{"id":11584,"date":"2017-02-09T22:19:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T06:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=11584"},"modified":"2017-02-09T22:19:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T06:19:13","slug":"11584-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/11584-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Noll’s Christology: Jesus Christ and the Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Most famous theologians have a book that they have written concerning Christology. \u00a0What is Christology?\u00a0 Christology is\u00a0Christian reflection, teaching, and\u00a0doctrine\u00a0concerning\u00a0Jesus\u00a0of Nazareth. Christology is the part of\u00a0theology\u00a0that is concerned with the nature and work of Jesus, including such matters as the\u00a0Incarnation,<\/span> the Resurrection, and his human and divine natures and their relationship.[1]<\/a> Mark A Noll\u2019s Christology is on fine display in this book.\u00a0 His approach is to look at the creeds, specifically the Apostle\u2019s Creed, Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Creed, to give a foundation that is both intellectual and comprehensive.\u00a0 His research is very in-depth and his scholastic knowledge is very broad.\u00a0 His interpretation reflects his intense desire to be authoritative as well as thoroughly, profoundly, comprehensively and passionately rooted in Scripture. \u00a0This book reflects his genius by taking an intellectual tone instead of critical one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Noll\u2019s Christology is throughout the book but he gives his specific and razor focused view in chapter seven. In his own words: \u201cthe main point is for serious intellectual efforts, those who look to Christ as their prophet, priest, and king act most faithfully when they carry out those efforts with norms defined by Christ.\u00a0 \u00a0The circularity of this reasoning when applied to Scripture is obvious, since the Bible tells us of Christ from whom we are to take our bearings when approaching Scripture.\u201d [2]<\/a> \u00a0Noll\u2019s Christology is founded in Scripture but is also explored through the creeds, which do not always reference scripture, but are an intellectual processing of what scripture means. \u00a0He even goes so far as to indicate that the Bible provides a comprehensively true perspective on all things and that the Bible does not explain everything in the world directly. \u201cWith the Scriptures\u2019 own statements about themselves in view, attitudes toward studying the world\u2014eagerness to exploit secondary ways of knowing\u2014should be opened up rather than shut down.\u00a0 This openness to experiencing the world, in turn, is exactly what a biblical vision of divine creation, with Christ as the active agent, encourages.\u201d[3]<\/a> This process of truly a world view on his Christology makes it a very broad look.\u00a0 He explores other authors who have pushed up to the line and may have even gone across some of them.\u00a0 His intention is to explore thought to the greatest extent.\u00a0 This is a much better framework to explore who Christ is for those who are intellectually inclined.<\/p>\n

Unlike his land mark book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, this book has an ease and readability to it that is engaging and makes you think.\u00a0 His reasoning in a sequential order with a firm foundation and multiple references.\u00a0 It is very much about Scripture and not his own absolutes. This read is much more engaging.<\/p>\n

Reflections<\/p>\n

When Noll starts to examine incarnation, it was very clear and concise.\u00a0 A couple of things stood out to me.<\/p>\n

One was the quote by Richard Jenkyns, \u201cChristianity presents a similar paradox:\u00a0 this world may be of less account than the one to come, but that doesn\u2019t not make it unimportant; it is, indeed, the theater in which the great drama of salvation and damnation is to be played out<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d[4]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0This insight into the importance of Christ and what was at stake in his coming to earth put into such powerful language.\u00a0\u00a0 It does give a descriptive insight for me.<\/p>\n

Second, is this brilliant intellectual picture of the humanity of Christ. \u201cas the incarnate Son, \u201cHe worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart.\u00a0 Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 These descriptions and word pictures of who Christ is brings great clarity to this part of Christology.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Conclusion<\/p>\n

There is always a hope to progress as a scholar and as an author. \u00a0This quote summarizes what I have found to be true about this author in this book: \u201cWere I to attempt another full scale historical assessment like \u201cthe Scandal of the Evangelical Mind,\u201d it would have a different tone\u2014more hopeful than despairing, more attuned to possibilities than to problems, more concerned with theological resources than the theological deficiencies.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0It is great to see that sometimes age does bring a certain wisdom to you.\u00a0\u00a0 Changing your tone doesn\u2019t mean that you change your opinion but it does lend to a conversation instead of a pointed condemnation. \u00a0\u00a0Noll has in my opinion come full circle.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Encyclopedia Britannica<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Mark A Noll, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind<\/em>, (Grand Rapids, MI:\u00a0 Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011), 125.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 129.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 36.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 37.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 153.N<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most famous theologians have a book that they have written concerning Christology. \u00a0What is Christology?\u00a0 Christology is\u00a0Christian reflection, teaching, and\u00a0doctrine\u00a0concerning\u00a0Jesus\u00a0of Nazareth. Christology is the part of\u00a0theology\u00a0that is concerned with the nature and work of Jesus, including such matters as the\u00a0Incarnation, the Resurrection, and his human and divine natures and their relationship.[1] Mark A Noll\u2019s Christology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[820,818],"class_list":["post-11584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-full-circle","tag-mark-noll-dminlgp6","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}