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Divine Self-Investment: An Open and Relational Constructive Christology
When muttering the word “God” doesn’t come easy, what does it mean to call Jesus “the Christ?” Fuller offers a robust constructive Christology that engages three theological registers - historical, existential, and metaphysical.
Beginning Christology not from above or below but from within the Disciple’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, Fuller constructs a powerful Open and Relational Christology. At the heart are three pairings of contemporary thinkers who share a thematic center with distinct trajectories. Fuller weaves each into a vision of God’s self-investment in history and the person of Jesus. The constructive proposal not only uses an Open and Relational vision but reshapes it in light of God’s self-investment in Christ. The significance of Fuller’s proposal is wide-reaching, engaging revelation, divine power, evil, the cross, hope, the imago dei, and the Spirit.
What They're Saying...
“This ambitious Christology marks Tripp Fuller as one of the most significant young systematic theologians to emerge on the scene in recent years. One can profitably read this book as an introduction to Open and Relational Theology; as a refresher on Logos Christology, Spirit Christology, and the quest for the historical Jesus; or as a primer on his six theological discussion partners. But the brilliance of the volume is actually the blending of biblical, classical, and process insights into a single moving vision of God’s self-investment in creation, Israel, and Jesus. Rarely have I encountered a young theologian who writes with this level of systematic depth.”
-- Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology
"Tripp Fuller masterfully engages the crucial Christian Who do we say Jesus is? Engaging history, philosophy and theology, Fuller offers a vision of Jesus that weds evangelical convictions with progressive insights. His work stands alone side that of John Cobb, David Griffin and Elizabeth Johnson for required reading in Christology."
-- Monica A. Coleman, Professor of Africana Studies, University of Delaware, author of Making a Way Out of No a Womanist Theology
Beginning Christology not from above or below but from within the Disciple’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, Fuller constructs a powerful Open and Relational Christology. At the heart are three pairings of contemporary thinkers who share a thematic center with distinct trajectories. Fuller weaves each into a vision of God’s self-investment in history and the person of Jesus. The constructive proposal not only uses an Open and Relational vision but reshapes it in light of God’s self-investment in Christ. The significance of Fuller’s proposal is wide-reaching, engaging revelation, divine power, evil, the cross, hope, the imago dei, and the Spirit.
What They're Saying...
“This ambitious Christology marks Tripp Fuller as one of the most significant young systematic theologians to emerge on the scene in recent years. One can profitably read this book as an introduction to Open and Relational Theology; as a refresher on Logos Christology, Spirit Christology, and the quest for the historical Jesus; or as a primer on his six theological discussion partners. But the brilliance of the volume is actually the blending of biblical, classical, and process insights into a single moving vision of God’s self-investment in creation, Israel, and Jesus. Rarely have I encountered a young theologian who writes with this level of systematic depth.”
-- Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology
"Tripp Fuller masterfully engages the crucial Christian Who do we say Jesus is? Engaging history, philosophy and theology, Fuller offers a vision of Jesus that weds evangelical convictions with progressive insights. His work stands alone side that of John Cobb, David Griffin and Elizabeth Johnson for required reading in Christology."
-- Monica A. Coleman, Professor of Africana Studies, University of Delaware, author of Making a Way Out of No a Womanist Theology
- GenresTheologyChristianity
172 pages, Paperback
Published August 17, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 4, 2020
For many liberal Christians, Christology gets reduced to a sentiment expressed by Mary Magdeline (played by Yvonne Ellimon) in Jesus Christ Superstar, "I don't know why I love him, he's just a man." He might be a prophet or more likely a cynic sage, who shares witty statements, but as for his divinity, as traditionally understood? Well, he's just a man. But is that all we can say? Must we be satisfied with such a reductionist Christology? Or, are there ways of moving beyond the bifurcation of a Jesus of history and a Christ of faith?
One who has attempted to proffer a Christology for liberals that takes seriously the historical Jesus and affirms the presence of God in and with Jesus is Tripp Fuller. I've known Tripp for more than a dozen years, having met him while he was a Ph.D. student at Claremont School of Theology. I found him as a very young man to be a brilliant theologian, and I've not changed my assessment over the years. Even when and where I might differ with him theologically I've always been impressed by his grasp of the subject and its underlying complexities. Tripp might be best known for his Homebrewed Christianity podcasts. And while he can come off as a "wild and crazy guy," that doesn't take away from his brilliance as a theologian.
