Publisher's Synopsis
The question of the origin of Christology concerns the foundations of Christian theology. The conviction that the historical human being Jesus of Nazareth in his entire biography, including his death on the cross, is to be understood as the unique representative of the God of Israel has shaped the Christian faith to this day. The decisive beginnings of this Christological conviction are documented in the writings of the New Testament. This book gives a compact overview of the texts, themes and developments of the first Christologies. A special focus is on the early ideas and concepts that were developed with Easter and remained formative for early Christianity. The character of the individual writings remains visible in the depiction, while at the same time continuous lines and similarities are identified, which offer approaches for a systematic examination. Not only the so-called sovereign titles, but the models and concepts used to interpret Jesus are in the foreground and receive their profile on their contemporary and religious-historical background. The historical classification of Christological discourses allows new perspectives to emerge and leads to easily accessible, differentiated approaches to the question of a "high" Christology, which is controversial among New Testament scholars. In the analysis, the continuous consideration of the Jewish character of the early Christian texts and Christological concepts is essential and is made fruitful for the understanding. The historical integration of the early Christological drafts into the real world of Jewish or Hellenistic people is shown as an example in the Jewish expectation of the Messiah or the Roman veneration of the Emperor.
