How Did Jesus Know He Was God?: Self-Consciousness and Human Knowledge of Christ: Maritain, Rahner, and Weinandy

The self-consciousness and human knowledge of Christ is a contemporary christological issue which seeks to understand the awareness that the God-man, Jesus Christ, possessed of himself during his life on earth. The present question primarily concerns itself with exploring how the Son knows that he is the Son in his human mind. Traditionally this question has been asked and answered that, through the beatific vision, the Son knew himself as divine in his human mind. However, recent theories advanced by scholars seem to preclude any notion of beatific knowledge in the Incarnate Son. This book explores the perspectives of three main authors, Jacques Maritain, Karl Rahner, and Thomas Weinandy, in relation to the present question, and attempts to provide an answer for how the Incarnate Son apprehended his divine identity through his human operations. Considered also is the scope of Christ’s human knowledge with regard to two specific objects of knowledge. These concern whether the Son as man had an awareness of those for whom he gave his life (Gal 2:20) and whether the Son was really ignorant of the eschatological final “day and hour” (Mark 13:32; Matt 24:36).

William Chami is a student and tutor at the University of Notre Dame at Sydney. He has completed his master's in theology and is currently pursuing his graduate diploma in philosophy. His research interests include Christology, the Trinity, and patrology.