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\nEarly Jesus-Devotion: Critical Engagement
\nby larryhurtado<\/p>\nIn a recent comment, Sean Garrigan suggested that I provide pointers to some of the critical engagements that have been offered to my work on early Jesus-devotion, particularly in my book, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Eerdmans, 2003). I\u2019m thinking of preparing a fuller discussion for another occasion, so here I\u2019ll simply give the bibliographical information on critiques and any responses from me.<\/p>\n
One of the earliest scholars invited to respond to my book was Maurice Casey (Nottingham), an invited review-essay: Maurice Casey, \u201cLord Jesus Christ: A Response to Professor Hurtado,\u201d Journal for the Study of the New Testament 27, no. 1 (2004): 83-96. I was invited to give a response, which appeared in the same issue of the journal: Larry W. Hurtado, \u201cDevotion to Jesus and Historical Investigation: A Grateful, Clarifying and Critical Response to Professor Casey,\u201d JSNT 27, no. 1 (2004): 97-104.<\/p>\n
Responding earlier, mainly to my book One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (Fortress, 1988; T&T Clark, 1998), Adela Yarbro Collins, \u201cThe Worship of Jesus and the Imperial Cult,\u201d in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers From the St. Andrews Conference on Teh Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus, ed. Carey C. Newman, James R. Davila and Gladys S. Lewis (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 234-57. In her contribution to the Festschrift for Alan Segal and me, she entered a later critical response to my work: Adela Yarbro Collins, \u201c\u2018How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?\u2019: A Reply,\u201d in Israel\u2019s God and Rebecca\u2019s Children: Christology and Community in Early Judaism and Christianity, ed. David B. Capes et al. (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2007), 55-66. Essentially, Collins urges that ruler-worship may have been more of a factor than I judge. She grants that direct influence is most unlikely among devout Jews (such as those who made up the earliest circles of Jesus-followers), but proposes that perhaps there was some kind of unconscious influence, unreflectively disposing some devout Jews to accommodate the worship of Jesus alongside God. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m not persuaded. As I haven\u2019t responded in print to Collins specifically, I\u2019ll give a brief comment here. If pagan ruler-cult influence was as subtly influential on devout Jews as she suggests, shouldn\u2019t we see more than one example of its alleged influence? Why is it that the \u201chigh\u201d Jesus-devotion that we see erupted in the earliest circles of Jesus-followers seems to have no true analogy or parallel in the time? In fact, we know very well what devout Jews of the time thought of pagan ruler-cult and the deification of human heroes, and it\u2019s not encouraging for a theory of the origins of Jesus-devotion!<\/p>\n
The longest critical engagement that I know of, however, was this one: Crispin Fletcher-Louis, \u201cA New Explanation of Christological Origins: A Review of the Work of Larry W. Hurtado.\u201d Tyndale Bulletin 60, no. 2 (2009): 161-205. Again, I was invited to respond by the journal editor: L. W. Hurtado, \u201cThe Origins of Jesus-Devotion: A Response to Crispin Fletcher-Louis,\u201d Tyndale Bulletin 61, no. 1 (2010): 1-20.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also commented on some alternative approaches in How on Earth did Jesus Become A God? (eerdmans, 2005), in the chapter entitled, \u201cHow on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Approaches to Jesus-Devotion in Earliest Christianity,\u201d pp. 13-30.<\/p>\n
As I see things, here are the major findings that (with a number of others) I advocate: <\/p>\n
1) A robust Jesus-devotion, in which Jesus was accorded unique status as agent of God\u2019s purposes, and (most remarkably) became central in the devotional life of believers, erupted quickly and early. It\u2019s beginnings are likely within the first months, certainly the first year or two, after Jesus\u2019 execution.<\/p>\n
2) The most notable and distinctive feature of this Jesus-devotion was the programmatic place and centrality of Jesus in the devotional\/cultic practices of believers. In the Roman historical context, this remarkable mutation in Jewish devotional practice is in fact more noteworthy and significant than the rich and impressive christological beliefs that characterized earliest circles of Jesus-believers.<\/p>\n
3) This \u201cdyadic\u201d devotional pattern (Jesus included with God as recipient of devotion) is without real precedent or analogy in its time. It constitutes a novel \u201cmutation\u201d in Jewish devotional practice. From as early as my 1988 book (One God, One Lord), I have specified the particulars of this devotional pattern (pp. 99-114), and a refutation of my position will require demonstration of similar devotional specifics in contemporary (or prior) circles of devout Jews. None has been provided to this date.<\/p>\n
4) In its initial stages, this intense Jesus-devotion and the movement that promoted it comprise a distinctive development within the diverse second-temple Jewish tradition. There are obvious connections and also distinctives that mark the early Jesus-movement.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Early Jesus-Devotion: Critical Engagement by larryhurtado In a recent comment, Sean Garrigan suggested that I provide pointers to some of the critical engagements that have been offered to my work on early Jesus-devotion, particularly in my book, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Eerdmans, 2003). I\u2019m thinking of preparing a fuller discussion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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