Knowing Jesus Christ answers the call of John Paul II, at the beginning of the new millennium, to contemplate the face of Christ. It covers all the main topics of Christology, taking a broadly historical approach to the doctrine of Christ.

After laying the foundation of the doctrine in Scripture with the first four of its twelve chapters, it then goes on in the middle four chapters to trace the formation of the Church's doctrine of Christ first in the patristic age and then in its medieval continuation, especially at the hand of Thomas Aquinas, which built on the patristic sources. The doctrine in its medieval form provides the vital bridge between the early Church and the modern era.

The final four chapters discuss modern questions and present new approaches to Christology (for example, Rahner), beginning with the new impetus given by the Reformed tradition with its theology of the cross that gives the doctrine new relevance in an age, like our own, that has seen so much suffering through wars and oppression. The book ends with the writings of Benedict XVI, who proposed that we best discover who Christ is through his prayers as this has been recorded in the Gospels.

Knowing Jesus Christ has been written in an easily accessible style, so that it may both serve academic purposes and be read as a resource for one's own meditation on the person and saving mysteries of Christ.