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Archive for the ‘Christology’ Category


Antioch, Nicaea, and the Synthesis of Constantinople

In Ched Spellman, Christology, Dragos Andrei Giulea, Early Christianity, Fourth Century on January 1, 2025 at 4:05 pm

2025.01.01 | Dragos Andrei Giulea. Antioch, Nicaea, and the Synthesis of Constantinople: Revisiting Trajectories in the Fourth-Century Christological Debates. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, 200. Brill, 2024. 309 pp.

Review by Ched Spellman, Cedarville University.

In this monograph, Dragoș Andrei Giulea undertakes an ambitious revisioning of the intellectual landscape of the fourth-century theological debates. Challenging traditional narratives and building on recent scholarship, Giulea maps the complex interplay of ideas that shaped this pivotal era in Christian thought. By positioning the Council of Constantinople (381 CE) as a culmination of earlier theological paradigms—specifically those emerging from Antioch (268 CE) and Nicaea (325 CE), Giulea offers a fresh perspective on the development of Trinitarian and Christological doctrines.

A key strength of Giulea’s work is its methodological precision. Giulea clarifies and shows the value of consistently employing careful definitions of notions like “theological grammar” and intellectual “trajectory.” Traditional analysis focused almost exclusively on theological claims as a way to navigate the teeming labyrinth of third and fourth century debates. Giulea builds on and sharpens recent research that accounts for a broader array of philosophical and social factors. In particular, Giulea focuses on specific technical terms, the patterns of usage among certain groups, and the metaphysical commitments that are embedded in a given pattern of use (i.e., a “grammar”). 

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The Gospel of the Son of God

In Bloomsbury, Book of Psalms, Christology, Gospel of Mark, Intertextuality, Kendall A. Davis on August 20, 2024 at 8:44 pm

2024.08.05 | James M. Neumann. The Gospel of the Son of God: Psalm 2 and Mark’s Narrative Christology. LNTS 688. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2024. 

Review by Kendall A. Davis, University of Edinburgh.

In this published version of his dissertation completed at Princeton Theological Seminary under the supervision of Dale Allison, James Neumann argues not only that the title “son of God” is a central part of the Christology of Mark’s Gospel, but that Psalm 2 is as well. As Neumann writes, “I contend that Mark portrays Jesus’s earthly life from baptism to crucifixion as the actualization of Psalm 2…. To say so is not merely to say that Psalm 2 is the primary background behind Mark’s Son of God, but rather that, for Mark, to call Jesus the ‘Son of God’ is to locate the entire progression of the psalm unfolding in the person and work of Jesus” (p. 20; emphasis original). Neumann’s study is therefore particularly interested in the intertextual and narrative dynamics of Mark’s Gospel and its presentation of Jesus.

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Christ: The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings Vols. 3 and 4

In Cambridge University Press, Christology, Patristics, Shawn J. Wilhite on September 6, 2023 at 9:16 pm

2023.09.07 | Mark DelCogliano, ed. Christ: Through the Nestorian Controversy. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xlvii + 778. ISBN: 978-1-107-06213-9. [Hardback].

Mark DelCogliano, ed. Christ: Chalcedon and Beyond. Vol. 4 of The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xlii + 666. ISBN: 978-1-316-51114-5. [Hardback].

Review by Shawn J. Wilhite, California Baptist University

I do not envy any editor or author writing a holistic account of Trinitarian or Christological theology in the early centuries of Christian thought. It seems impossible to keep in tension each figure, nuance, development of thought, and all the lines of argumentation. The editors say, “An anthology on the vast topic of ‘Christ’ is a fool’s errand” (p. xx). I can only imagine the conversations among the editors, several lists of possible texts to consider, the amount of paper in the “wastebasket” with notes, or even the list of texts that did not “make the cut.” An anthology of Christology became too large for a single volume, so the editors commissioned two volumes: “Though physically separate, the two volumes (i.e., vols. 3 and 4) belong together and are intended to be used together. In fact, together they encapsulate the editor’s vision for the study of Christology in the formative centuries of Christianity” (p. xx). So, before anything further is stated, Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, Mark DelCogliano, Ellen Muehlberger, and Bradley K. Storin ought to be commended for undertaking such a daunting task and for the lasting quality of such an anthology, and especially DelCogliano as the lead editor for volumes 3 and 4.

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The Shema in John’s Gospel

In Christology, Gospel of John, John, Lori A. Baron, Mohr Siebeck, R. B. Jamieson, Shema on February 24, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Cover of book

2023.02.04 | Lori A. Baron. The Shema in John’s Gospel. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe, 574. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.

Review by R. B. Jamieson, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC.

What causes John’s Gospel to stand out when set against the backdrops of the Synoptic Gospels, the whole New Testament, and early Judaism? In The Shema in John’s Gospel, a revision of the author’s PhD thesis submitted to Duke University in 2015, Lori A. Baron argues that one key factor is John’s unique development of the theology and ethics of the Shema.

After a brief introduction, the book surveys the role of the Shema in Deuteronomy (Ch. 2), the rest of the Hebrew Bible (Ch. 3), Second Temple literature (Ch. 4), the New Testament minus John (Ch. 5), and, finally, the Gospel of John, first considering chapters 5, 8, and 10 (Ch. 6), then the Farewell Discourse (Ch. 7). A brief conclusion considers the Shema’s role in John’s account of the crucifixion, John’s oft-alleged “anti-Judaism,” and the Johannine prologue. 

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Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel

In Bloomsbury, Christology, HB/OT, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, Metaphor, New Testament, T & T Clark on October 30, 2020 at 6:27 pm

2020.10.19 | Gregory R. Lanier. Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel. LNTS 591. London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Review by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Seminary.

