Mark Elliott & John L McPake (Eds.)
ISBN 1857927176
Mentor/Rutherford House, 2001
£11.99

Jesus posed the original questions to which this book seeks the answers: Who do you say I am? What is truth? Depending on your answers you'll either end up crucified for him or doing the crucifying - but the questions don't go away. This book represents the distilled genius of contemporary evangelicalism's clearest thinkers in response to them.

It's an amalgamation of presentations from the Tyndale and Rutherford House conferences of 1998, both of which happened to focus on Christology that year (why did it take until 2002 to release the papers?). You'll need your brain in gear to engage with them, but you'll find it a worthwhile exercise whether or not you agree with the conclusions reached. For me personally, the most fascinating chapter was Moonjang Lee's "Images of Jesus Christ in the non-Western World: an Asian Reflection".

Two disappointments:
Where are the women's voices? I find it hard to believe that the only woman's voice to be raised on this topic is that of Barbara Thiering on the - as Marshall puts it - "lunatic fringe" side of the debate. It's an absence that the Tyndale and Rutherford houses both need to address if they're to retain credibility into the 21st century. And the book's cover: a bland orange-on-orange - surely Mentor can do better than this for such a vital topic?

Phil Groom, January 2002

Phil Groom is this site's Webmaster and Reviews Editor. He's a freelance blogger, writer and web developer who spent ten years managing the bookshop at London School of Theology alongside eight years writing web reviews for Christian Marketplace magazine before he came to his senses and went independent. You can find him on facebook or follow him on twitter @notbovvered.

From a review previously published on the London School of Theology website.