A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Table of Contents
1. The Son in the Divine Trinity
2. Before the Beginning
3. The Word Became Flesh
4. The Incarnate Son
5. Touchstones of Christological Orthodoxy
6. The Interpretation of Chalcedon
7. Person and Nature, Action and Will
8. Consolidation in East and West
9. Reformation Issues
10. Post-Enlightenment Questions
11. For Us and Our Salvation
Appendix A: Classic Christology and Adoption
Appendix B: A New Approach to an Old Error
Selected Quotes
- “The names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit concern who God is in himself, not how he relates to his creation.” (2)
- “That God is one indivisible being (essence, from esse, “to be”) is, from the biblical background, axiomatic. That the one being of God consists eternally of three distinct persons is a matter that the church fathers saw as essential to salvation, for if it were not so, the truth and reliability of God’s revelation would be destroyed.” (12)
- “Nevertheless, to the extent that we are capable, God has accommodated himself to our sphere and modes of thought and made known realities that transcend them.” (35)
- “So if we are to ask who is Jesus of Nazareth, what is his personal identity, he is the eternal Word of the Father, the Son of God, one of the Trinity, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity. But if we are to ask of what he consists, what is the manner of his existence, he is the Son of God incarnate in human nature.” (85)
- “Supremely, the absolute end is the glory of God in his assuming humanity into union and transforming those whom he unites to Christ into a glorious church, renewing the creation to display his glory.” (99)
- “In the seventh century, a new crisis erupted. Initially the issue was whether Christ had one activity or two—divine and human—and it eventually reached a crescendo over whether he had one will or two.” (179)
- “It is precisely the enhypostatic assumption of human nature that undergirds the reality of Christ as man revealing to us the nature of God.” (215)
- “In short, our own understanding of the Bible, in all its many facets, needs to be checked with the classic confessions of the church… To impose our own ideas on the church of Christ, as though wisdom began with us, is contrary to Scripture and apostolic practice.” (289)
- “Clearly, all that the Son has done and continues to do is done together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.” (306)