EBOOK
About
The second century was a religious and cultural crucible for early Christian Christology. Was Christ a man, temporarily inhabited by the divine? Was he a spirit, only apparently cloaked in flesh? Or was he the Logos, truly incarnate? Between varieties of adoptionism on the one hand and brands of Gnosticism on the other, the church's understanding took shape. In this clear and concise introduction, James Papandrea sets out five of the principal images of Christ that dominated belief and debate in the postapostolic age. While beliefs on the ground were likely more tangled and less defined than we can know, Papandrea helps us see how Logos Christology was forged as the beginning of the church's orthodox confession. This informative and clarifying study of early Christology provides a solid ground for students to begin to explore the early church and its Christologies.
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Reviews
"The Earliest Christologies is an absolutely first-rate introduction to the early development of Christological doctrine. Papandrea has the gift of explaining complex issues clearly, simply, and precisely. . . . This book most definitely belongs in all libraries, academic and seminary, supporting programs in early Christian studies and/or theology."
Thomas M. Dousa, Catholic Library World, September 2016
"With conciseness, clarity and proper nuance, James Papandrea offers an excellent primer on the developing Christologies of the second century and shows their practical significance and implications on soteriology and anthropology."
Helen Rhee, associate professor of history of Christianity, Westmont College