Christology: A Pile of Recent Favorite Publications

While I have spent a good deal of energy on science and theology, over the last two or three years I have also had the opportunity to get back to my roots in Patristic and Medieval works. Among this, there has been a veritable avalanche of interesting books on Christology as of late. Someone asked me to name the good Christology books I read through recently, though I cannot remember who. But, I am working much slower than I am used to after my brain having been nuked twice by lasers (sounds cool in theory, less so in practice. No superpowers to speak of). So in the mean time here are the ones that have stayed with me over the last two years or so in no particular order (they have also been picked because there is a large amount of overlap in their historical approaches and the topics they wrestle with). Thus, while I slowly plod away writing my review essay on recent Christology:

-Aaron Riches, Ecce Homo: On the Divine Unity of Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2016), 279pp.

- Chris Tilling, Paul's Divine Christology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2012), 322pp. Not new, but I only just read it three years ago and it has been a go-to of mine ever since.

- Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Jesus Monotheism: Christological Origins: The Emerging Consensus and Beyond (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015), 367pp. Not new, but I read it paired with Tilling's work and found them extremely helpful to guide me in an area of scholarship that is not my strongest.

-Rowan Williams, Christ the Heart of Creation (UK: Bloomsbury, 2018), 304pp. This is much more technical than the title suggests at first glance

-Johannes Zachhuber, The Rise of Christian Theology and the End of Ancient Metaphysics: Patristic Philosophy from the Cappadocian Fathers to John of Damascus (UK: Oxford University Press, 2020), 357pp.

-Dotan Leshem, The Origins of Neo-Liberalism: Modeling the Economy from Jesus to Foucault (NY: Columbia University Press, 2016), 231pp. Eclectic, bizarre, at times mind blowing. This is not the typical book on Christology and I love it no matter how off I think it is at times.

Tom McCall, Analytic Christology and the Theological Interpretation of the New Testament (UK: Oxford University Press, 2021), 226pp. Excellent, thorough, and finally allows historical analysis into analytic work--which it, imho, desperately needed to do in a more consistent and deliberate manner.

-Tim Pawl, In Defense of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay (UK: Oxford, 2016), 268pp. And its sequel, Idem, In Defense of Extended Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay (UK: Oxford University Press, 2019), 272pp which I have yet to read.

-James K.A. Smith, The Nicene Option: An Incarnational Phenomenology (Texas: Baylor University Press, 2021), 241pp. More than just a pretty cover, this is, we might say, the Continental philosophical version of Tom McCall's book on analytic Christology, while also being a sorely needed history of how French phenomenology intersects with Christology, following on the heels of Edward Baring's Converts to the Real (one of my favorite reads of 2019).

Dale C. Allison Jr., The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History (New York: Bloomsbury, 2021), 416pp.

The best book on resurrection since Wright's work (or Licona, if you like that sort of thing). In terms of level headed judgment and meticulous, near exhaustive scholarship as well, Allison is in a league of his own and is an excellent companion to NT Wright.

Matthew Levering, Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? Historical and Theological Reflections (UK: Oxford University Press, 2019), 255pp.

Few if any works on the resurrection can combine the lates historical works with an exhaustive comprehension of the theological problems that also attend to it. Not since Wolfhart Pannenberg's Jesus: God and Man have we received such a seamless combination. A great companion to Allison's work in a relatively slim volume.

Brian E. Daley, SJ, God Visible: Patristic Christology Reconsidered (UK: Oxford University Press, 2018), 294pp. 

A much needed exhortation in line with some of what Lewis Ayres was arguing almost twenty years ago now (!!) in Nicaea and Its Legacy, that one needs to follow the guiding thread of theological argumentation that stems beyond and around Chalcedon to understand not only its meaning but its ultimate significance. The councils were as much a construction of continuity as the embodiment of it. And very often arguments attempting to extra the "spirit" or "essence" of Chacledon do so without any real working knowledge of the broader theological arguments that gave the councils a meaning and without which they become too polyvalent to be any good. There is no "Chalcedonies spirit," as it were, and such unhistorical approaches can do little other than undermine a coherent theology. On the other hand, one must acknowledge there is no natural authority here: "what holds these seven councils together for Christian posterity as 'ecumenical'--as normative for the universal body--is simply the fact that they have been received as such by the Churches (p.270).

Christopher Beeley, The Unity of Christ: Continuity and Conflict in Patristic Tradition (Yale: Yale University Press, 2012), 313pp.

A necessary companion to the slightly later Ecco Homo (see above), they provide interesting counterpoints (albeit soft ones) that are extremely useful examples of how continuity and discontinuity are emphasized or not in the broad and fast flowing river of the early Christological and Trinitarian controversies. Those who have read Beeley's previously published work on Gregory of Nazianzus will not be disappointed that this has his usual clarity, and is if anything even more rigorous in its approach. Athanasius fanboys beware though, as the "Black Dwarf" (which was actually never his nickname) is demoted somewhat from a more typical hagiographic centrality to make way for the Cappadocians.

David J. Luy, Dominus Mortis: Martin Luther on the Incorruptibility of God in Christ (MN: Fortress Press, 2014), 267pp.

Another book I read a few years ago, but since we are on the topic it is one of the most thorough looks at the claim whether Luther actually transformed the theological and metaphysical tradition surrounding God's impassibility (he answers decisively in the negative, seeing it as arising not from Luther, but rather the cumulative shift in his reception history, to put it far too quickly and concisely).

Justus  H. Hunter, If Adam Had Not Sinned: The Reason for the Incarnation from Anselm to Scotus (DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 257pp.

A very neglected topic (cf. for example, It Could Have Been Otherwise, or Incarnation Anyway, or McCord Adam's famous essay--which Hunter corrects at several points--in Christ and Horrors) that is handled perhaps as expertly as its concise pagination would ever allow. There is a bit of pause that occurs when one looks at how everything is filtered through a sort of analytic theological lens. Perhaps rightly so, perhaps it causes irreparable anachronism. Regardless, it is a great book and deserves wide readership especially given given how thoroughly possible worlds modal logic has invaded the theological landscape (or has been invaded by theology).

Richard Cross, Communicate Idiomatum: Reformation Christological Debates (UK: Oxford University Press, 2019), 320pp.

Following up his excellent (though imho sometimes factually and interpretively flawed Metaphysics of Incarnation) this is the deep dive into the communicatio idiomatum you didn't know you wanted. The irony to this discussion is that Cross believes quite simply many of the arguments do not work, and should never have been accepted as plausible and so passed on. Thus what constitutes a relatively large part of the book is the somewhat bemusing enterprise increasingly more common among analytic theological approaches of parsing a position that you do not buy in to and do not think works just for the sake (the joy?) of argument and understanding. This quirk aside (bracketing also the repetition that is unavoidable in these reformation debates), Cross has given us a solid entry into a very neglected topic.

E. Jerome Van Kuiken, Christ's Humanity in Current and Ancient Controversies: Fallen Or Not? (New York: T&T Clark, 2019), 224pp.

A fantastic primer on a discussion that has still yet to receive the attention it deserves, even with many giants like Karl Barth and T.F. Torrance stirring up controversies on the matter. This book is worth the price of admission for its pristine scholarship, and excellent constructive contribution to what turns out to be an incredibly tricky conversation.

Michael Bird, Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2017), 171pp.

There is a peculiar lacuna of works specifically focusing on the early adoptions streams of Christological thought. While Bird's work does not break new ground, for those who are not specialists this book is a clear, well-written God-send that helps bring focus on the key issues surrounding adoptionist Christology.