BOOK REVIEW:
The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age. By John Hick. 2d edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. xii + 204 pages. (paperback). ISBN 978-0664230371. 

In this revised edition of a book originally published in 1993, John Hick has added a new preface and two new chapters. This book is a concise treatment of the Christology Hick developed out of the “myth of God incarnate” controversy of the 1970’s. He argues that no religiously satisfactory literal meaning can be given to the idea of incarnation postulated in the Chalcedonian definition, and that theologians ought to recognize that the idea of the God-man put forward there is, rather, a metaphor that points to the uniquely intense God-consciousness of Jesus that was the source of his extraordinarily faithful living out of the divine rule of love. In the first edition of the book, Hick considered two major strategies that apologists for Chalcedon have taken in order to render the formula meaningful: either by altering the definition of Jesus’ humanity through a theory of two minds, or by altering the concept of deity through a theory of divine kenosis. After carefully considering several proponents of each of these views, Hick concludes that they both fail to make the Chalcedonian formula intelligible. And precisely because the theologians and philosophers who make these arguments know this to be the case, Hick argues that they appeal in the end to a “mystery beyond human comprehension” that is portrayed in the Chalcedonian formula, forgetting that the formula itself is not divine revelation but a humanly devised theological explanation. In this enlarged second edition, Hick adds a chapter considering the Christologies of Anglican theologian John Macquarrie and Roman Catholic theologian Roger Haight. Hick sees Macquarrie as a theologian who has more or less accepted the radical consequences of a view of Jesus based on the best New Testament scholarship, but who still insists on attempting to soften the blows of this view for those who are still attached to the churches’ dogmatic formulas. Writes Hick, “he is more interested in the endless internal churning over of the traditional ideas and language than in attempts to free Jesus and his message from the ecclesiastical wrappings of the past” (p. 160). Although Hick appreciates a great deal of Haight’s attempt to redefine the doctrine of Christ, he thinks that in a “forgivable instance of accommodation to a conservative constituency” Haight unfortunately argued for an ontological incarnation in Jesus based on the idea that Jesus is the historical mediation of God for Christians. For Hick, this is a false move that is not warranted by the sources or by logical reflection on the idea of incarnation. It leads to the further error of attributing to Jesus “worship-worthiness” based on his role as mediator.

Hick has argued consistently that his critical approach to traditional Christology actually opens up the possibility for a more authentic and simpler faith for the man and woman in the pews. He writes, “The ideas of the Trinity and of the two natures of Christ are in fact incomprehensible to most people. In comparison a non-tranditional Christian faith can be genuinely simple and yet profound” (p. 187).  He anticipates that eventually this simpler, non-traditional faith as commitment to a benign ultimate Reality that is reflected (“incarnated”) in human terms in the lives of great spiritual leaders who reveal a way for living in the face of this Reality is destined to become the common faith of human beings.  The worldwide resurgence of fundamentalism in all the great world faiths, however, makes the timetable leading to Hick’s projected future appear to have a distant horizon. This book is an important book for anyone interested in developing a plausible 21^st century Christology. 

Dawn DeVries
John Newton Thomas Professor of Systematic Theology
Union-PSCE, Richmond, VA

PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR REFORMED THEOLOGY, SPRING 2008, VOL. 8, #1.