I’ve been weighed down as of late by the mundane matters of life,* which has kept me from reading my beloved review copy of The Only True God by James McGrath. But I’ve still managed to get started with it. I must say that it would seem to be an important book for a couple of reasons: (1) McGrath is seeking to break new ground in the scholarly minefield of early Jewish and Christian monotheism; (2) McGrath interacts with the work of Larry Hurtado, especially his Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Eerdmans 2005); (3) Interestingly, McGrath has decided to write in such a way that will make this book accessible to a wide readership, not such us erudites. Do stay tuned for the full review, which I will post as soon as I finish the book.

In the meanwhile, I was thinking about an aspect of the monotheism that is recognized by some and overlooked by others: the agency of intermediaries and the implications of agency for understanding the worship of Jesus in the earliest Christianity. Intermediary figures in ancient Judaism often serve as God’s messenger, agent, or “apostle” (McGrath’s language) (Enoch comes to mind). In fact, at some points, these messengers even share in the divine name itself. This is widely recognized by some (though not all) scholars as “Two Powers theory,” viz., YHWH and one other, who seems to transcend the angels.

The question McGrath poses (and promises to answer) is, at what point do Judaism and Christianity spit over the issue of monotheism? McGrath seems to want to date this split later than most.

Hopefully, this has whet your appetite for the full review. (It’s coming!)

(And so is the next installment of Messiah in the Making!)

(John, please alert me to any and all typos in the comments section.)

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*For the purposes of this post “life” means “preparing for that infernal GRE.” Curse you, Ph.D.!