Jesus, God and Man the Book, Jesus,

Jesus, God and Man

The book, Jesus, God and Man, contributes to the ongoing theological discussion regarding the key issues to Christians and Catholics. If Jesus was God in the flesh, then he is the unique expression of complete divinity, and complete humanity. If Jesus was God, then the core teachings of Christianity are separate, and distinct from all other religions on the planet. If Jesus was God, his request of "take up your cross and follow me" has implication that is different in substance, and content than all other religions of the modern era which were founded by men who said, in essence, that their's was a path of peacefulness which lead toward a closer communion with the divine.

The thesis of the book is that Jesus indeed is God. The author responds to modern theologians which have diligently tried to change this core doctrine of the church over the years. Brown insists that Jesus is God, because He said it, and because his followers echoed the claim. Brown says regarding the hesitation in the NT to directly ascribe the title "God" to Jesus:

The most plausible explanation is that in the earliest stage of Christianity the Old Testament heritage dominated the use of the title 'God'; hence 'God' was a title too narrow to be applied to Jesus. It referred strictly to the Father of Jesus, to the God whom he prayed. Gradually (in the 50s and 60s?), in the development of Christian thought, 'God' was understood to be a broader term. It was seen that God had revealed so much of Himself in Jesus that 'God' had to be able to include both Father and Son.

Although Brown does not approach the topic with the certainty which many Christians would prefer, he eventually lands on the side of traditional Christian thought. He insists that the God-Man Jesus was indeed divine. His argument is centered on two indirect thought processes, which theologians have pursued for centuries. It is because of the absurdity of the conclusions of these arguments that the reader must come back to the core issue, that Jesus is God and man, that he insisted on this truth, and that his apostles in presenting this truth were accurately representing Christ's claims. This argument has often been called the trilemma, and it applies both to Jesus, and to his followers.

In his book, An Introduction to New Testament Christology, the late Scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown said,." For orthodox Christians they (The four Gospels) have helped to shape the central doctrine of Jesus God and man." It is from this vantage point that the claims of Christ must be examined, from the vantage point that this doctrine arose from the people who walked and talked with Christ, and the 12 men who were intimately acquainted with him. The trilemma looks at the issue of Jesus' divinity this way. If Jesus was not god, and he stated that he was, there are only three possible conclusions to draw from his statements.

Jesus was deliberately lying, and he knew it. In this case, the teachings of Christ, his life style, and his dedication to teaching the tenants of Judaism were a total fraud. If Christ was not the God man, and he deliberately taught his followers that he was, then he could only have been a deluded megalomania who eventually died for his own lies. Such a man would not be worth of following.

If Jesus was not the God - man, and he taught his followers that he was, the other option is that he was deluded, and did not know it. In other words, the conclusion to this consideration is that Jesus was not God, and actually thought that he was. What kind of man would die on a cross for something that was not true? Such a man would not be the kind of person that would amass a following that would endure for 2000 years after his death. It would be likely, like the followers of other deluded men throughout time, that after his death, his followers would have scatters, and the sect would have died.

The third, and only other option is that Jesus was god, and he knew it, and this is the central theology he presented to his followers. This is the only reason that holds up under scrutiny of both the scriptural record, and an examination of the lives of those who followed Christ. Each of the apostles stayed true to their claims, what they believed were the claims of Christ, even though it caused them to loose their lives. Each of them carried the message to other countries, leaving their culture, families, and heritage in the middle east in order to carry out what they believed was the message, and the purpose of Jesus Christ.

In considering the New Testament, Brown identifies that from the first chapters of the Gospels, until the last words, the central theme of Jesus' divinity is clearly communicated.