Book Description

The origin and development of divine and resurrection Christologies are among the most important and controversial issues in the study of Christianity. One reason why there is a lack of consensus among scholars—even though they have access to the same historical material—is that different scholars analyze the material differently. Building upon his previous monographs The Origin of Divine Christology (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Routledge, 2020), Andrew Loke demonstrates the fallacies of reasoning in the analyses of the works of numerous scholars such as Bart Ehrman, Paula Fredriksen, David Litwa, Richard Carrier, Raphael Lataster, Daniel Kirk, Matthew Larsen, and Dale Allison. Loke defends his proposal that a sizeable group of earliest Christians perceived that Jesus claimed and showed himself to be truly divine and resurrected, and replies to objections to his previous works. He contributes to the discussion on ancient Jewish monotheism, exalted mediator figures, comparison with Greco-Roman literature, Jesus-mythicism, Markan Christology, the historical reliability of the New Testament, as well as the use of philosophical and theological categories and the use of psychological studies on parallel apparitions, cognitive dissonance, mass hysteria, pareidolia, and memory for the study of early Christology.