The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age

Rating:
Summary: A Believable Alternative
Review: What did Jesus believe and teach about his own identity? John Hicks provides a brief overview of how Jesus became Christ and explains why the Christian dogma of God Incarnate has never been satisfactorily elucidated. As Hicks demonstrates, the dual nature of Jesus as both God and man is not a divine mystery but a human-created one. The book also discusses the problems surrounding the doctrine of blood atonement and the negative historical effects of Christianity's superiority complex. This is not a hostile attack on traditional Christianity but a sincere attempt to provide a credible alternative by reinterpreting the idea of God Incarnate metaphorically. While Hicks'desire to reform Christianity may be unrealistic in light of the present strength of fundamentalism, for those seeking an intellectually satisfying way to embrace the Christian faith, this book is a good starting point.

Rating:
Summary: The thinking man's Spong
Review: Writing in a wonderfully lucid, ego-free way Hick subjects the traditional, literal understandings of the Incarnation to a searching philosophical analysis and concludes that there is no way to make sense of the idea except as a Metaphor. This realization he hopes can liberate Christians so that they can embrace the rest of believing humanity instead of excluding it from their unnecessarily narrow notions of salvation.