Symbols of Jesus: A Christology of Symbolic Engagement

This is a systematic theology focusing on what makes Jesus important in Christianity. It studies six families of symbols about Jesus, showing how they are true for some people, not true for others, and not meaningful for a third group. Divine creation is analysed in metaphysical and symbolic terms, and religious symbolism is shown to be wholly compatible with a late-modern scientific world view. Robert Cummings Neville, a leading philosophical theologian, presents and illustrates an elaborate theory of religious symbols according to which God is directly engaged in symbolically shaped thinking and practice. Symbols are not distancing substitutes for God. Theology of symbolic engagement is defended as an alternative to doctrinal or descriptive theology. This major work re-shapes the way we think about Jesus, and will be of value to students, academics, clergy with theological training, and others grappling with the meaning and importance of religious symbols in our age.

• Reconstructs classic Christian symbols for late-modern culture • Develops and illustrates a theory of religious symbols that shows how to engage God and religious matters • Provides a publicly testable analysis of the truth of six families of Christological symbols plus symbols of God as Creator and Holy Spirit

Introduction; 1. God the Father; 2. Jesus the Lamb of God: blood sacrifice and atonement; 3. Jesus the Cosmic Christ; 4. Jesus Christ the Trinitarian Person; 5. The historical Jesus and the incarnate word; 6. Jesus as friend; 7. Jesus as Saviour: the Eschaton; 8. Epilogue: ‘And the Holy Spirit’.