Gregory R. Lanier’s Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel uses conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to consider the christological significance of four metaphors in the Gospel of Luke: “horn” in 1:68–69, “dawn” in 1:78–79, “mother bird” in 13:34, and “stone-rock” in 20:17–18. After an opening chapter consisting of a literature review, a description of the topic of this volume, and an explanation of method and research objectives, the subsequent four chapters in turn each consider one of the metaphors. The final chapter summarizes the results and offers a synthesis of their christological significance.

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Origin of Divine Christology

In Andrew Ter Ern Loke, Cambridge University Press, Christology, Gospels, Historical Jesus, History of Religions School, Kai Akagi, New Testament on June 12, 2018 at 5:00 pm

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2018.06.08 | Andrew Ter Ern Loke. The Origin of Divine Christology. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 249 pp.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Academy.

Andrew Loke’s The Origin of Divine Christology continues the stream of works on early high Christology of the neue religionsgeschichtliche Schule by arguing that divine christology originated in Jesus’ own teaching as his first followers understood it. Loke presents his book as an interdisciplinary piece of historical-critical research in that he uses methods of historical research to argue what, in theological categories, the earliest Christians believed Jesus to have taught. While many of the supporting points of his arguments and responses to alternative positions are not new, Loke brings them together in an original way to make his own contribution. He explains his method as applying the “critical realism” of N. T. Wright and Alistair McGrath for interdisciplinary historical criticism. Read the rest of this entry »


Jesus the Eternal Son

In Christology, Eerdmans, Gospels, Michael F. BIRD, Michael Kok, New Testament, review, Synoptic Gospels on November 3, 2017 at 4:00 pm

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2017.11.22 | Michael F. Bird, Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christologies. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-8028-7506-8

Reviewed by Michael Kok, The King’s University in Alberta, Canada.

The Christian doctrine of the hypostatic union aimed to articulate how Jesus’s human and divine natures were united in one person. Over-emphasizing Jesus’s humanity at the expense of his divinity, or vice versa, was ruled out of bounds. One of the christological conceptions that was censured for falling short of the orthodox consensus on the incarnation has been labelled by modern scholars as “adoptionism,” which Michael F. Bird defines as “reducing Jesus to a human figure who had acquired divine status by merit” (7).

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You Are My Son

In Bloomsbury, Christology, Familial Metaphors, Hebrews, Shawn J. Wilhite on May 5, 2016 at 2:00 pm

9780567665010

2016.05.07 | Amy L. B. Peeler. You Are My Son: The Family of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews. LNTS 486. London: T&T Clark, 2014. Pp. xiv + 224. ISBN: 978-0-56765-418-2.

Review by Shawn J. Wilhite, California Baptist University.

Many thanks to T&T Clark for providing a review copy.

The fact that familial motifs have remained relatively underdeveloped presents a bit of an anomaly. Given the data of filial language within the first major section of Hebrews — “you are my son” (Heb 1:5), “I shall be to him a father” (Heb 1:5), “God…has spoken to us by his son” (Heb 1:2), “but of the son he says” (Heb 1:8), “…bringing many sons to glory” (Heb 2:10), “not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb 2:11) — Amy Peeler’s volume appears during a time when similar monographs have yet to enter Hebrews scholarship. In You Are My Son, Peeler attempts to fill such wanting lacuna of filial language in her revised dissertation (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2011). Peeler offers Hebrews scholars a helpful and needed work for fatherhood, sonship, and familial language within Hebrews. Read the rest of this entry »


The Birth of the Trinity

In Christology, Early Christianity, Madison N. Pierce, Matthew W. BATES, New Testament, Oxford University Press, Pneumatology on October 17, 2015 at 3:19 pm

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2015.10.20 | Matthew W. Bates. The Birth of the Trinity: Jesus, God, and Spirit in New Testament and Early Christian Interpretations of the Old Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 256. Hardcover. ISBN 9780198729563.

Review by Madison N. Pierce, Durham University.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

While in previous decades it has been imprudent to speak of the “Trinity” prior to the fourth century, a number of recent works have set aside the stigma to re-examine the extent to which the NT is Trinitarian. Implicit in those studies is the question: What did the fourth century glean from the first? For Matthew W. Bates in The Birth of the Trinity, one of the most significant contributions is an explanation of the exegetical method termed “prosopological exegesis” (PE). This method re-interprets Jewish Scripture by identifying an otherwise ambiguous or unspecified participant in the text, a prosopon or character. This monograph draws upon Bates’ previously published thesis, The Hermeneutics of Apostolic Proclamation (Baylor University Press, 2013). Read the rest of this entry »


Union with Christ in the New Testament

In Christology, Grant MACASKILL, Kai Akagi, New Testament, Oxford University Press on March 31, 2015 at 9:58 pm

UCNT

2015.03.09 | Grant Macaskill. Union with Christ in the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. 353. ISBN: 9780199684298. Hbk.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

Grant Macaskill’s Union with Christ in the New Testament considers the conceptualization and theological role of union with Christ across the books of the New Testament. It approaches these in view of their Old Testament background and the context provided by other Jewish literature, and it places them in dialogue with the diachronic understanding of union in selected theological traditions in which union plays a significant role. Those considering a varied range of subjects within the fields of New Testament studies, systematic theology, historical theology, and, to an extent, patristics and Second Temple Judaism, may find this volume relevant to their work.

The first half of the book considers union in selected theological traditions (including patristic theology, modern Orthodox theology, and Lutheran and Reformed theology) and then turns to Old Testament and Jewish context for studying union in the New Testament. Read the rest of this entry »