Chris Tilling - Böcker

In his recent book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher From Galilee historian Bart Ehrman explores a claim that resides at the heart of the Christian faith— that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. According to Ehrman, though, this is not what the earliest disciples believed, nor what Jesus claimed about himself. The first response book to this latest challenge to Christianity from Ehrman, How God Became Jesus features the work of five internationally recognized biblical scholars. While subjecting his claims to critical scrutiny, they offer a better, historically informed account of why the Galilean preacher from Nazareth came to be hailed as “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Namely, they contend, the exalted place of Jesus in belief and worship is clearly evident in the earliest Christian sources, shortly following his death, and was not simply the invention of the church centuries later.

This comprehensive work collects more than 30 essays from leading biblical scholars and systematic theologians to explore the person and work of Jesus Christ in a generously interdisciplinary manner. From research foundations and method to the doctrine of the incarnation, from the Trinity to the resurrection, and from Christ’s temptations to his high-priestly prayer, these essays seek to engage constructively with Scripture, the history of Christian teaching, and modern proposals and debates. Together this international group of scholars engages such topics as: Christ’s preexistence, his constitution as the God-human, his temptations and will, the hypostatic union, the prayer of John 17, the struggle in Gethsemane, kenosis, the two states and threefold office, Spirit Christology, impassibility and the cross, resurrection, and the diversity of the New Testament witnesses to him. This is an indispensable volume for the study of Jesus Christ in the subject’s biblical, historical, and doctrinal contours.