Was Jesus God?

by Richard Swinburne

Writing clearly and powerfully, Swinburne argues that it is probable that the main Christian doctrines about the nature of God and his actions in the world are true. In virtue of his omnipotence and perfect goodness, the author shows, God must be a Trinity, live a human life in order to share our suffering, and found a church which would enable him to tell all humans about this. It is also quite probable that he would provide his human life as atonement for our wrongdoing, teach us how we should live, and tell us his plans for our future after death. Among founders of religions, Jesus uniquely satisfies the requirement of living the sort of human life which God would need to have lived. But to give us adequate reason to believe that Jesus was God, God would need to put his "signature" on the life of Jesus by an act which he alone could do--raise him from the dead. And there is adequate historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Richard G. Swinburne is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a very influential proponent of natural theology, that is, philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical contributions are primarily in philosophy of religion and philosophy of science. He aroused much discussion with his early work in the philosophy of religion, a trilogy of books consisting of The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, and Faith and Reason.

Reviews

[Nick Xylas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was Jesus God? is a sort-of-sequel to Richard Swinburne's Is There a God?, in which Swinburne, a professor of philosphy at Oxford University, sets out to demonstrate that theism represents a plausible explanation for the origins of the universe. In this book, Professor Swinburne takes this conclusion further, and shows that if there is a God, it would be logical for him to behave in the manner attributed to him in the Nicene Creed; taking on human form, suffering and being resurrected from the dead.

The book, like its predecessor, is aimed at a general rather than an academic audience. Professor Swinburne writes in lucid, jargon-free prose, explaining complex philosophical ideas using simple metaphors drawn from everyday life, much as Jesus did with his parables. Unlike the perpetually furious New Atheists, Swinburne is not out to pick a fight with anyone, or to belittle his opponents, but he is clearly aware that the intellectual climate of our age favours atheism over theism. He elegantly makes the case that theism is every bit as respectable a position as atheism for a logical mind to take.

[Caleb Ontiveros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably not, but Swinburne is one of the best Christian apologists and this book is a nice overview of his more detailed work.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of the book may be a bit misleading. The book is not primarily focused on arguing for the deity of Christ (against, say Arian views of Jesus). This book is actually an extension of Swinburne's book 'Is There a God?'. In that book Swinburne argues for the plausibility of theism. In this book Swinburne argues for the plausibility of Christian theism.

So the book's argument is much broader than the deity of Jesus or the Trinity, though it does include arguments for both of those things. Richard Swinburne is a philosopher, not a theologian, and this book is argued purely from a philosophical angle. Christians who are looking for exegetical or theological arguments for the deity of Jesus should look elsewhere.

One might think that a philosophy book like this would be heavy reading. But it's actually very easy to follow, as far as method is concerned. The only difficulty readers may have is keeping track of all the steps along the process of Swinburne's thought. He moves simply, but quickly.

One also shouldn't expect Swinburne to offer very rigorous arguments in such a short book. For instance, his overall argument relies upon evidence for the resurrection. But Swinburne only sketches the argument on this topic. Anyone looking for a more robust case for the resurrection should look elsewhere. What Swinburne does is present a man-on-the-street version of the overall argument for Christian theism, attempting to show that it is plausible (which he repeatedly reminds the reader means 'not very improbable').

His argument for God being triune was very interesting. But it relies upon one accepting the doctrine of eternal generation. His theology is poor by Evangelical standards and will likely be rejected by any American Evangelical (Swinburne is British). For instance, he defends the Bible as entirely true by categorizing many books of the Bible as fables (historical fable, moral fable, or metaphysical fables) and promoting an allegorizing hermeneutic practiced by early church fathers like Origin and Augustine. If Swinburne were attempting to write a theology book or claiming to be a theologian I would give the book 1 star, but since it makes no pretense to that and since Swinburne's book is interesting, clear, and thoughtful I've given it four.

[William Staton · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There is only one serious candidate for being God incarnate about whom there is historical evidence if he did these things and not in the least expected if he did not. So [...] it is very probable that God became incarnate in Jesus, who led a perfect life, suffered, was crucified, and buried; and that he rose from the dead, made atonement for our sins, and founded a Church." Page 166. Those sentences sum up most of the arguments covered in this book. I think I took too long reading it. Some of his arguments are labored and perhaps a bit of a stretch for the skeptic, but nonetheless intriguing. I enjoyed his logical defense of the Trinity (chapter 2), an argument made without scriptural appeal (as is most of the book). Pages 131-132 showed how Jesus is the only probable messianic-figure candidate of all the religions in history. Protestant readers might find a few of Swinburne's doctrinal assertions a little goofy (Swinburne is Eastern Orthodox if I remember correctly), but he doesn't rely on them too much so this isn't an issue.

Read it if you want, you might enjoy it more than I did. But it isn't a bad book.

[Joseph Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting argument! Swinburne’s approach is to prove the Jesus being God is not just plausible, but probable. By starting with the existence of God, the Trinity, and the necessity of the Incarnation for God’s redemptive purposes, Swinburne sets the stage for how Jesus being God Incarnate is plausible.

After that, He examines the “proof” offered by Jesus during His time on earth through His words, His actions, and His church to argue that His divinity is probable. In typical Swinburne fashion, this book is logically rigorous, but incredibly helpful in formulating an argument in support of an essential Christian doctrine.

[Norman Styers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but ultimately unsatisfactory as apologetics. Swinburne argues for the probability and/or plausibility of central Christian claims, but faith requires more than a probability analysis, and he never takes that additional step. Also, his analysis has the air of a math student who has gotten the answers out of the back of the book, and then derives them with the aid of his prior knowledge. For those who already believe it offers too much; for those who do not believe it offers too little.

[Keith B]

Thought provoking look at Christianity and its proofs from a philosophical perspective.

[Jonathan Ammon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have considerable disagreement with Swinburne, but found this very short summary of his projects in analytic theology to be so fascinating and exciting that I cannot help but give it five stars. This book is for theists and attempts to move from simple theism to an understanding of what we would expect God to be like and what we would expect God to do. Essentially this leads to an examination and exploration of the creedal doctrines of Christianity. This book is a less than 200 page overview of work that spans four large academic volumes-The Christian God, Responsibility and the Atonement, The Resurrection of God Incarnate, and Providence and the Problem of Evil. As such, it is necessarily limited, but Swinburne does a good job of accessibly tracing the outlines of his reasoning and summarizing his conclusions without "showing his work." Swinburne is a seminal figure if not the seminal figure in analytic theology, a true pioneer, and this is the kind of work that greatly excites me. I suspect that this work will influence me for many years to come.

[Shawn Durham · Rating 4 out of 5]

👍

[L.I.T. Tarassenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a very strange book, although I am highly sympathetic to its aims. As a summary of some of Swinburne's ideas for a popular audience, it is fantastic. However, the whole approach of the thinking I find to be disingenuous and unconvincing. As it's natural theology, it's arguing that the doctrines of Christianity are not only plausible (fine) but probable based on reason and observation of the natural world alone, as though they could be worked out from first principles alone even if we did not have a body of special revelation (the Bible). But that seems completely disingenuous to me--I do not think that anyone would write a book like this unless they had already encountered the doctrines of Christianity. As such the whole tone comes across as 'topsy turvy' to me--trying to argue from a set of historically conditioned beliefs that those beliefs would be likely to be true even if the historical conditions were not there. Not very persuasive.

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a book with many great arguments. He exemplified his thoughts with good and rational theories. However, there are far too many blanket terms that made the reading experience comfortless.