The Humiliation of Christ in Its Physical, Ethical, and Official Aspects Paperback – Import, 14 Sep 2011

Bruce offers a kindly but critical examination of the more important theories of who Jesus was and what he accomplished that have surfaced over the course of Christian history (until Bruce's day -- the 1880s). Bruce was an orthodox Scottish theologian and so his treatment does not condemn, even as it points out many of the more glaring inconsistencies and failings in the formulations of Jesus that he considers. His honest criticism is what gives the book ongoing relevance. He spends time with the docetic Jesus, the Patristic Jesus, the Scholastic Jesus and Protestant Jesuses, as well as more "modern" formulations, among others. "Official aspects" referred to in the book's title allude to various historical atonement theories. Bruce shows how most of the formulations about who Jesus was and what he accomplished sprang from, and were often reactions against, the prevailing intellectual climates of each age or epoch. This is a very good survey even if draped in lovely language that today is out of date.