The Library of Early Christology

Carey Newman, director of Baylor University Press, recently announced the (re)publication of a number of books under the series title “The Library of Early Christology.”  Newman, a NT scholar in his own right, has looked over the past forty years at some of the most interesting and influential books published on the earliest Christian assessments of Jesus’ significance.  In part these books have contributed to the emerging consensus that an early high Christology originated in the first years or decades of the Jesus movement, most likely in a Jewish context.  Carey Newman has taken Baylor University Press from obscurity to become one of the most important university presses in North America.

Newman had already published one of the late Alan Segal’s signature books, Two Powers in Heaven (see Hurtado’s article here).  The publisher’s page is found here. Wilhelm Bousset’s classic work, Kyrios Christos, has also been republished by Baylor (check it out here) .  These are two of the most influential books published on the topic in the past 100 years.

There are other books in the series (I’m grateful to Larry Hurtado, who on his blog, pulled together the list and the links).   Here are the first books published in the series:

• Charles A. Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology:  Antecedents and Early Evidence (originally Leiden:  Brill, 1998; reprint edition information here).
• Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Angel Veneration and Christology, (originally, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995; reprint edition information here).
• David B. Capes, Old Testament Yahweh Texts in Paul’s Christology (originally Tuebingen:  Mohr Siebeck, 1992; Baylor information here)
• April D. DeConick, Seek to See Him: Ascent and Vision Mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas (Leiden:  Brill, 1996; Baylor reprint information here)
• Carey C. Newman, Paul’s Glory Christology:  Tradition and Rhetoric (Leiden:  Brill, 1992; Baylor reprint information here)
• Jarl E. Fossum, The Name of God and the Angel of the Lord:  Samaritan and Jewish Concepts of Intermediation and the Origin of Gnosticism (Tuebingen:  Mohr Siebeck, 1985; Baylor reprint information here)
• Donald H. Juel, Messianic Exegesis:  Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity (Fortress Press, 1988; Baylor reprint information here)
• The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism:  Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus, eds. Carey C. Newman, et al. (Leiden:  Brill, 1999; Baylor reprint information here)

In addition to this list I must include Larry W. Hurtado’s contribution in this series:  Ancient Jewish Monotheism and Early Christian Jesus-Devotion (publisher’s information here).  This volume of essays contains some of the “best of” Hurtado over the last 30 years).