Why Christology? What lies behind our fascination with the man named Jesus, known from the beginnings of Christianity as “the Christ,” or simply “Christ”? Why has Christianity made so much of this Jesus? How did Christian faith in and belief about Jesus Christ first take shape and come to the expressions that have been so central in Christian confession and worship ever since? New Testament scholar James D. G. Dunn has pondered these and similar questions throughout his widely respected career. Few thinkers have devoted such depth of study to the question of why Jesus remains one of the most inspiring and influential figures in world history.
This volume contains twenty-four of Dunn’s best shorter essays — written over a span of nearly twenty-eight years and grouped here according to theme — on different aspects of New Testament Christology. Chapters 1-3 look at the Christological debate as it has developed during the last twenty years. Chapters 4-6 consider Jesus himself, his own ideas and teaching. Chapters 7-9 discuss the relation between Christ and the Spirit. Chapters 10-13 reflect on key aspects of Pauline Christology. Chapter 14 explores in depth the Christology of the Book of Acts. The largest group of essays, chapters 15-24, includes writings that revolve around Dunn’s book Christology in the Making and the scholarly debate it has engendered.
Drawn from a host of periodicals, books, and other scholarly publications, these essays — like those found in the companion volume on pneumatology — will provide stimulating and challenging reading for teachers and students of theology and New Testament studies.