The Pastor-as-Theologian's Library

Christology

Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus – God and Man sections; Systematic Theology sections on Christology;

Pannenberg is a Lutheran theologian and without doubt, one of the most important theologians of the late 20^th and early 21^st century. Pannenberg’s work in Christology was groundbreaking: on the one hand, he holds a high place for the historical-critical “quest” for the Jesus of history; on the other hand, he refused to assent to naturalistic assumptions in this “quest,” and he stayed thoroughly engaged with classical theological sources. In Pannenberg’s first book, Jesus- God and Man, Pannenberg presents his approach of a “Christology from below” that works from history to the eventual affirmation of creedal statements about Christ. But in his later work, Systematic Theology, Pannenberg admits to problems in his earlier “quest,” and deconstructs the notion of being able to do a “Christology from below.”

Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross, Hans Boersma

Boerma’s book is a recent significant contribution to reflection on the atonement – the work of Christ. Boersma deals with many of the problems that are raised about the cross as a violent image, and deals with the question of whether atonement theologies are “inherently violent.” Boersma works from a broadly Reformed tradition (though he disagrees with it at points), and he draws upon the New Testament work of N.T. Wright.

Jesus and the gospel in Africa : history and experience / Kwame Bediako

Jesus of Africa: Voices of Contemporary African Christology/Diane B. Stinton (any 100 pages)

Kwame Bediako is a leading African theologian and Diane Stinton’s new book is a secondary source on African Christologies generally. This set of books is good for students who want to learn about Two-Third’s World theology, and the distinctive concerns that come from doing theology from different cultural-social locations.

N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God

The first is an important book from an important contemporary author – N.T. Wright’s account of the resurrection in his series on Christian Origins and the Question of God. This is a long volume, and I suspect that reading 100 pages will just wet your appetite for more…. Wright is a New Testament scholar, but he writes with an unusual degree of awareness of theological issues. In this book, Wright defends the notion of Christ’s bodily resurrection and evaluates the many theories and issues that are raised about this aspect of Christian teaching.

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3

Bavinck was a Dutch Reformed theologian in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Irenic and insightful, his work is a good place to go for a statement of a classically Reformed approach to Christian teaching.

©2007-08 J. Todd Billings