Book Reviews

Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti. Christology: a global introduction. Baker Academic, 2003. 300p indexes ISBN 0-8010-2621-0 pbk, $21.99.

Choice: “Recommended.” Theological Studies: “A useful tour d’horizon of contemporary Christology. K.’s narrative leaves the impression that the development of patristic and conciliar Christology was somewhat ad hoc. An adequate explanatory framework would help bring order and meaning to the debates. The absence of the debates characteristic of historical Jesus research for the past two decades is probably due to the limits of space. Overall, the book is ambitious, clear and sympathetic to a wide variety of positions.” Anglican Theological Review: “Part 1 is too short; Part 2 is equally compressed. This is explicitly and unabashedly a textbook. Inevitably K. has written pages of précis in which sentences, perfectly accurate in themselves, are strung together without the connective logic they would have in their original settings.” Expository Times: “As an historical survey, the book is very inadequate. But the book’s subtitle suggests that the first two sections, even the third, are intended as merely a sketch of the background to contemporary Christologies. This fourth section is a genuinely interesting survey.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research: “This book is an excellent introduction to Christology. It is clearly written and liberates this discipline from its Euro-American captivity.”

I must be getting middle-aged: drinking coffee at any time PM keeps me up at night, and I had something of a hangover today after drinking a mere four glasses of wine last night at a Lebanese banquet. However, I'm increasing my running distances on the treadmill and getting closer to my desired 34 inch waistline, so I'm not in total decline, at least.

The dinner was hosted by a half-Lebanese parishioner at the OPC church. About 30 people showed up. On the menu: taboule, hummus, falafel balls, lamb pastries, eggplant, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed cabbage, stuffed zuchini, and baklava for dessert. Yum! Too bad they didn't have a hookah for a relaxing after-dinner smoke. Anyway, it was nice because I haven't had good middle eastern food since I went to the Moroccan restaurant in Bloomington two years ago.