The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

Bible - NT - Paul: Christ’s Faith

R. Michael Allen’s The Christ’s Faith: A Dogmatic Account (T&T Clark Studies in Systematic Theology) fill out the notion of the faith and trust exercised by Jesus Christ in relation to His Father.  He doesn’t deal with the exegetical issues, but instead sets out to show the dogmatic coherence of the newer interpretation of pistis tou Christou.  Allen thus challenges both “unimaginative traditionalism” that refuses to recognize the reality of Jesus’ faith, and also the “iconoclasm” of many who have seen the subjective genitive reading of “the faith of Christ” as part of a post-protestant, post-metaphysical theology.

Allen, who teaches at Wheaton, argues that “the Christ’s faith coheres with and is, in fact, a necessary implication of orthodox Christology and the soteriology of the magisterial Reformation.”  Somewhat more fully, “the faithful one exercises that very faith ‘for us and for our salvation’ precisely because this Jesus came to redeem and perfect humanity.  ’Without faith it is impossible to please God,’ . . . yet the Christ came to bring redemption to those who are unable to please God because incapable of sustaining perfect faith.  Thus, the flawless life of the incarnate Son is itself constitutive of Christian salvation.  That is, the fulfillment of the human vocation before God – ‘pleasing God’ – is a necessary, though not sufficient, aspect of the work of Christ.  Though various dogmatic traditions have affirmed this in different ways, the present book highlights the centrality of the Christ’s faith in sustaining the broader claim that Jesus’ human life matters. . . . a theology of the humanity of Christ must attend to the nature and role of his faith.”