One Book on Christology, 30 Years of Research

Larry W. Hurtado has been one of the leading scholars on early Christology for decades. He has written dozens of articles and a number of books examining not just what early Christians believed or wrote about Jesus but what their devotional practices tell us about the place of Jesus in early Christian worship. Hurtado’s book, Honoring the Son, is a clear and concise distillation of more than 30 years of research into New Testament Christology.

Here’s how David B. Capes encapsulates Hurtado’s book on Christology and its impact on Christological studies in his foreword to Honoring the Son:

One could say that Hurtado’s work, more than the work any other scholar, has helped form a consensus around the forces and factors that led to the early Christian devotion to Jesus in Jewish-gentile circles.

Hurtado’s Christological studies

With such a long and noteworthy career, Hurtado provides a new entry point for students who are just beginning their study of Christology and a succinct summary of his research set within the current academic debate. Here’s what a few of his peers have said about this valuable volume:

I can’t wait to get Honoring the Son into the hands of my students because it puts in front of them all of his best thinking. I have been reading Hurtado’s works for 30 years, book by book, article by article. Need I say it took lots of work to read his body of work? Need I say that we now have all his major thoughts available in one evening’s reading? One generation’s efforts are the next generation’s beginning points, so start here. You’ll rise up and call me blessed!

— Scot McKnight, Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

Hurtado’s work on this key issue—how Jesus came to be recognized as divine—is of central importance not only to students of early Christianity but indeed to all who worship Jesus, and it is with great excitement that I hold in my hand so accessible a summary of his decades of sifting through the evidence, a book I can recommend not only to my seminary students but to everyone in my congregation whoever asks the question.

— David A. deSilva, Trustees’ Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek, Ashland Theological Seminary

Larry Hurtado stands out as one of the most influential scholars in the study of earliest Christianity. Honoring the Son captures his basic insights, revealing the motors that drove early Jesus-devotion as it drew on Jewish theological resources and infiltrated the Roman world. Easy to read but full of substance, this little book is “the pocket Hurtado” that will benefit readers of all kinds.

— Bruce Longenecker, Melton Chair of Religion, Baylor University

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Honoring the Son is now available in all formats. Get this critical contribution to Christology today!