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Thesis advisor: Thomas D. Stegman / Thesis advisor: Margaret Guider / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

This dissertation evaluates various contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals. Herein, Spirit Christology is defined as an approach to Christology that affords paradigmatic prominence to the Holy Spirit for understanding traditional Christological categories. Contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals occur along a spectrum of faithfulness to Nicene Trinitarianism and Chalcedonian Christology. While modifications to traditional formulae (implicit or explicit) are commonplace in contemporary proposals of Spirit Christology, it is the thesis of this dissertation that such modifications are neither helpful nor necessary. Rather, Spirit Christology can and should offer a pneumatological enrichment of traditional Christology and a boon to Christian devotion. Such a model will not move Christians away from the traditional Christocentric soteriological impulse of the Christian tradition (as is the case with some proposals) but will rather affirm the strength and necessity of that impulse. As an introduction, chapter 1 establishes the significance of this dissertation. Chapter 2 is a survey of the contemporary Spirit-Christology proposals that are furthest removed from the Trinitarian and Christological heritage of orthodoxy. These revisionist Spirit Christologies do not represent an advance in Christian doctrinal formation but a return to the early Christological heresy of adoptionism, which was soundly and rightly rejected by the church. Chapter 3 is a survey of proposals that purport to be developed within the tried Trinitarian and Christological heritage of the church. These Trinitarian Spirit Christologies, however, often raise serious questions concerning the consistency of the proposals with traditional categories. This chapter also identifies a list of advantages to Spirit Christology that are to be commended and a list of inherent dangers that must carefully be avoided. Chapters 4 and 5 seek to advance the discussion of Spirit Christology. Chapter 4 advances the discussion by means of retrieval, examining the Spirit Christology of John Owen as an example of a proposal that achieves the advantages and avoids the dangers of this approach. Chapter 5 advances the discussion by way of a constructive proposal of an “Owenite” Spirit Christology in conversation with contemporary Spirit-Christology proponents and its detractors.

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The present work seeks to give a systematic and comprehensive account of Jesus’ own faith and faithfulness in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and to relate this teaching to the exemplars of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11.  While previous research in Hebrews has devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to explaining the Epistle’s Christology and presentation of faith in general, a thorough, exegetical examination of the faith of Christ has never been produced.  This thesis argues that Jesus is not only presented as an example of faith, but also as the perfect exemplar of faith(fullness) in word and deed that the audience is to consider and imitate.  The author has integrated Jesus’ example of faith throughout the epistle (cf. 2.13, 17; 3.1-6; 4.15; 5.7-8; 10.5-7), with Heb. 12.2 being the climactic illustration of his faith; consequently, the reader is compelled to compare Jesus’ superlative example with the exemplars of faith in Israel’s history. By creating what is ultimately an encomium on Jesus, the famous men and women in Israel’s history are recapitulated for the main purpose of amplifying Jesus’ person and work; that is to say, they are recounted in order to praise and exalt the “pioneer and perfecter of faith” who endured the cross and tasted death on behalf of God’s people. From the total discourse of Hebrews, as well as the encomiastic character of 11.1-12.3 and climax of 12.2, it is also apparent that the author both enabled and expected his audience to discern the (implied) allusions to and analogies with Jesus’ person and work in Hebrews 11, and to regard the praiseworthy ancestors as true, yet imperfect anticipations of Christ who perfectly embodied and expressed the virtue of faith, especially in the crucifixion event.

In this thesis, I make the following case. (1) While instances of the imago Dei in biblical and second-temple Jewish sources are diverse and pluriform, they are nonetheless illuminating for Paul's imago Dei theology. (2) However, this theology is best explained on the hypothesis that Paul, like Philo and the author of Wisdom, made use of ‘intermediary speculation' in which the kosmos came into being via an intermediary ‘figure': in the latter's case sophia and/or the logos and in Paul's case the pre-existent Jesus. (3) In this connection, while the resources of the Jewish wisdom tradition (e.g. Prov. 8; Sir. 1; 24; 1 En. 42; Wis. 7; and Bar. 3–4) did not provide Paul with the precision afforded by the ‘prepositional metaphysics' of the philosophical tradition (cf. 1 Cor. 8.6; and Col. 1.15–20; cp. John 1.3, 10; and Heb. 1.2), the general contours of that tradition—in which sophia attended to the creation, maintenance and salvation of the kosmos—were appreciated and appropriated in Paul's imago Dei theology. (4) Beyond this, a few features of Paul's imago Dei theology—especially his collocation of εἰκών (‘image') and πρωτότοκος (‘firstborn') (cf. Rom. 8.29; and Col. 1.15) and his ‘teleological' construal of the imago Dei conception, in which Jesus serves as the archetypal ‘image' to which believers will ultimately be conformed (2 Cor. 3.18; Rom. 8.29; cp. Phil. 3.21)—strongly suggest that Paul was here influenced (directly or indirectly) by Middle Platonic intermediary doctrine. (5) On the basis of points (2) through (4), therefore, it is wisdom christology, rather than Adam (and/or ‘imperial') christology, which serves as the principal background of Paul's ‘image christology'. This ‘image christology', furthermore, in which Jesus serves as the protological and cosmogonical image of God, is an instance of ‘christological monotheism'. In this regard, Jesus is included in the one activity (creation) which most clearly demarcates the ‘unique divine identity' in second-temple Jewish thought. (6) Finally, my argument concerning the way in which Paul adapts certain features of the philosophical imago Dei tradition encourages a fresh reading of two major Pauline texts: 2 Corinthians 2.17–4.6; and Colossians 1.15–20; 3.10. In these texts, I contend, Paul casts essentially inner-Jewish debates in philosophical dress. While the substantive issues are ‘inner-Jewish' issues, Paul presents his opponents and/or opposing views as bound up with a futile and/or deceitful philosophy, while he presents himself and his sympathisers as people who attain to the telos of true philosophy: the image of God (2 Cor. 3.18; and Col. 3.10; cp. Rom. 8.29).

