The best theological writing forces a rethink of our most settled ideas about who God is and how God relates to human history and the existence of all that is not God. What makes such writing even more compelling is when the author takes the reader into his confidence about how his own theological convictions have developed and been rethought, culminating in a book like this.
My reading of McCormack's book has been a three week intensive course in theological re-thinking, and reconstruction around our understanding of the person of Christ. In particular, McCormack seeks to construct a viable model of kenotic Christology, one that adjusts and restates classic Reformed Christology and repairs perceived gaps in the Chalcedonian definition. It's a daunting task of doctrinal rebuilding.
The Humility of the Eternal Son is the first volume of a projected trilogy which, it is to be dearly hoped, will not be too long in completion. McCormack indicates that much of the work is already done in several previous series of prestigious lectures delivered over recent years. Following this first volume, a second will look at the doctrine of the Triune God founded on the Christology developed in this volume. The third volume will then explore the work of Christ and atonement as these emerge from the previous theological reconstructions of the doctrines of Christology and Trinity, (in volumes one and two).
What has made McCormack's volume such a compelling read for me is that it is the first substantial monograph on kenotic Christology in English since H R Mackintosh's The Doctrine of the Person of Christ (1927), and David Brown's Divine Humanity (2011), the latter oddly unreferenced by McCormack. Though near the end of Brown's book he engages with McCormack's developing thought on kenosis.
The Humility of the Eternal Son has an important introduction, (which will be the focus of the next in this review series). Once the ground is cleared. three main parts follow, in what becomes a cumulative argument of dogmatic Christological reconstruction.
Part one is an overview and critical history of kenotic christologies. This section is a tour de force engagement with Patristic, 19th Century German, Barthian and post-Barthian theologies. In illustration of the richly resourced research on display throughout this book, one chapter presents detailed critique and engagement with the Chalcedonian Definition. This is followed by similarly precise examinations of German Lutherans such as Dorner, Thomasius and Gess; and Scottish kenoticism in the writings of A B Bruce and H R Mackintosh. That's before we reach such names as Barth, Bulgakov and von Balthasar, Jungel, Jenson and Schoonenberg.
Part two is a focused engagement with specific New Testament texts in Paul, Hebrews and the four Gospels. Here McCormack is concerned to be fair to the text of Scripture, neither forcing them through a pre-constructed dogmatic grid, nor playing down the implications for Christology of the kenotic narrative they tell. I found McCormack's approach a combination of theological exegesis and dogmatic reflection, each in conversation with neither being allowed to dominate the discussion. More on this in a later post.
Part three is a detailed construction of what McCormack argues is a viable and valid Reformed version of Kenotic Christology that repairs some of the consequences for Christology of Chalcedonian metaphysics. This section I'm about to re-read because it contains a carefully constructed proposal for a Christology that is the foundation of the two forthcoming volumes on Trinity and Atonement. It's not often that reading such high octane theology can be described as thrilling; but by the time McCormack reaches the exposition of his own proposals, I for one found the book a page turner - it's just that the pages still have to be turned slowly, allowing time to assimilate such rich fuel for thought. The later sections of this chapter demonstrate McCormack's achievement, in a summing up of his argument that is generous to his conversation partners but indicates clearly where he has diverged from their conclusions and proposals.
The bibliography is arranged in sections tied to the chapters, making it user friendly and easily navigated. Much better than pages of small print, listed in an undifferentiated alphabetical continuum. The name index is also helpfully select, noting significant references only. The concept index also significantly enhances the experience of using this book. Such concepts as anhypostasia/enhypostasia, impassibility, ontological receptivity, immutability can clearly be traced through McCormack's discussion.
This, then, is a beautifully produced book in which two decades of research are mediated through a lifetime of dogmatic explorations, culminating in a sustained argument aimed at the twin goals of a Reformed Kenoticism and the repair of Chalcedon.
The next post will focus on McCormack's prologue and the outline of his argument.
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