In Divine Self-Investment, Tripp offers his first full-length book of theology. He's edited a series of books under the lead of Homebrewed Christianity and served as a co-author with his mentor Philip Clayton of the book Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society. He writes for liberal Christians who are tempted with reductive Christologies, which he finds unnecessary. He offers in this book a response that provides a constructive theology that leads to a robust Christian theology. He does so by exploring three prongs of a Christology, comparing pairs of theologians. The three prongs are a Spirit-Christology, Logos Christology, and the transforming power of the Gospel.
Tripp engages the conversation from an "Open and Relational" perspective (with a Process orientation). He writes that Christology is a "disciple's discipline," arguing that the inability to articulate how God is present in Jesus Christ destroys the integrity of the church (p. 2). While he recognizes that the Trinity is a contested doctrine within Christianity, it does point to Christology as being central to understanding God's identity. And as an "open and relational" theologian he approaches these concerns with two core convictions: First God affects the world, and second that the world affects God (p. 10).
The book is comprised of six chapters, with chapter one providing an introduction to his vision of a three-pronged constructive theology that is rooted in the space opened up for theologians by historical-critical biblical study. I would suggest that this chapter is worth the price of the book because it lays out the concerns of our day regarding our ability as Christians to articulate a compelling message regarding Jesus. Tripp writes: "For Christians, the answer to the question “Who is God?” required telling the story of Jesus. What Jesus said, did, endured, and delivered definitively shape the Christian life and the community’s understanding of God." (p. 1).
This is followed in chapter two with an exploration of the role of the historical Jesus in the contemporary conversation. he notes that liberal traditions have a vested interest in historical criticism, but that this is not sufficient to a full-orbed Christology. Nevertheless, it does open up space for an articulation of a liberal Christology. With this foundation, laying out the various ways the Jesus of history has been understood, he moves in chapter 3 to the first of three chapters that offers pathways into a workable constructive liberal Christology.
There is a tendency for Spirit-Christologies, which can easily be found present in the New Testament to lead to adoptionist and Arian Christologies. Nevertheless, there is much promise in this form of Christology in that it allows us to envision the presence of God in Jesus. Fuller engages this conversation through a comparison of two Catholic theologians, Roger Haight and Joseph Bracken, with Bracken being more concerned about protecting a Trinitarian understanding of God. What a Spirit-Christology does is view Jesus' divinity (yes divinity) as "an emergent identity from a definitionally natural relationship God has with all humans. Different Spirit Christologies will articulate several variables within this picture differently, such as the role of sin, the nature of Jesus’ faithfulness, or connections to Trinitarian relations. The key element, however, is that a Spirit Christology is a bibliocentric image that opens up a different trajectory of development from that of the more historically dominant Logos Christology" (p. 39). For Tripp, the concern is the affirmation of the full humanity of Jesus as well as the fullness of God's presence in Jesus (p. 69).
While a Spirit Christology offers a hopeful direction for Christology, it is not the only nor the most common approach. Traditionally a Logos Christology as seen in the prologue of John has been the central conceptual starting point for Christological discussion. What it does is offer the possibility of envisioning the preexistence of Christ. Regarding this perspective, Tripp compares the theologies of Kathryn Tanner, who approaches the question of Christology from an Augustinian perspective, and John Cobb, a Process theologian. Tanner's Logos Christology offers a robust vision of salvation history rooted in the divine act in and through Jesus, while Cobb offers a more universal vision of history.
Recognizing the promise of a Logos Christology that avoids dualism and divine invasion, Tripp turns to his third prong, which is the nature of salvation in relation to the cross. He compares Douglas Ottati, a liberal Reformed theologian, with Andrew Sung Park, an Open and Relational Theologian. They both speak to transformation through Christ and the cross but do so in a way that rejects a clear demarcation between justification and sanctification. They also raise the question of who needs salvation, with Park suggesting that this includes God. Whereas Ottati speaks to the transformation of the heart, Park makes use of the concept of Han, a Korean understanding of suffering, to engage in the conversation about salvation. In this regard, he notes "Park’s attentiveness to the experience of the Han-ridden people and its connection to the heart of God has demonstrated one way in which an open and relational Christology can not only make metaphysical claims about God, namely here the Triune suffering of God and God’s need of salvation, but also how the Christological conclusions may be reappropriated for metaphysics." (p. 132).
Having laid out these three prongs, in chapter six Tripp attempts to bring together a robust Christology that connects insights from each of the prongs to construct a broad open and relational vision of God that is rooted in Christology. This leads, in Tripp's view to a focus on God's divine self-investment in creation. This provides a good summation of his vision: "The work of God is revealed in the person of Jesus—precisely in what he said, did, endured, and continues to say, do, endure, and transform through the spirit. A disciple’s confession of Jesus as the Christ is not simply an act of identification, but one of recognition. If one comes to know themselves as known and loved by God in Christ, and one can see her life as also sustained and empowered by God, they might seek to discover and share the mind of Christ in which their will comes to cohere with God’s will. It is this life together in God for which the Spirit of God has always worked and the Word of God has always beckoned in desiring a full response. The promise and hope of salvation rests in this: that the God who chose to invest Godself in creating creaturely co-creators and who was ever faithful to the covenanted people of Israel, is the God of deep solidarity who stands in need of our shared salvation." (p. 155).
This is an intriguing work that lays out concerns for liberal/progressive Christians who struggle with answering Jesus' question to the disciples -- Who do you say that I am? He offers us fruitful resources that can help with this dilemma. While he doesn't go into deep detail regarding the Trinity, it is clear that he is using a Trinitarian perspective to hold together the various dimensions of his Christology, though he doesn't feel the need to affirm the preexistence of Christ. That he brings together both Spirit and Logos in a constructive way offers us a helpful way forward in developing Christologies that affirm the humanity of Jesus and the divine presence within him. As I noted above, Tripp has always exhibited brilliance as a theologian, and that is on full display here.
One who has attempted to proffer a Christology for liberals that takes seriously the historical Jesus and affirms the presence of God in and with Jesus is Tripp Fuller. I've known Tripp for more than a dozen years, having met him while he was a Ph.D. student at Claremont School of Theology. I found him as a very young man to be a brilliant theologian, and I've not changed my assessment over the years. Even when and where I might differ with him theologically I've always been impressed by his grasp of the subject and its underlying complexities. Tripp might be best known for his Homebrewed Christianity podcasts. And while he can come off as a "wild and crazy guy," that doesn't take away from his brilliance as a theologian.
In Divine Self-Investment, Tripp offers his first full-length book of theology. He's edited a series of books under the lead of Homebrewed Christianity and served as a co-author with his mentor Philip Clayton of the book Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society. He writes for liberal Christians who are tempted with reductive Christologies, which he finds unnecessary. He offers in this book a response that provides a constructive theology that leads to a robust Christian theology. He does so by exploring three prongs of a Christology, comparing pairs of theologians. The three prongs are a Spirit-Christology, Logos Christology, and the transforming power of the Gospel.
Tripp engages the conversation from an "Open and Relational" perspective (with a Process orientation). He writes that Christology is a "disciple's discipline," arguing that the inability to articulate how God is present in Jesus Christ destroys the integrity of the church (p. 2). While he recognizes that the Trinity is a contested doctrine within Christianity, it does point to Christology as being central to understanding God's identity. And as an "open and relational" theologian he approaches these concerns with two core convictions: First God affects the world, and second that the world affects God (p. 10).
The book is comprised of six chapters, with chapter one providing an introduction to his vision of a three-pronged constructive theology that is rooted in the space opened up for theologians by historical-critical biblical study. I would suggest that this chapter is worth the price of the book because it lays out the concerns of our day regarding our ability as Christians to articulate a compelling message regarding Jesus. Tripp writes: "For Christians, the answer to the question “Who is God?” required telling the story of Jesus. What Jesus said, did, endured, and delivered definitively shape the Christian life and the community’s understanding of God." (p. 1).
This is followed in chapter two with an exploration of the role of the historical Jesus in the contemporary conversation. he notes that liberal traditions have a vested interest in historical criticism, but that this is not sufficient to a full-orbed Christology. Nevertheless, it does open up space for an articulation of a liberal Christology. With this foundation, laying out the various ways the Jesus of history has been understood, he moves in chapter 3 to the first of three chapters that offers pathways into a workable constructive liberal Christology.
