Paul’s Divine Christology: The New Book by Chris Tilling

Chris’s book has been published by Mohr (finally!) and will be out in August.  Hey Chris, remember, you owe me a copy!  Send it along or prepare for the inevitable wrath!

All kidding aside (and I know I tease Chris a lot but it’s because I love him like a brother), I read Chris’s volume in its very earliest stages and even then it was stunningly brilliant.  I’m more than positive that now, having been utterly polished, it is even better.  You owe it to yourself to read it.

Chris Tilling makes a fresh contribution to the debate about whether or not Paul’s Christology is divine. To this end he analyses the Pauline data that details the relation between the risen Lord and Christians. With reference to contemporary debates regarding ‘Jewish monotheism’, he argues that the Pauline Christ-relation corresponds – as a pattern – solely to language concerning YHWH’s relation to Israel in Second Temple Judaism. This is the case, Tilling maintains, even in texts such as Sirach 44-50, the Life of Adam and Eve and the Similitudes of Enoch. In dialogue both with concerns that one cannot properly speak of a Pauline “Christology”, and recent studies in Paul’s epistemology, Chris Tilling presents Paul’s Christology as fully divine, but in a particular way: the Christ-relation is Paul’s divine-Christology expressed as relationship. In light of this, he not only reengages arguments deployed by those disputing a Pauline divine-Christology, but also draws additional conclusions relating to the interface between biblical and systematic theological concerns.

Maybe now he can stay out of trouble for a while!   😉    Congrats, buddy!  Proud of ya!