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on June 17, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

An intriguing literary feature of a number of New Testament writings is the depiction of Jesus as a recipient of proskynesis—that is, as an object of the Greek verb προσκυνέω. The term προσκυνέω is generally used in antiquity to express reverence directed toward a superior, often through prostration, but takes on more specific reverential connotations in individual instances, such as extending a respectful greeting to an elder, paying homage to a king, or giving cultic worship to a deity. In the NT writings, not only is the term frequently used for worship of Israel’s God (e.g., Matt 4:10; John 4:20–24; Rev 4:10) and for idolatrous worship of false gods (e.g., Matt 4:9; Acts 7:43; Rev 9:20), but it is also in some instances used to express a form of reverence considered inappropriate for God’s human and angelic servants (Acts 10:25–26; Rev 19:10; 22:8–9). In the numerous instances of Jesus as an object of προσκυνέω (e.g., Mark 5:6; Matt 2:11; 14:33; 28:17; Luke 24:52; John 9:38; Heb 1:6), he is not only portrayed legitimately receiving such reverence, but even doing so in a number of overtly striking scenes where he appears to be more than human. Surprisingly, there is very little thorough scholarly attention given to the significance(s) of Jesus as a recipient of proskynesis in the NT writings. Those who have discussed this NT phenomenon, whether in individual NT works or in the entirety of the NT writings, come to different conclusions regarding whether Jesus is reverenced/worshiped with proskynesis as a human figure or as a divine figure. The goal of this thesis is to determine the significance(s) of the proskynesis of Jesus in every NT writing that this literary phenomenon appears through an in-depth exegetical, literary-critical analysis of such works (the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, the Gospel of John, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Book of Revelation). It is argued in this thesis that each of these NT writings, in their own unique ways, presents Jesus as a divine figure uniquely and closely linked to the God of Israel in his reception of proskynesis.

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection has provided perhaps the most significant challenge that Christian theology has faced in the last 150 years. Although many philosophers of religion have attempted syntheses of religion and Darwinism, comparably less attention have been paid to how Darwin's theory of evolution invites reinterpretations of the particular grammar and specific content of Christian doctrine. This thesis, an exercise in systematic theology, critically examines Christian belief in the Person of Christ in light of Darwinism, approaching key questions as topics for theological, rather than philosophical, reflection. After Darwin, traditional anthropocentric models of Christian doctrine, focussed on God's relationship with the human person in Jesus Christ, are found to be inadequate. Since the human being is continuous with the wider animal, vegetable, and geological realm, inextricably linked with the wider ecosphere, Christian theology should now focus on God's relationship to the whole cosmos in Christ, viewing the whole universe as made in the image of God. Likewise, traditional notions of Christian teleology need to be revised in light of Darwinism. This thesis represent a constructive theological revisioning of Christian doctrine - and specifically Christology - seeking to understand Christian faith in Jesus Christ in light of scientific knowledge. Since Teilhard de Chardin provided the most sustained and coherent attempt to revision Christian doctrine in light of evolution, the thesis provides a critical reading of his work, identifying areas of critical weakness in Teilhard's responses to theology's new challenges. Crucially, Teilhard's Lamarckian and Bergsonian assumptions are seen to render his theology of evolution questionable: the rise of neo-Darwinism has meant that his work has become outdated and in need of revision. Although Teilhard asked many of the right questions, his solutions are now inadequate. Following a close reading of neo-Darwinist sources, the thesis provides a constructive corrective to Teilhard's cosmic Christology, which is both faithful to orthodox sensibilities and relevant to contemporary developments.