How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus

Larry W. Hurtado

Nov 2005 · Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

About this ebook

In How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Larry Hurtado investigates the intense devotion to Jesus that emerged with surprising speed after his death. Reverence for Jesus among early Christians, notes Hurtado, included both grand claims about Jesus' significance and a pattern of devotional practices that effectively treated him as divine. This book argues that whatever one makes of such devotion to Jesus, the subject deserves serious historical consideration.

Mapping out the lively current debate about Jesus, Hurtado explains the evidence, issues, and positions at stake. He goes on to treat the opposition to -- and severe costs of -- worshiping Jesus, the history of incorporating such devotion into Jewish monotheism, and the role of religious experience in Christianity's development out of Judaism. The follow-up to Hurtado's award-winningLord Jesus Christ (2003), this book provides compelling answers to queries about the development of the church's belief in the divinity of Jesus.

Ratings and reviews

«This is what makes the early readiness of monotheistic Christians to participate to the public cultic veneration of Jesus the most striking evidence that christian devotion quickly constituted a significant innovation in Jewish exclusivist monotheism.» [p. 117] Ma sulla base di quali considerazioni si può mantenere la qualifica di monotheistic a persone che [are ready] to participate to the public cultic veneration of Jesus? Hurtado pensa che we have no choice but to accept as monotheism the religion of those who profess to be monotheists [p. 114]. Tuttavia: (i) come si concilia questo con il suo sano third methodological point di fare attenzione alle pratiche religiose e ai comportamenti correlati in forming our understanding of religious group [p. 116]? (ii) quali evidenze testuali abbiamo che i cristiani di cui si parla professassero di essere monoteisti?

About the author

Larry W. Hurtado is professor emeritus of New Testament language, literature, and theology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.