Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Publications

What Christ Does, God Does: Surveying Recent Scholarship on Christological Monotheism

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-4-2019

Journal Title

Currents in Biblical Research

ISSN

1476993X

Volume

17

Issue

2

First Page

184

Last Page

208

DOI

doi.org/10.1177/1476993X18814063

Abstract

Wilhelm Bousset’s Kyrios Christos, which argued that ‘high’ Christology developed in the early church due to influences from Hellenism, was and still is a pivotal book in studies on early Christology. Martin Hengel, however, rebutted Bousset’s sharp distinction with his own important insight—that early ‘high’ Christology actually developed out of Christians’ Palestinian-Jewish heritage, wherein the church confessed and worshiped Jesus as divine alongside the one God of Israel. This article will survey the torchbearers of this debate, particularly noting the major ideas and contributors to the ongoing conversation about the ‘Jewishness’ and modes of divinity in early Christology.

Keywords

Adoptionism, Christology, divinity, exaltation, Hellenism, incarnation, Jesus, Judaism, monotheism, Trinity

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS