Back from Atlanta

joshleim — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 02:18:00 +0000

Well, I began my blogging a couple weeks ago, and then we had to travel up to Atlanta for my daughter Salem to have cranial surgery. She is recovering beautifully, thanks be to God and to all of our wonderful community (family, friends, and strangers) who lifted her up in prayer.

We also got to “skype” with our friends Brandon and Cheryl Crowe tonight. They just moved to Scotland, where Brandon is pursuing a Ph.D. at Edinbourogh. It was fantastic video conferencing with them!

I’ll try to put some posts up soon. The semester is busy, but I’d like to try this blogging thing. Thanks for checking in!

Mark’s Christology

joshleim — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:11:48 +0000

I’m doing an independent study on Mark’s Christology right now with Dr. Scott Swain. Dr. Swain is Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando. His forthcoming book, co-authored with Andreas Kostenberger, is in the NSBT series, and is titled The Trinity and the Gospel of John. It is a phenominal read that dives head first into trinitarian exegetical and theological issues in John. Anyway, I hope to pursue for my Ph.D. studies a focus on Mark’s Christology in the next few years, so I am working through some material this semester toward that end. I’m reading through several books for this study:

Richard Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the NT, 1999.

Simon J. Gathercole, The Pre-Existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 2006

Morna Hooker, The Son of Man, 1967

Jack Dean Kingsbury, The Christology of Mark’s Gospel, 1983

Joel Marcus, The Way of the Lord: Christological Exegesis of the Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark, 1992

Rikki Watts, Isaiah’s New Exodus in the Gospel of Mark, 1997

Various journals

As many of you probably know, the synoptic gospels are typically regarded as having “low” Christologies – that is, views of Christ that are less theologically developed than those of, say, John, The Book of Hebrews, and Paul. Bauckham, however, proposes in God Crucified that the “highest Christology in the NT is the earliest Christology,” a radical claim indeed. Even before any of the NT was written, the earliest Christian communities included Jesus in the “Divine Identity” (more on that later). I am working through these various monographs, journals, commentaries and the gospel itself, seeking to verify Bauckham’s thesis, and discover how Mark uniquely portrays the person of Christ. I’ll be posting reviews of these books and my thoughts as I work through the gospel.

Just getting started…

joshleim — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:18:22 +0000

I’m just getting started on this blog site…check back soon.

Josh Leim's blog

Back from Atlanta

Mark’s Christology

Just getting started…