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{"id":6522,"date":"2014-04-06T03:45:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T07:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=6522"},"modified":"2014-03-28T18:55:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T22:55:15","slug":"some-responses-to-ehrman-and-bird-christology-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2014\/04\/some-responses-to-ehrman-and-bird-christology-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Responses to Ehrman and Bird Christology Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Several reviews and comments on the \u201cchristology war\u201d books have appeared. Here\u2019s a few:<\/p>\n

Parchment and Pen<\/a> (Rob Bowman). A good summary of both books and an evaluation of each one, including recognition of the stuff that Ehrman gets right. Sadly, Bowman does not \u201cget\u201d my sense of humour and takes issue with how I frame John\u2019s Gospels (sigh), but he gives a great plug for Craig Evan\u2019s work on the burial traditions!<\/p>\n

Tim Chester<\/a> (Tim Chester). Gives a good plug for the book!<\/p>\n

Post<\/a> (Andrew Perriman). Perriman reviews my chapter on whether Jesus thought he was God. He gives \u00a0\u201cyes and no\u201d response, agreeing with me that Jesus\u2019 teaching and actions did \u201cblur the boundary between author and agent,\u201d but he contests my reading of several Gospel passages including the Son of Man sayings. Alas, I wish Andrew loved my work on the Son of Man as much as I love his!<\/p>\n

Exploring our Matrix<\/a> (James McGrath). My buddy James (who\u2019ll be at an SBL session on both books) talks about the initial ripples of both books. He\u2019s right that the Ehrman is largely popularizing views widely extant in mainline scholarship about the origins of christology. He\u2019s right in the sense that many believe that a christology did evolve or develop and I would not deny that. Evangelical scholars (generally I hope) don\u2019t think that Jesus cruised around Palestine saying, \u201cHi, I\u2019m God, second person of the Trinity, soon I\u2019m gonna die for your sins, and then after that you should probably worship me.\u201d Nor do evangelical scholars think that God downloaded the Nicene Creed into the minds of the apostles ten seconds after Pentecost. The christology of the early church undoubtedly developed and was debated \u2026 no contest. The question as to whether christology developed\/evolved along the pattern projected by the old German\u00a0religionsgeschichte schule\u00a0<\/em>or by its latent variations is equally settled, it didn\u2019t \u2026 no contest. Bousset\u2019s theory has been cut into more pieces than Darth Maul. \u00a0So, yes, everyone agrees that development occurred, but some models of development have been well and truly debunked, McGrath should have said so. What is more, I feel some frustration with scholars who write about the origins of christology and entirely ignore the work of Martin Hengel, Larry Hurtado, and Richard Bauckham. If you\u2019re theory of christological origins does not make those three part of your major dialogue partner, I suspect that you\u2019re either feigning ignorance, or else you have something to hide.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"