The Origin of Christology

C. F. D. Moule (Author)

9780521293631, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 August 1978

200 pages
21.7 x 14.1 x 1.3 cm, 0.291 kg

' … careful and detailed attention to the evidence we expect from Professor Moule … perceptive and enlightening …' The Expository Times

This book is about the processes by which Christians of the first century came to understand Jesus as they did. Some writers represent these as 'evolutionary', as though a merely human teacher came to be thought of as a divine figure (a new species, so to speak). Professor Moule suggests that 'development' is a preferable analogy, implying not the evolution of a new species of figure, but the development of understanding of what was there in Jesus from the beginning. The author re-examines four familiar characterizations of Jesus as 'the Son of Man', 'the Son of God', 'Christ' and 'Lord'; then he considers the reflexion in the Pauline epistles of an experience of Jesus as more than individual. In his concluding chapter Professor Moule speculates, in dialogue with Dr Haddon Willmer, about the implications of his findings for Christian doctrine. The book, which earned for the author the Collins Biennial Religious Book Award in 1977, embodies his 1974 Moorhouse Lectures in Melbourne, Australia. It was first published in June 1977.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Four well-known descriptions of Jesus
2. The corporate Christ
3. Conceptions of Christ in writers other than Paul
4. The scope of the death of Christ
5. The fulfilment theme in the New Testament
6. Retrospect
7. Prospect: the 'ultimacy' of Christ
Excursus
Index of references
Index of names.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]