Public Lecture – Jesus among the gods: Early Christology and Divine Ontologies of Antiquity

Hi everyone,

On Tuesday 15 Sept 2020, 1915 (Melbourne Time) I will be delivering Ridley’s Annual Leon Morris Lecture on:

Jesus among the gods: Early Christology and Divine Ontologies of Antiquity

The early church was unanimous that Jesus was “divine,” the question was and remains, in what sense? Many scholars argue that Jesus was considered divine in the sense imagined by ancient ruler cults, where there was a spectrum of divinity, and divine status was merely awarded based on displays of earthly power. In contrast, this lecture proposes that the ancient world had various categories for divinity, including an intrinsic divine nature, and the early church construed Jesus as divine based on his shared being with God. The sense in which Jesus is divine for the early church is explored in relation to Greco-Roman philosophy, Jewish monotheism, and several New Testament texts.

To register, go here.