Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology of Jesus’s “archetypal faith” situates the question of his consciousness in our contemporary context of the life of faith. His position is validated by current biblical scholarship and relies heavily on Karl Rahner’s consciousness-Christology, thus providing an often overlooked an example of fundamental agreement between two authors commonly seen as rivals. The article argues that Jesus’s experience of mystery, far from being obviated by his beatific knowledge, is essential to the Christian experience of faith.

A liturgical phenomenology of Roman Catholic priesthood based on the experience of images of priests and people in scripture and liturgy lends itself to a renewed appropriation of Vatican II and post-conciliar approaches to priesthood. The authors interpret the relational dynamics of Christ’s own priesthood using the pericope of Christ’s anointing at Bethany (Mark 14:1–9), followed by a phenomenological examination of the dialogical introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer or anaphora in the Roman and Byzantine Eucharistic rites. The way ordained ministry is exercised in dialogical and symbolic fashions then provides the impetus for a new look at the significance of prostration in the context of Good Friday and of the Roman Catholic ordination rite. The trinitarian implications of the unified but differentiated priesthood of the Church are the theme of the final section.

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