Jesus and the God of Classical Theism

J. Duby Steven

Description

In both biblical studies and systematic theology, modern treatments of the person of Christ have cast doubt on whether earlier Christian descriptions of God--in which God is immutable, impassible, eternal, and simple--can fit together with the revelation of God in Christ. This book explains how the Jesus revealed in Scripture comports with such descriptions of God. The author argues that the Bible's Christology coheres with and even requires the affirmation of divine attributes like immutability, impassibility, eternity, and simplicity.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 07 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493420575
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2022 by Steven J. Duby
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2057-5
Unless indicated otherwise, Scripture translations are those of the author.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
For Charlie, Evie, Wyatt, and George
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xii
Abbreviations xvii
1. Biblical Christology and “Classical Theism” 1
I. Introduction 1
II. Christological Challenges to “Classical Theism” 2
III. Opposition to “Metaphysics” 8
IV. Revisiting God’s Perfections 22
V. Revisiting the Role of Metaphysical Concepts 32
VI. Conclusion 49
2. “The Word Was with God”: The Son’s Eternal Relation to the Father 51
I. Introduction 51
II. Biblical Description 51
III. The Unity and Simplicity of God 62
IV. Essence, Persons, and Relations 76
V. Two Challenges 87
VI. Conclusion 95
3. “Foreknown before the Foundation of the World”: The Son’s Election and Mission 97
I. Introduction 97
II. Biblical Description 97
III. Eternal Actuality and the Divine Decree 105
IV. Election, Immutability, and the Pactum Salutis 112
V. Procession, Mission, and Historical Assumption 130
VI. Conclusion 138
4. “And the Word Became Flesh”: The Son’s Relationship to His Human Nature 141
I. Introduction 141
II. Biblical Description 141
III. Dogmatic Elaboration 153
IV. Concerns about the Communicatio Idiomatum and the Extra Calvinisticum 165
V. Response to Concerns 176
VI. Conclusion 190
5. “The Spirit of the L ORD Is upon Me”: The Son’s Dependence on the Holy Spirit 193
I. Introduction 193
II. Biblical Description 194
III. Concerns regarding the Unity of God’s Operations 209
IV. Unity and Diversity in God’s Operations 214
V. The Gifts of the Spirit and the Human Experience of the Son 229
VI. Conclusion 241
6. “I Have Come to Do Your Will, O God”: The Son’s Obedience 243
I. Introduction 243
II. Biblical Description 244
III. Faith, Weakness, and Growth in the Obedience of Christ 263
IV. Questions about Christ’s Sinlessness and Spiritual Exertion 293
V. The Logic of Christ’s Spiritual Exertion 301
VI. Conclusion 313
7. “A Man of Sorrows”: The Son’s Suffering 315
I. Introduction 315
II. Biblical Description 316
III. Impassibility and the Nature of Passions 325
IV. Impassibility and Metaphorical Attribution of Passions to God 337
V. Impassibility and Reduplicative Predication in Christology 363
VI. Conclusion 374
Conclusion 375
Bibliography 378
Index of Authors 417
Index of Subjects 424
Index of Selected Greek Terms 430
Index of Scripture and Other Primary Sources 431
Cover Flaps 445
Back Cover 446
Acknowledgments
The encouragement, wisdom, and feedback of various friends, colleagues, and colaborers in Christian theology have helped to bring this book to completion. To Dave Nelson in particular I am grateful. His support of the work from the beginning and his incisive contributions as a dialogue partner and editor have been excellent.
I am thankful to friends at Phoenix Seminary for their outstanding love, support, and hospitality—and their willingness to let me bother them with exegetical questions. Several individuals, especially Ivor Davidson and Tyler Wittman, have graciously interacted with me on the questions addressed in this study and have read portions of the manuscript to give feedback. I am grateful for their steady wisdom and good judgment in the work of theology.
My parents continue to be a great source of encouragement. I am thankful for their interest in what I do and admire their perseverance through the course of life’s challenges. My wife, Jodi, continues to reflect the love of Christ to me and our four children. I want to dedicate this book to our children (Charlie, Evie, Wyatt, and George), each an expression of God’s goodness to us, in the hope that they may grow up always following the eternal Son, who took on flesh for us and for our salvation.
Introduction