There is a tendency for Spirit-Christologies, which can easily be found present in the New Testament to lead to adoptionist and Arian Christologies. Nevertheless, there is much promise in this form of Christology in that it allows us to envision the presence of God in Jesus. Fuller engages this conversation through a comparison of two Catholic theologians, Roger Haight and Joseph Bracken, with Bracken being more concerned about protecting a Trinitarian understanding of God. What a Spirit-Christology does is view Jesus' divinity (yes divinity) as "an emergent identity from a definitionally natural relationship God has with all humans. Different Spirit Christologies will articulate several variables within this picture differently, such as the role of sin, the nature of Jesus’ faithfulness, or connections to Trinitarian relations. The key element, however, is that a Spirit Christology is a bibliocentric image that opens up a different trajectory of development from that of the more historically dominant Logos Christology" (p. 39). For Tripp, the concern is the affirmation of the full humanity of Jesus as well as the fullness of God's presence in Jesus (p. 69).
While a Spirit Christology offers a hopeful direction for Christology, it is not the only nor the most common approach. Traditionally a Logos Christology as seen in the prologue of John has been the central conceptual starting point for Christological discussion. What it does is offer the possibility of envisioning the preexistence of Christ. Regarding this perspective, Tripp compares the theologies of Kathryn Tanner, who approaches the question of Christology from an Augustinian perspective, and John Cobb, a Process theologian. Tanner's Logos Christology offers a robust vision of salvation history rooted in the divine act in and through Jesus, while Cobb offers a more universal vision of history.
Recognizing the promise of a Logos Christology that avoids dualism and divine invasion, Tripp turns to his third prong, which is the nature of salvation in relation to the cross. He compares Douglas Ottati, a liberal Reformed theologian, with Andrew Sung Park, an Open and Relational Theologian. They both speak to transformation through Christ and the cross but do so in a way that rejects a clear demarcation between justification and sanctification. They also raise the question of who needs salvation, with Park suggesting that this includes God. Whereas Ottati speaks to the transformation of the heart, Park makes use of the concept of Han, a Korean understanding of suffering, to engage in the conversation about salvation. In this regard, he notes "Park’s attentiveness to the experience of the Han-ridden people and its connection to the heart of God has demonstrated one way in which an open and relational Christology can not only make metaphysical claims about God, namely here the Triune suffering of God and God’s need of salvation, but also how the Christological conclusions may be reappropriated for metaphysics." (p. 132).
Having laid out these three prongs, in chapter six Tripp attempts to bring together a robust Christology that connects insights from each of the prongs to construct a broad open and relational vision of God that is rooted in Christology. This leads, in Tripp's view to a focus on God's divine self-investment in creation. This provides a good summation of his vision: "The work of God is revealed in the person of Jesus—precisely in what he said, did, endured, and continues to say, do, endure, and transform through the spirit. A disciple’s confession of Jesus as the Christ is not simply an act of identification, but one of recognition. If one comes to know themselves as known and loved by God in Christ, and one can see her life as also sustained and empowered by God, they might seek to discover and share the mind of Christ in which their will comes to cohere with God’s will. It is this life together in God for which the Spirit of God has always worked and the Word of God has always beckoned in desiring a full response. The promise and hope of salvation rests in this: that the God who chose to invest Godself in creating creaturely co-creators and who was ever faithful to the covenanted people of Israel, is the God of deep solidarity who stands in need of our shared salvation." (p. 155).
This is an intriguing work that lays out concerns for liberal/progressive Christians who struggle with answering Jesus' question to the disciples -- Who do you say that I am? He offers us fruitful resources that can help with this dilemma. While he doesn't go into deep detail regarding the Trinity, it is clear that he is using a Trinitarian perspective to hold together the various dimensions of his Christology, though he doesn't feel the need to affirm the preexistence of Christ. That he brings together both Spirit and Logos in a constructive way offers us a helpful way forward in developing Christologies that affirm the humanity of Jesus and the divine presence within him. As I noted above, Tripp has always exhibited brilliance as a theologian, and that is on full display here.
September 1, 2020
Tripp has written a fine book. He's pulled together so many different theological threads and made sense of them.
The first chapter conscisely and straightforwardly summarizes some of the key themes of Process thought. The second chapter is the best summary of the current state of historical Jesus research I've read. Subsequent chapters review major developments in Christology and places differing voices in conversation with one another developing from them the major themes that a contemporary theology should have. And the conclusion draws it all together to present a fresh and inspiring picture of the Christ.
I know I'll find it helpful for teaching and preaching for years. Thank you Tripp.
The first chapter conscisely and straightforwardly summarizes some of the key themes of Process thought. The second chapter is the best summary of the current state of historical Jesus research I've read. Subsequent chapters review major developments in Christology and places differing voices in conversation with one another developing from them the major themes that a contemporary theology should have. And the conclusion draws it all together to present a fresh and inspiring picture of the Christ.
