The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Postapostolic Age
Ebook
Overview
The second century was a religious and cultural crucible for early Christian Christology. Was Christ a man, temporarily inhabited by the divine? Was he a spirit, only apparently cloaked in flesh? Or was he the Logos, truly incarnate? Between varieties of adoptionism on the one hand and brands of gnosticism on the other, the church’s understanding took shape.
In this clear and concise introduction, James Papandrea sets out five of the principal images of Christ that dominated belief and debate in the postapostolic age. While beliefs on the ground were likely more tangled and less defined than we can know, Papandrea helps us see how Logos Christology was forged as the beginning of the church’s orthodox confession.
This informative and clarifying study of early Christology provides a solid ground for students to begin to explore the early church and its Christologies.
- Helps us see how Logos Christology was forged as the beginning of the church’s orthodox confession
- Provides a solid ground for students to begin to explore the early church and its Christologies
- Examines five of the principal images of Christ that dominated belief and debate in the postapostolic age
- Five Images of Christ in the Postapostolic Age
- Christ as Angel: Angel Adoptionism
- Christ as Prophet: Spirit Adoptionism
- Christ as Phantom: Docetism and Docetic Gnosticism
- Christ as Cosmic Mind: Hybrid Gnosticism
- Christ as Word: Logos Christology
- What, Then, Is Orthodoxy?
- Chart: Christology Continuum
James Papandrea eloquently introduces readers to dissident images of Jesus in the second-century church. Many groups wrestled with the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ and came to diverse conclusions. In this book, Papandrea helpfully sets out their views and asks what motivated them and why they (inevitably) failed to win the backing of the mainstream church. All in all, an excellent introduction to forms of ‘other’ Christianity and the whole discourse of early Christology. A lively, readable and informed introduction to Christologies deemed to be heretical.
—Michael F. Bird, Ridley College
In The Earliest Christologies, Papandrea enters the messiness of history and ‘heresies’ in order to explain how Logos Christology became the dominant and enduring perspective on Christ and his significance. If you have puzzled over the christological controversies of the past, expect to find clarity in his account.
—David B. Capes, academic dean, professor of New Testament, Houston Graduate School of Theology