(also “Jesus [the] Christ,” meaning Jesus ‘[God’s] anointed one’)–The historical person Jesus of Nazareth whom Christians acknowledge to be, by his life (what he taught and did) and his death and resurrection, the true revelation of God and at the same time the exemplar of what it means to be fully human. In other words, for Christians, Jesus shows what God is like and how they can live in response to this revelation: God is the compassionate giver of life who invites and empowers human beings, in freedom, together with one another, to work toward overcoming the forces of evilmeaninglessness, guilt, oppression, suffering, and death-that diminish people and keep them from growing toward ever fuller life. In his Spiritual Exercises,* Ignatius* has the retreatant devote most of the time to “contemplating” (i.e., imaginatively entering into) the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, so as to become more and more a companion of Jesus. And when Ignatius and his companions from the University of Paris decided to establish a religious order,* he insisted that it be called the Company or Society of Jesus* [see “Jesuit” – noun].
