Norelli, Nick. Christology in Review: A Layman’s Take on Books about Christology. Lulu, 2017. 149pp.; Pb.; $10.84. Link to Lulu
Christology in Review includes reviews of the following books no particular order.
- Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel
- Casey, From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God
- J. & A. Y. Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God
- D. G. Dunn, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?
- D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God
- Endo, Creation and Christology
- Fatehi, The Spirit’s Relation to the Risen Lord in Paul
- Grindheim, Christology in the Synoptic Gospels
- Grindheim, God’s Equal
- W. Hurtado, One God, One Lord
- H. I. Lee, From Messiah to Preexistent Son
- McDonough, Christ as Creator
- F. McGrath, The Only True God
- Nicholason, Dynamic Oneness
- C. O’Neill, Who Did Jesus Think He Was?
- A. Pizzuto, A Cosmic Leap of Faith
- Stuckenbruck and North, Early Christian & Jewish Monotheism
- H. Talbert, The Development of Christology During the First Hundred Years
- Tilling, Paul’s Divine Christology
- Warrington, Discovering Jesus in the New Testament
The first review is Bauckham’s 2008 work. The oldest reviewed book is Maurice Casey’s From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God was published in 1991 and the latest is Bart Ehrman, How Jesus Became God from 2014. I would have expected the inclusion of the Michael Bird edited response to Ehrman (How God Became Jesus, published almost simultaneously in 2014). Norelli does mention the volume in his review but does not include a review.
The reviews are arranged alphabetically by author and vary in terms of length and depth of interaction. For example, his review of McGrath, The Only True God is a seventeen page review article with 34 footnotes. His review of Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the God of Israel runs about 14 pages. However, his Grindheim’s Christology in the Synoptic Gospels is only two pages. Some of the books reviewed are from the very best in scholarship (Fatehi, The Spirit’s Relation to the Risen Lord in Paul in the WUNT series), others are written to a more popular audience (Ehrman, How Jesus Became God).
Although he styles himself as a layperson, Norelli offers trenchant critiques in many of his reviews and is not at all shy about expressing disagreement with the scholars he is reviewing. For example, he makes several critical arguments against James McGrath. McGrath called the review “a very detailed and, from my perspective, very fair and useful review” of his book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. In his response, McGrath said “There have been more positive reviews that did not leave me feeling as satisfied with the level of engagement as Nick’s did.”
His review of Bart Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee is more scathing. Norelli says “if you have read one of Ehrman’s popular books, you’ve pretty much read them all” (p. 55), especially his frequent digs against his former Christian faith.
This collection is useful for anyone wanting a quick sample of the dozens of books published on Christology in the last 20 years. Norelli has done a service by collecting these reviews in an inexpensive single volume.
He hints in his introduction he might produce a second volume on the Trinity. Maybe you can encourage this blogger by purchasing this inexpensive book.
NB: Thanks to Nick Norelli for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work.
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