301 - An Introduction to New Testament Christology

An Introduction to New Testament Christology
By Raymond E. Brown
New York, Paulist Press, 1994. 226 pp. $9.95.

In this elegantly accessible book, Raymond E. Brown once again directs his interpretive skills to the aid of the non-specialist reader. This time, his aim is to help his reader wrestle "in some mature way with the identity of Jesus." The book focuses on the christology of the Gospels (not the New Testament generally as the title could suggest). It is both confessional and pastoral, yet not at the expense of the careful critical thinking that characterizes Brown's more technical scholarship. Three major divisions comprise the book: (1) the definition of christology and approaches that characterize its discussion today, (2) Jesus's evaluation of himself, and (3) the evaluation of Jesus by Christians of the New Testament period. Of the three parts, the second is the longest and most important.

Like most New Testament scholars, Brown accepts that "some [Gospel texts] reflect a later insight not yet achieved in the ministry of Jesus," but he chooses not to exclude any texts from consideration merely on the grounds that they have been influenced by the post-resurrection experience of the early church. Instead, he searches a wide range of passages not so much for explicit self-designations of the historical Jesus as for indicators of implicit self-understandings that may plausibly be assigned to him. What emerges from the survey is a Jesus who is aware of his special relationship to God and who would have anticipated, if not articulated, titles and designations such as "Messiah" and "Son of Man" that were later "combined, honed or interpreted" by the early church. The principal conclusion of this section, as of the book, is that "there is continuity between the christology of Jesus and the christology of the church."

This is a clear and balanced argument for what Brown himself identifies as a ,'moderately conservative" position on christology. In light of recent attention focussed on the subject by the Jesus Seminar, it is a timely contribution. With the exception of a very few pages that obscure more than they reveal (like the abbreviated discussion of Aquinas in Chapter 3), it is well suited as an introductory text-perhaps to be used in tandem with a book representing a more liberal perspective-for undergraduates, seminarians, clergy, and anyone who is puzzled by the question, Who was Jesus?

Alexandra R. Brown
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA.