The Family
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 49, No. 1 – Fall 2006
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By James R. Edwards. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. 250 pages. Softcover, $16.00.
Can a Christian still present Jesus as the only Savior of the world to a contemporary society where exclusivism is considered a social evil violating the peace of the community? James R. Edwards, a New Testament scholar and an ordained minister of the PCUSA, argues that the particularity of Jesus is not a hindrance to, but rather, a necessary means for accomplishing God’s plan for salvation. If God truly became incarnate in a real person, the chronological and geographical particularity of that divine activity matters. According to Edwards the incarnation of God in history supports the universal sufficiency of God’s salvific event in Jesus. Salvation through Jesus of Nazareth is available to all human beings, because they can exercise faith in him regardless of race, gender, possession, age, intelligence, and so on.
Edwards’ target audience is the Christian whose faith is being disturbed by a postmodern criticism of the uniqueness of Jesus and the non- Christian who simply desires to discover whether Christianity has any rationale for its belief in Jesus as the only Savior. In order to accomplish his task, Edwards first exposes the methodological and theological fallacies of the Quest for the Historical Jesus in all of its variations and then provides evidences of the historical credibility of the New Testament by comparing it with other ancient historical or philosophical writings in terms of manuscripts.
In response to Bart Ehrman’s thesis that high Christology is the product of the early church, not Jesus himself, Edwards asserts that the Jewish monotheism of the apostles could not allow any deification of a human. If high Christology did not result from Jesus’ self-awareness, the church would not have made “the scandal of equating Jesus with God,” because her confession of Jesus as Lord and the only Savior was the very cause of the persecution of the early church by the Jews and the Roman Empire (46). Like C.F.D. Moule’s The Origin of Christology, Edwards’ book contends that a high Christology is what Jesus presented and what the later church councils affirmed. Christ’s exclusive relationship with God in Matt. 11:25–27 and Luke 10:21–22, Christ’s authority over the Torah— “You have heard . . . but I say to you,”—and Christ’s reference to God as
his father attests that a high Christology was also found in the synoptic Gospels whose writers belonged to the first generation of Christianity.
Edwards reminds his readers that, the mission of the church to preach salvation as found only in and through Jesus in a pluralistic world is not a new issue. The writers of the New Testament also faced various religions promising differing soteriologies and cosmologies as an alternative to those of Christianity. It is worth noting, however, that the early church successfully carried the exclusive gospel of Jesus to the world. Edwards suggests that contemporary Christians not diminish the seriousness of sin in dialogues with other religions, for the divine condemnation of all sinners requires them to rely on Christ’s atoning death on the cross. At the same time, however, Edwards urges Christians to be humble in their presentation of the gospel, since the truth of God revealed in Jesus has been given to them, not because they are worthy, but because God graciously decided to reveal himself to them. Therefore, Christians should not act as if they are morally superior to the practitioners of other religions.
Despite his helpful suggestions, there are sections of the book where conservative, evangelical Christians might not be able to agree with Edwards. First, Edwards denies the notion of hell as a place. Second, he describes the atonement of Christ only as expiation, not as propitiation. Third, he opens the possibility of the postmortem chance to respond to the gospel, although insisting that inclusivism might endanger the efforts of the church to evangelize the world. Fourth, his desire for interfaith dialogue leads him to contend that the difference between Christianity and other religions is on the cognitive, rather than moral and spiritual, level of the mystery of God for the salvation of humankind.
Edwards’ book should be commended to seminary students, pastors, and laypeople. Seminary students will gain excellent critiques of the Jesus Seminar from the perspective of biblical theology. Pastors and laypeople can utilize Edwards’ apologetic approach to the New Testament and the uniqueness of Jesus in their personal evangelism and mission. Edwards’ personal illustrations help readers to understand certain theological issues more easily. This book is also helpful for those seeking an introductory work that supplies both a brief explanation of postmodern objections to the particularity of salvation in Jesus and biblical critiques of them based on evangelical New Testament scholarship.
