The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ

Author: Bruce A Ware

Published: Nov 2012

What They Say: Liberal attacks on the doctrine of the divinity of Christ have led evangelicals to rightly affirm the centrality of Jesus’s divine nature for his person and work. At times, however, this defense of orthodoxy has led some to neglect Christ’s full humanity. To counteract this oversight, theologian Bruce Ware takes readers back to the biblical text, where we meet a profoundly human Jesus who struggled with many of the same difficulties and limitations we face today. Like us, he grew in faith and wisdom, tested by every temptation common to man. And like us, he too received power for godliness through the Holy Spirit, and thus serves not only as the divine Lord to be worshiped, but also the supreme Human to be followed.

What Elaine Says: A very passionate defence of the humanity of Christ.  Or to be more precise, how Jesus was both human and deity and how the current evangelical focus on the divinity is both limiting and alienating.   Bruce A Ware is clearly very impassioned about this subject and that comes across completely in this book.

Personally, I’m fascinated by theology and religious belief, so this seemed an intriguing read for me.  I’m always curious as to how some religious people so often overlook the humanity of Jesus Christ and while this book provided some interesting (if sometimes overlong) interpretations of the Gospels, it didn’t answer the questions I wanted. 

A somewhat eyebrow raising chapter of the book, attempts to explain how Jesus and God being male is indeed significant and what that means for us today.  

All in all as far as theology books go this was a fairly easy read and quite interesting.  I would however only recommend it if this is a theological topic of particular interest to you.

Please note this was an advanced review copy
 
Elaine's Rating: 5/10

Quotes:

"As with every other good thing in life, theological discussion can deteriorate into something harmful.  But it need not be and should not be.  Rather it can be the very thing that God would call us to do for the sake of being refined in our understanding and encouraged in our faith."

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