"In The Future of Christology , Roger Haight provides a collection of essays that address salient themes from his monograph Jesus Symbol of God (JSG) (Orbis, 1999). Intended for an audience that does not necessarily include professional theologians, the book represents a recapitulation of the ideas and a response to the critiques raised by his provocative monograph. This apologetic undercurrent notwithstanding, members of the Catholic community as well as college and university students seeking dialogue with contemporary cultural and pluralistic worldviews will find this collection stimulating and insightful. Several chapters are noteworthy for their challenge to prevailing discourse and for the groundwork they lay for constructive theology. His chapter "Notes for a Constructive Theology of the Cross" raises significant questions concerning the meaning of the symbol of the cross, the spirituality and asceticism engendered by the cross, its necessity in the economy of salvation, and the understanding of God as willing the suffering of the cross as a means to salvation. Haight offers preliminary "notes" in response to these questions which disabuse the reader of the glorification of suffering and sacrifice that elicits devotion and perpetuates self-negation in hope of future reward. Haight suggests that it is not the cross that saves, but that "god saves in spite of and in face of the cross" (92). In this context, Haight proposes an intriguing reading of the Pauline understanding of the cross, of kenosis , and of Jesus as the second Adam.

"A further issue that shapes many of Haight's considerations is that of pluralism within Catholicism; between Catholicism and other Christian traditions; and among Catholicism, Christian traditions, and other world religions.Particularly lucid is his description and interpretation of the consciousness that comprise a post modern world view ”historical consciousness, social consciousness, pluralist consciousness and cosmic consciousness ”and that serve as "a lure to create new construals of Jesus Christ and the Church that meet the temper of our time" (130). Finally Haight brings his understanding of the postmodern consciousness to bear on an "Outline for an Orthodox Pluralist Christology" of Jesus as the revelation of "a savior God who wills the salvation of all whom God created" and as "the historical efficacy of that divine and salvific initiative" (159).Haight's work offers a timely reply to vital questions voiced by an expanding number of faithful and, in so doing, stimulates thought and dialogue in turn".