{"id":77249,"date":"2020-04-12T05:41:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T09:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=77249"},"modified":"2020-04-11T09:28:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T13:28:49","slug":"easter-was-not-a-trinitarian-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/04\/easter-was-not-a-trinitarian-reunion.html","title":{"rendered":"Easter Was Not a Trinitarian Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Some thoughts on blog posts related to one of my major fields of research \u2013 Christology and monotheism \u2013 as they relate to things that have appeared on blogs in recent days. Let me start with Keith Giles\u2019 post about Jesus\u2019 words from Psalm 22 on the cross<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0I agree with Giles that the widespread popular interpretation of Jesus\u2019 words on the cross is misguided. But the \u201cMessianic prophecy\u201d approach he substitutes in its place is no better, especially given the doubtful status of some of the ways certain lines have been rendered into English to conform them to Jesus\u2019 crucifixion. If one decides to envisage the historical Jesus reciting Psalm 22 on the cross, even though it is hard to imagine anyone being close enough to hear what he said who would also transmit the information to or within the Christian community, the most natural way to understand it is that Jesus recited the Psalm as an expression of his faith. The Psalm begins with a lament, but ends with salvation. Taken as a whole it may involve a sense of God-forsakenness, but it ultimately expresses trust and confidence in deliverance.<\/p>\n

Dale Tuggy blogged about the death of Jesus as\u00a0not<\/em> involving the death of God<\/a>, and criticizes the convoluted ways that some try to maintain simultaneously that Jesus the human being died, that God is immortal and cannot die, and that Jesus is God.<\/p>\n

I also responded to a great question on my blog<\/a> about what to do when I disagree with the consensus, as all academics are expected to in our original research to at least some extent. It was in a discussion of Christology, and here\u2019s what I wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It absolutely delights me that you\u2019ve asked these questions. I\u2019ve sometimes used myself as an example when advising people about following the consensus. The onus is on me to persuade my academic peers. Unless I succeed in doing so on points where I hold a minority or idiosyncratic view, stick with them. They\u2019re probably right. On the particular question of Christology, however, I\u2019d also recommend looking closely at what New Testament scholars have written on this topic, thinking primarily of those not working in academic institutions that impose a statement of faith on their necessarily conservative employees, since a dogmatically-imposed consensus isn\u2019t an academic consensus, and in some respects is its opposite. Most mainstream New Testament scholars word their statements about Jesus in Paul\u2019s writings and in the Gospels cautiously, so that even if they talk of his \u201cdivine status,\u201d it may not mean \u201cas a pre-existent person of the Trinity.\u201d The terminology of \u201cdivine identity\u201d is relatively recent, having been introduced into the discussion by Bauckham. Wright<\/a> wrote about Paul \u201csplitting the Shema\u201d before that occurred, although in doing so he may have been a formative influence on Bauckham. But Wright\u2019s statements say that Paul includes Jesus in the monotheistic statement of faith. He doesn\u2019t say in so many words that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. Splitting the shema, for Wright<\/a>, means that Christians find themselves unable to speak about the one God without also speaking of Jesus. He himself seems to be navigating the waters between what it is appropriate to say as a New Testament scholar and what it is appropriate to say as a bishop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wright himself does adopt the language of identity. He also puts matters in functional terms in this famous statement<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cMy case has been, and remains, that Jesus believed himself called to do and be things which, in the traditions to which he fell heir, only Israel\u2019s God, YHWH, was to do and be. I think he held this belief both with passionate and firm conviction and with the knowledge that he could be making a terrible, lunatic mistake.\u201d And elsewhere<\/a>, \u201cthe case for saying that Jesus thought of himself in a way which stands in continuity though not identity with what Paul and the other NT writers said about him grows out of Jesus\u2019 basic kingdom proclamation and out of Jesus\u2019 conviction that it was his task and role, his vocation, not only to speak of this kingdom but also to enact and embody it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does my way of expressing the matter get things about right? What\u2019s your sense of the consensus when it comes to Paul\u2019s view of Jesus? How does that topic intersect with Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday in your thinking, if at all?<\/p>\n

Of related interest<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Splitting the Shema: A How Not To Guide<\/a><\/p>\n

Is Jesus Included in the \u201cDivine Identity\u201d in 1 Corinthians 8:6?<\/a><\/p>\n

(The preview image on this post is an Easter icon from Holy Trinity Church in Russia<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts on blog posts related to one of my major fields of research \u2013 Christology and monotheism \u2013 as they relate to things that have appeared on blogs in recent days. Let me start with Keith Giles\u2019 post about Jesus\u2019 words from Psalm 22 on the cross.\u00a0\u00a0I agree with Giles that the widespread popular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":77252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16673],"tags":[1858,2322,10276],"class_list":["post-77249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christology","category-easter","tag-christology","tag-crucifixion","tag-resurrection"],"yoast_head":"\nEaster Was Not a Trinitarian Reunion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some thoughts on blog posts related to one of my major fields of research - Christology and monotheism - as they relate to things that have appeared on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/04\/easter-was-not-a-trinitarian-reunion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Easter Was Not a Trinitarian Reunion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some thoughts on blog posts related to one of my major fields of research - Christology and monotheism - as they relate to things that have appeared on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/04\/easter-was-not-a-trinitarian-reunion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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