The Contradictory Christ

Leading scholar Jc Beall advances a contradictory Christology by addressing the apparent contradiction of Christ's being fully human and fully divine.

In this ground-breaking study, Jc Beall shows that the fundamental "problem" of Christology is simple to see from the role that Christ occupies: the Christ figure is to have the divine and essentially limitless properties of the one and only God but Christ is equally to have the human, essentially limit-imposing properties involved in human nature, limits essentially involved in being human. The role that Christ occupies thereby appears to demand a contradiction: all of the limitlessness of God, and all of the limits of humans. This book lays out Beall's contradictory account of Jesus Christ — and thereby a contradictory Christian theology.

Leading scholar Jc Beall advances a contradictory Christology by addressing the apparent contradiction of Christ's being fully human and fully divine.

A visually engaging exploration of apparent contradictions within the Christian faith. One of the significant challenges in the Christian faith is the number of apparent contradictions the Bible presents. These paradoxes and mysteries can be difficult to understand. In Both-And Ross Cunningham takes 23 pairs of seemingly contradictory truths and concisely and clearly explains how they can co-exist. The book is divided into three main sections - apparent contradictions in the divine nature; apparent contradictions in the experience of salvation; and apparent contradiction in the characteristics of being in Christ. Ross Cunningham, who has a background in creative design, has introduced each chapter with an attractive graphic representation of the paradox in question.

Building on his paradigm-shifting work on the incarnation in The Contradictory Christ (OUP, 2021), Jc Beall extends a robust contradictory theology with an account of the trinity. Throughout the history of the Christian church, heretics, apophatics, mystics, atheists, and many others have long proclaimed that the doctrine of the trinity - one of the central doctrines of the Christian faith - is contradictory. In this work, Beall agrees; however, as Beall convincingly argues, one needn't abandon orthodoxy, play language games, inflate one's metaphysics, nor abandon the standard faith in the face of such divine contradiction. Instead, one can accept central axioms of the trinity at face value and, with a suitable account of logical entailment, accept the 'contradictory truths' thereby entailed. With the clarity and precision that only a logician could provide, Beall provided theology and the Christian church in general with a very simple and viable (and arguably correct) model of divine reality. Unlike the vast number of theologians and philosophers before him, Beall rejects the quest for a logically consistent account of divine reality. The triune god (viz., God) is truly and fully described only via contradiction. As such, attempts to remove the contradiction are attempts to remove truths of God.

The Human Story Behind the Divine Book In this New York Times bestseller, leading Bible expert Bart Ehrman skillfully demonstrates that the New Testament is riddled with contradictory views about who Jesus was and the significance of his life. Ehrman reveals that many of the books were written in the names of the apostles by Christians living decades later, and that central Christian doctrines were the inventions of still later theologians. Although this has been the standard and widespread view of scholars for two centuries, most people have never learned of it. Jesus, Interrupted is a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we have when attempting to reconstruct the life and meaning of Jesus.

"Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."—Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. This edition includes an introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology. "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."—Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."—James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion "Fredriksen confronts her documents—principally the writings of the New Testament—as an archaeologist would an especially rich complex site. With great care she distinguishes the literary images from historical fact. As she does so, she explains the images of Jesus in terms of the strategies and purposes of the writers Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor

This book explores and expounds upon questions of paradox and contradiction in theology with an emphasis on recent contributions from analytic philosophical theology. It addresses questions such as: What is the place of paradox in theology? Where might different systems of logic (e.g. paraconsistent ones) find a place in theological discourse (e.g. Christology)? What are proper responses to the presence of contradiction(s) in one’s theological theories? Are appeals to analogical language enough to make sense of paradox? Bringing together an impressive line-up of theologians and philosophers, the volume offers a range of fresh perspectives on a central topic. It is valuable reading for scholars of theology and philosophy of religion.