Christ as Creator: Origins of a New Testament Doctrine

by Sean M. McDonough

Overview

This book examines the New Testament teaching that Christ was the one through whom God made the world. While scholars usually interpret this doctrine as arising from the equation of Jesus and the Wisdom of God, Sean McDonough argues that it had its roots in the church's memories of Jesus' miracles. These memories, coupled with the experience of spiritual renewal in the early church, established Jesus as the definitive agent of God's new creation in the New Testament writings and the teachings of the Early Church.

Following the logic that 'the end is like the beginning' Christ was taken to be the agent of primal creation. This insight was developed in light of Old Testament creation texts, viewed from within a 'messianic matrix' of interpretation. God gives his Word, his Spirit, and his Wisdom to his Messiah from the very beginning; and the Messiah, the radiance of God's glory, establishes the cosmos in accordance with God's purposes. Creation is the beginning of messianic dominion; he rules the world he made.

McDonough carefully substantiates his thesis through a detailed exegesis of the relevant New Testament texts in the context of related texts in Judaism and Greco-Roman philosophy. He concludes with a survey of the doctrine of Christ as Creator in the work of six theologians: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, and Wolfhart Pannenberg.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199576470
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/25/2010
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sean M. McDonough was educated at Harvard College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the University of St. Andrews. From 1997-2000 he taught at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, where he served as Lecturer in New Testament. Since 2000, he has taught at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachussetts, where he is Associate Professor of New Testament.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations viii

1 Introduction 1

2 Memories of Jesus: Creation in the Gospels 16

3 Creation and Moral Order 46

4 Creation: The Beginning of Messianic Dominion 65

5 Only Connect: Creation and Mediation in the Hellenistic World 97

6 The Problem of Philo 135

7 Through Whom? Messianic and Demonic Mediation in 1 Corinthians 8-10 150

8 Old Dominion: Creation in Colossians 172

9 'In the beginning, Lord?': The Contribution of Hebrews 192

10 Union in Labor: Creation through the Son in the Gospel of John 212

11 Jesus and Genesis: Tentative Steps Towards Theology 235

Bibliography 262

Ancient Sources Index 273

Modern Authors Index 288

Subject Index 291

Editorial Reviews

"Undoubtedly an important addition to the study of NT Christology."—Journal for the Study of the New Testament

From the Publisher