In 2008 Richard Bauckham published a collection of essays under the title Jesus and the God of Israel , offering a description of the person of Jesus Christ in relation to the identity of the God revealed in the Old Testament. Other biblical scholars also have taken up the challenge of exploring the interface of Christology and theology proper in the Bible and early Christianity. 1 In view of contemporary interest among systematic and historical theologians in recovering and implementing earlier Christian accounts of God, 2 it seems fitting to take another step and work on explicating the relationship between biblical Christology and a doctrine of God in which divine attributes like aseity, immutability, impassibility, eternity, and simplicity play a significant role and inform one’s Christology. 3 It is crucial to emphasize, however, that in the project laid out here—“Jesus and the God of ‘classical theism’”—it is not that the God of Israel and the God described by the orthodox church fathers are taken to be two different Gods. In fact, I intend to argue that the revelation of God in Christ and Holy Scripture implies and is illumined by the theological claims of the catholic fathers. 4
I should also mention that the phrase “classical theism” is an imprecise one. I use it here only because it has been used by many as an expedient designation for an account of the triune God holding that he is simple, immutable, impassible, and eternal (words to be defined later on). I have no particular interest in defending the phrase “classical theism” or employing it for constructive ends, which is why it ends up appearing infrequently in this study and typically in quotation marks. The aim of this volume is not to quibble about the fecundity of a single phrase but rather to deal with substantive issues in Christology and trinitarian doctrine. Given the nature of this book, it should be clear that I am not implying that “classical” theological commitments should be exempt from all analysis. Nor am I implying that there is complete uniformity to be found across the Christian tradition in authors like Athanasius, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and others. Nevertheless, I will maintain that, at a general level at least, such authors do present a broadly cohesive set of exegetical and theological resources that will prove fruitful in contemporary Christology.
I also want to recognize here that words and phrases like “traditional,” “more traditional,” and “catholic tradition” appear in various places throughout this volume. The use of such words and phrases is not intended to discourage or replace actual exegetical and theological reasoning. The goal is not to try to conserve what is older simply because it is older—as if that might be an end in itself—but rather to set forth the christological teaching of Holy Scripture and to explore the extent to which certain theological resources that do happen to be older can help us to interpret Scripture well. When speaking about accounts of Christ or the Trinity that are “traditional” or part of the “catholic tradition,” I have in mind a body of Christian teaching on central topics about which there is a broad agreement, expressed in statements from the ecumenical councils of the patristic period, in biblical commentaries and topical treatments of theological questions in the medieval period, and in early modern Protestant confessions of faith. My sense is that even in the midst of their diverse ways of handling certain matters, one can find this kind of broad agreement in figures such as Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus, Peter Lombard, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and Protestant orthodox theologians.
Any study of this sort must face the reality that modern treatments of the person of Christ have cast doubt on whether a “more traditional” doctrine of God can fit with an exegetically driven Christology. As one author puts it, in the eyes of many, older Christian accounts of God and the person of Christ have a “biblical Jesus problem.” 5 As we will see in chapter 1, the relevant concerns often relate to upholding the biblical depiction of Christ’s relationship to the Father and Spirit, the unity of the person of Christ, and the genuineness of Christ’s human life and suffering. In addition, some modern studies in Christology have questioned whether traditional concepts and categories themselves (e.g., “essence,” “substance”) still enable insight into the Bible’s portrayal of Christ’s life and work. Roughly two hundred years ago, Friedrich Schleiermacher, for example, criticized talk of Christ’s “two natures.” In his judgment, a person—an “I” that is “the same in all one’s successive elements over time”—cannot remain intact under a “duality of natures.” 6 One recent study of Pauline Christology is critical of using an “Aristotelian ontology” i