Christosis: Engaging Paul's Soteriology with His Patristic Interpreters by Ben C. Blackwell

Abstract

Reviewed by: Christosis: Engaging Paul's Soteriology with His Patristic Interpreters by Ben C. Blackwell L. Ann Jervis ben c. blackwell, Christosis: Engaging Paul's Soteriology with His Patristic Interpreters (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016). Pp. xxxi + 312. Paper $40. This clear and elegant study (first published as Christosis: Pauline Soteriology in Light of Deification in Irenaeus and Cyril of Alexandria [WUNT 2/314; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011]) advances the current discussion of theōsis in Paul (Stephen Finlan, "Second Peter's Notion of Divine Participation," in Theōsis: Deification in Christian Theology [ed. [End Page 326] Stephen Finlan and Vladimir Kharlamov; Princeton Theological Monograph Series 156; Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2006] 32-50; idem, "Can We Speak of Theōsis in Paul?," in Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions [ed. Michael J. Christensen and Jeffry A. Wittung; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008] 68-80; M. David Litwa, "2 Corinthians 3:18 and Its Implications for Theōsis," Journal of Theological Interpretation 2 [2008] 117-33; idem, We Are Being Transformed: Deification in Paul's Soteriology [BZNW 187; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012]; Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001]; idem, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul's Narrative Soteriology [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009]). Blackwell's specific interest is theōsis in Paul's soteriology/eschatology, in particular what the author calls "the anthropological experience of salvation" (p. 251). B. chooses to look at the matter from the vantage point of Irenaeus and Cyril of Alexandria, both of whose views on soteriology he determines can be characterized as "deification." B.'s interaction with Irenaeus and Cyril clarifies that they approach deification as ontological transformation including incorruption and sanctification. Such deification does not, however, do away with the Creator–creature distinction. By means of God's Spirit, believers become like God through grace while their essence remains creaturely. B. terms this "attributive" as opposed to "essential" deification. With wisdom gained from this patristic study, B. examines Paul's soteriology on the basis of four questions: (1) What is the anthropological shape of Paul's soteriology? (2) When do these soteriological changes occur? (3) How do these soteriological changes of the human condition come about? And (4) how does this transformation of the human condition relate to creation? Blackwell's skill at finding apt heuristic categories allows for his patient exegesis of Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 3–5, along with Colossians 2, Galatians 3–4, 1 Corinthians 15, and Philippians 2–3, to be both illuminating and straightforward. For example, he makes a distinction between the intra- and interpersonal effects of soteriology and further divides the intrapersonal into noetic, moral, and somatic. Such careful organizing of Pauline ideas results in clear conclusions. For instance, on the basis of his claim that Paul has a fundamental temporal duality—the present and future ages—B. concludes that Paul's soterio-logical understanding is that in the present age believers experience moral enablement and noetic enlightenment "in a somatic context of suffering" (p. 242). The consummation of Paul's soteriology is somatic resurrection—incorruption. The primary organizing principle that B. identifies in Paul's soteriology is conformation with the death and life of Christ—the life of Christ being Christ's risen, glorified life. At present, believers know Christ's death and life in bodies that are corruptible and so suffer; the future for believers is what Christ knows now—incorruptible life in the glory of God. This life will be a participation in the divine life but will not obliterate the distinction between God and those who participate in God. Blackwell chooses the term christosis over theōsis for various reasons, among which is that he reads Paul's soteriology as "christo-telic in nature" (p. 245). God's purpose is, through the Spirit, to transform humanity into the image of Christ. God's project in Christ is not to recover what Adam and Eve lost but to transcend the original creation—to allow Christ's own glorious existence to be shared by humanity in a transformed, nonhuman creation fitting for such heavenly existence. [End Page...