I know I'll find it helpful for teaching and preaching for years. Thank you Tripp.
October 21, 2022
Last chapter - “Jesus Christ and the Divine Self-Investment of God” is worth the read.
(-1 star because Fuller didn’t give any tips for Bible-based stock market investment.)
(-1 star because Fuller didn’t give any tips for Bible-based stock market investment.)
August 16, 2022
"Moment to moment, God is invested always in the world and engaged in the incarnational activity of giving the Logos to the world. In the person of Jesus, the Logos of God takes up sarx as an imaging of the invisible God in the temporal world. The incarnation of God's Word in Jesus is not accomplished through divine intervention, but rather through divine fidelity, patience, and loving investment in the world."
Gotta say, I was swimming a bit beyond my depths here, which made this objectively short book feel much longer and more arduous than I'd expected. Like many, I know Fuller through his podcast, Homebrewed Christianity, which is one of the most examples of striking the perfect balance between intellectually rigorous theological reflection and fun, "zesty" accessibility. I made the mistake of assuming this would be written in a similar voice, and unfortunately it was essentially all the former and none of the latter. It reads like a converted PhD thesis, and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was. I'm two years into seminary and have done a bit of introductory reading on process theology, but I think I would have been hopelessly lost without that foundation given how dense this still registered for me. All that to say, take my critiques with a grain of salt and heed the reviews who could more deftly navigate the material!
Although I don't think I could quite make out much of the nuances Fuller was articulating here or the connective tissue between his arguments, I did find myself consistently appreciating various points he was making, as well as his overall project. Knowing Fuller's background, I noticed undertones here of an attempt to reclaim liberal/Open and Relational theology from a secularized/overly-historical fixation. From the get-go, Fuller communicates his conviction that Christology is, fundamentally, a disciple's discipline, referencing Peter as the model. I appreciated this distancing away from apologetics to a more existential emphasis, which he carries through in his 3 chapters comparing liberal and O&R theologians (Haight and Bracken's Spirit Christologies, Tanner and Cobb's Logos Christologies, and Ottati and Sung Park's theologies of the cross, the last of which I definitely followed and appreciated most). This culminates in his assertion that "If the Spirit Christology's horizon was primarily Jesus' own relationship to God through Israel, and the Logos Christology's horizon was God's co-creative relationship with the world, together they represent a way of envisioning God as the good God of Creation and the faithful God of the covenant. ... In the same way that the history of Israel's self-understanding is not just a historical product but also the production of God's own continued investment in the history of God's people, so to is the cosmological process in which dynamic and conscious life emerged. The historical person of Jesus was not then an aberration within this ongoing and dynamic relationship, but rather the fruit of it." What I was able to track with that Fuller was doing, I appreciated, I just wish I'd been able to track with more.
Gotta say, I was swimming a bit beyond my depths here, which made this objectively short book feel much longer and more arduous than I'd expected. Like many, I know Fuller through his podcast, Homebrewed Christianity, which is one of the most examples of striking the perfect balance between intellectually rigorous theological reflection and fun, "zesty" accessibility. I made the mistake of assuming this would be written in a similar voice, and unfortunately it was essentially all the former and none of the latter. It reads like a converted PhD thesis, and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was. I'm two years into seminary and have done a bit of introductory reading on process theology, but I think I would have been hopelessly lost without that foundation given how dense this still registered for me. All that to say, take my critiques with a grain of salt and heed the reviews who could more deftly navigate the material!
Although I don't think I could quite make out much of the nuances Fuller was articulating here or the connective tissue between his arguments, I did find myself consistently appreciating various points he was making, as well as his overall project. Knowing Fuller's background, I noticed undertones here of an attempt to reclaim liberal/Open and Relational theology from a secularized/overly-historical fixation. From the get-go, Fuller communicates his conviction that Christology is, fundamentally, a disciple's discipline, referencing Peter as the model. I appreciated this distancing away from apologetics to a more existential emphasis, which he carries through in his 3 chapters comparing liberal and O&R theologians (Haight and Bracken's Spirit Christologies, Tanner and Cobb's Logos Christologies, and Ottati and Sung Park's theologies of the cross, the last of which I definitely followed and appreciated most). This culminates in his assertion that "If the Spirit Christology's horizon was primarily Jesus' own relationship to God through Israel, and the Logos Christology's horizon was God's co-creative relationship with the world, together they represent a way of envisioning God as the good God of Creation and the faithful God of the covenant. ... In the same way that the history of Israel's self-understanding is not just a historical product but also the production of God's own continued investment in the history of God's people, so to is the cosmological process in which dynamic and conscious life emerged. The historical person of Jesus was not then an aberration within this ongoing and dynamic relationship, but rather the fruit of it." What I was able to track with that Fuller was doing, I appreciated, I just wish I'd been able to track with more.
