Was Jesus God?

by Richard Swinburne

Overview

Do the central beliefs of Christianity stand up to philosophical scrutiny?

As the battle rages over religion and rationality, Richard Swinburne probes the key doctrines about Jesus-that he was God Incarnate, atoned for our sins, and rose from the dead-and argues that each has a strong and defensible logical underpinning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191547874
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	07/10/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	428 KB

About the Author

Richard Swinburne was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Keele; Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion, University of Oxford, and Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of many books on the nature and justification of religious belief, and on other areas of philosophy including the philosophy of mind and epistemology.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I God Loves Us 3

1 God 5

2 God Is Love 28

3 God Shared Our Human Nature 39

4 God Atoned for Our Wrongdoing 53

5 God Teaches Us How to Live 61

6 God Offers Us Heaven 78

Part II God Shows Us That He Loves Us 89

7 The Life and Death of Jesus 91

8 The Resurrection of Jesus 114

9 Provisional Conclusion 128

10 The Church 134

11 The Bible 144

12 Final Conclusion 161

Further Reading 171

Index 173

Editorial Reviews

Swinburne, British philosophy professor and the author of books on religious belief, the philosophy of mind and epistemology, explains the point of this book: to show that God conforms to specifically Christian definitions of God and that Christian doctrines and theology are true. By comparison with the author's earlier Is There a God? this book focuses particularly on the foundational Christian doctrine that Jesus was (and is) God. Swinburne uses the Nicene Creed as a road map, but the defining paradigm is God's love, particularly how God's love for us characterizes God and necessitates Jesus. Despite the sophistication of his argument, Swinburne depends on a sympathetic audience predisposed to his conclusions. For example, not everyone will agree that we exist in a state of original sinfulness from which we can only be reconciled to God by "offering a perfect human life which might well... end in a death by execution." Although regular use of boldface words and phrases help direct readers through Swinburne's reasoning, many will find the academic language of philosophy daunting. (Nov.)

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Publishers Weekly

"...in this formidably argued analysis, readers see a powerful mind defending Christian faith as both rational and coherent."—Booklist

From the Publisher