Introduction

Abstract

After a brief survey of the prior literature in the field, this chapter states the basic argument of the book: the miracles of Jesus, his proclamation of the kingdom of God, and the climactic events of the crucifixion and resurrection led the early Church to see Christ as the definitive agent of God's redemptive purposes. But these mighty works could scarcely be divorced from God's creative acts. Reflections on these memories of Jesus, coupled with the experience of forgiveness and renewal on the part of the early Church, led to this conclusion: If the one true God had sent Jesus the Messiah as the definitive agent of redemption, and if this redemption was at one level simply the outworking of the project of creation, it must be that the Messiah was the agent of creation as well.