Last week I was asked in a short comment exchange on Or Gadol about books helpful in investigating the divinity of Jesus and I did not answer yet. The reason for that is that my answer is a bit complicated. But by means of this post I do would like to give a sort of answer:
There are plenty of books that could be helpful, but in what way do you want them to be helpful? Concerned as I may sound I think you should think carefully about where you would like to end up.
There are various alternatives of where you could end up, but as you are asking me I will only discuss the one in which I ended up: mine is one where I cant talk to people in my community about what I believe, one that is officially denounced by the church councils as heretical and is seen by mainstream Christians as one that endangers salvation, if not renders it impossible.
It is one that has caused me much anguish, alienation and distress. This is of course by and large the result of being theologically shut out of the community but also internally as this is a pillar as fundamental to our faith as it gets hence problems around this impact other areas of faith as well.
And this stresses me and makes me hesitant to suggest books to you as Ive seen the impact they had on me and dont really wish all that for you. That does not mean I regret it and wish for belief in it, its just that I think the social consequences of my position (if I were to speak up) are very hard to be handled and can result easily in negligence in other areas which I dont think is right.
Now lest I sound too depressive: I do feel that hard as it may be at the moment (not that Im persecuted or anything:P) my studies have been very rewarding and have enabled me to appreciate the NT and Jesus in new ways. I still have a lot to study but think its a very exciting area worth of investigation, whatever conclusions you make.
Well… perhaps this is not my best post until now:P but what I just want to say is the following:
As you may see in my title to this post I wrote “questioning”, as I think the reason you asked me is because you question it. And while on the one hand I think its good you are critical about it, my other half is less happy with this and wants you to realize the path you are finding yourself on and the consequences that might follow, hence I give you two options of authors:
1. Safe: Larry Hurtado, Richard Bauckham, these are very prominent scholars in Christology and do, in my opinion, to a great extent justice to the text of the NT and keep you safe from any theologically problematic views.
2. Not so safe: James Dunn, Raymond Brown, James McGrath, these three are favourites of mine. They have a somewhat similar approach which I personally found enlightening but if you are not granting alot of authority to church tradition you may have difficulties retaining the doctrine of the Incarnation.
I realize that it may feel kind of backwards when I suggest you determine first where you [dont] want to end up and then start investigating, and needless to say I dont advocate such an approach (in general). But were you to do this, I would understand that, indeed I do/did it myself as well, I actually think theres hardly anyone free of confirmation bias.
Now obviously there are many other books and approaches to Christology, but I personally favour the more historical-critical approach that is used by these two groups of authors. For more information you could check out this blog that reviews many books about the Trinity and Christology and whose author is very passionate about it.
Hope that helps and do feel free to post your own thoughts, I’d be interested to hear them:)
I happen to have a supportive community that has wide range of views on the divinity issue and an official policy of no official policy on the topic. So endangering my status with a community isn’t really much of a problem for me.
I’m already thinking critically on the subject, I mean a year ago or so I wrote this
Hi Ovadia,
In that case I’d still suggest you read both sets of authors and in addition to this it might be an idea to read about the history of certain dogma’s. I think – though havent read it yet myself – that J.N.D. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines could be helpful in this regard.
Blessings,
Daniel
Wasn’t Raymond Brown a Roman Catholic scholar? Was he of the liberal American Catholic stripe?
Yes Father Raymond Brown was a prominent Roman Catholic scholar and while Im not sure about this, I would consider his views to place him more on the side of the liberal camp. He did receive praise from the current Pope, Joseph Ratzinger saying he “would be very happy if we had many exegetes like Father Brown”.
Who are your main sources for Christology? Did you ever peruse works like James Dunn’s and Raymond Brown’s?
While I obviously have opinions on theology, I’m really not a theologically-driven guy. I’m really driven more by textual and historical studies. That is to say, I am not wide read when it comes to contemporary theology concerning Theology Proper. That is also to say, even those theology books I have read, have not had the most influence on my theology. That is also also to say, I have not read Dunn or Brown. My own Bible studies (especially John and Philippians) and personal experiences are what have shaped my theology the most.
But here are some of the main works I’ve read:
1. Richard Bauckham—God Crucified
2. Stanley Grenz—Theology for the Community of God
3. Mark Olsen—The Story of Christian Theology
4. Church Father material and the Creeds
5. Millard Erikson—Intro to Christian Doctrine
6. Misc Apologetic material from sites like Christian Thinktank, Tektonics, and Grace & Knowledge
Obviously, the systematic theology classes in college and seminary have left their influence on me (but honestly, not as much as you might think).