The “just a man” or exalted-agent explanation

Sources

• Overview of the developmental view and the scholarly response: St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, “Jesus’ Preexistence and Incarnation.” (opens in a new tab)

  James D. G. Dunn, “Christology in the Making: A New Testament Inquiry into the Origins of the Doctrine of the Incarnation” (2nd ed., Eerdmans, 1996). - Overview of the developmental view and the scholarly response: St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, “Jesus’ Preexistence and Incarnation.”

Objections & responses

Saying Hurtado and Bauckham “answered” Dunn makes it sound as if the debate is over. Dunn’s developmental view still has defenders, and early high Christology has critics such as James McGrath.

Responded to is the better word. The state of the field is that early high Christology is now the majority position but not a consensus. What the exalted-agent view has to explain is why the earliest layer we have, Paul in the 50s, already includes Jesus in the Shema, attributes creation to him, and prays to him. A developmental model that puts full divinity only in John has to treat those Pauline texts as something less than they appear, and that is where the argument is joined.

Appears under 1 claim in this case

• The Trinity is the explanation that accounts for all the New Testament evidence about God at once, while each simpler alternative works only by leaving some of the evidence out.