us today' that the christologians venture to enunciate the implications of christology for the task of the Christian and the Church ... because in every age there is interaction between the Church and the world ... " [Quote pp18-19]

(continues)"It is not that the Church allows the world to set the agenda.  Rather the Church and her theologians try tor proclaim the Christian message in a way which will best meet the deepest needs and longings of the world. ... The early church sought to express its doctrine of salvation in terms of the vistory of Christ over the principalities and pwers; the medieval church was to express it in terms of Anselm's satisfaction theory which found its stimulus in the cultural and legal milieu of feudalism.  Luther expressed it in terms of the justification by faith in reaction against  the Roman Church's emphasis on the value of works in penitential  discipline and so on." [Quote p19]

(continues)"In our generation the focus of interest in christology has shifted to the real authentic genuine full humnanness of Jesus an aspect of christology which the Church has always maintained but never clearly spelled out ..." [Quote p 19]

"Emphasis on salvation as humanisation is central both in contemporary Protestant missiology and in contemporary 'political' or 'liberation' theologies ... The humanness of Jesus the one who identified himself with the poor and the oppressed and the outcasts and stood with them against political and religious authorities proclaiming liberation to the captives and good news to the poor the one who himself suffered degradation and death at the hands of the rulers of this world -- the humanness of this Jesus has become the focal point of faith and hope and love for those on whom has been laid the task of proclaiming and making effective the liberating power of the love of God manifested for us men and our humanisation in the very humanness of Jesus." [Quote p 99]