"En wie ben ik volgens jullie?": Antwoorden op de vraag of Jezus de Zoon van God is

Christians interpret the statement ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ in very different ways. The differences are sometimes so great that interpretations seem irreconcilable. Finding an answer to the question if Jesus is the Son of God therefore requires a discussion with others. Even if this discussion in this research begins in the ecclesiastical community of which the researcher, Geurt Roffel, is a minister, he is expeditious to widen it to six prominent theologians in the current worldwide debate on Jesus as the Son of God (Kasper, Pannenberg, Dalferth, Crisp, Henriksen and Welker).The research offers a solid view on the reasons why these six scholars answer the question ‘Is Jesus the Son of God’ affirmatively and on how the discussion with them leads to personal answers. Crucial in this respect is the philosophical discussion which plays a part in the background of the conversations. On the basis of a debate between the philosophers Gadamer and Derrida on interpretation, a personal view is elaborated on what a researcher should do so as to develop a personal interpretation of a subject. In a final chapter the researcher lists what his search has yielded. He does not conceive the statement ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ as an idealization of Jesus, nor as a refutation of the thesis that Jesus is a human being like every other human being. He assents the statement as expression of the unimaginably close and unique bond between Jesus and God.