October 25, 2020
I recently came across Tripp Fuller website, Homebrewed Christianity, earlier this year as he was hosting a survey of black theology and the black theologian James H. Cone on there. I enjoyed that class very much and became very interested in this book of Mr. Fuller's as it came out not too long ago. Now that I have read it I have to say that I enjoyed the survey he gives of modern christology from different perspectives, but I don't know if I am fully on board with his conclusions. Granted, I read this book very quickly and very late at night, so a certain level of exhaustion may be involved in my analysis of this book, but I just didn't see the connections Mr. Fuller made between the theologians he examined and his own conclusions on an open and relational christology. Indeed, some of the conclusions Mr. Fuller seems to make would put him at odds with traditional Christianity's creeds on Christ, particularly bedrock foundations such as Christ being fully God and fully man and that Christ is eternal with the Father and was with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world. Again, I may have read this book too quickly. Despite its ~150 page length, it is incredibly dense, which means that it deserves a slow and careful approach. Despite my reservations about Mr. Fuller's conclusions, I really did enjoy his analysis, particularly of Andrew Sung Park and his Han theology. However, I feel that I need to reread this book to fully grasp his conclusions. If you're a Christian looking for new approaches to theology, this may be a book right up your alley.
December 13, 2020
Pretty dense reading, pulled some good points though.
This book felt longer than it was. I had to read much of it two or three times because the sentences we're often super long and very dense. I'm not the best with grammar and punctuation, but it definitely seemed like there was a need for better proof-reading/editing.
That said, it was interesting and challenging in a good way. The points I was able to pick up on were strong and thought provoking.
This book felt longer than it was. I had to read much of it two or three times because the sentences we're often super long and very dense. I'm not the best with grammar and punctuation, but it definitely seemed like there was a need for better proof-reading/editing.
That said, it was interesting and challenging in a good way. The points I was able to pick up on were strong and thought provoking.
August 28, 2023
This was a compelling and hopeful read. The book ties together numerous threads to offer a view that both honors the christian tradition and builds a new understanding for todays world.
As a note, this book is very theologically and philosophically dense and is definitely not one I would recommend to just anyone - it requires a decent amount of prior knowledge on the topic (some of which I was clueless on). But in the end the final chapter nicely ties everything together.
As a note, this book is very theologically and philosophically dense and is definitely not one I would recommend to just anyone - it requires a decent amount of prior knowledge on the topic (some of which I was clueless on). But in the end the final chapter nicely ties everything together.
December 13, 2022
This should be a prescribed book for studies in Christology. But don’t think of it as academic only - it is inspirational, motivational and empowering in the life of being a disciple. It is an amazing book. Thank you Tripp!
July 8, 2021
This work opens up a good deal of space for more interesting and inclusive ways of doing constructive theology.
January 28, 2024
A zesty adventure into philosophical theology.
May 9, 2025
Was actually Liar, Lunatic, Lord or Awesome
September 25, 2023
If you have listened to Tripp’s podcast Homebrewed Christianity, this book will feel very familiar in its language and direction. Tripp lays the groundwork for theologians who have worked out a legitimate Spirit Christology, weaving through various Liberation, Catholic, and Process theologies. Rather than making Jesus a problem to solve or an object to capture, Tripp highlights the beauty of the Gospels, the faithful and diverse pictures they paint of Jesus, and the Christologies that have emerged through and from this understanding of embracing and expressing Jesus as a disciple. Love and friendship are what make Tripp’s Christology so enrapturing, true, and hopeful. It’s worth the buy and your view of Jesus of Nazareth will be positively transformed after you read it
August 1, 2022
There is much to this short book. A snapshot of contemporary thinking around Christology. It will absolutely need many readings.
June 6, 2021
Tripp reviews six significant thinkers on his way to constructing a Christology that honors the historical person of Jesus Christ, the existential register of all faith confessions and experience, and the metaphysical nature of God as open and relational. In this understanding, neither the entirety of the life of Jesus - nor his death and resurrection in particular - are a one-off moment of God's self-investment in Creation, but an image of God's ongoing self-investment with all creation.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews