Fee, Gordon, Pauline Christology (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007), 707 pages.
Gordon D. Fee, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, and noted Pauline scholar, offers a thoroughly exhaustive coverage of Christology as presented within the Pauline corpus in this book. Readers of the Pneuma Review need to be aware that Fee is unabashedly Pentecostal, and is avowedly pneumato-centric, having already realeased his compendium volume regarding the Spirit within the Pauline corpus (God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, 1994). Seemingly rejecting a narrative approach to Paul’s Christology, Fee opts for the combination of exegetical analysis of passages and a theological synthesis of the materials, the same structure as his earlier work on the Spirit in Paul. Ascribing all of the traditionally credited books to the authorship of Paul, Fee descriptively details each book and its Christological content individually for the better part of 450 pages (10 chapters), and then proffers a constructive synthesis of the data as it relates Paul’s distinctive Christology. I note the expansive exegesis so as to highlight the fact that Fee does not lightly hold the Biblical writ, but bases his understanding of Pauline Christology on it, and not upon conjecture (Pneuma Review readers would do well to read his volume concerning How to Read the Bible, as well, note). Fee’s constructive synthesis provides the following themes: 1) that Christ is the Divine Savior, 2) that Jesus is the Second Adam, effectively undoing what the first Adam did, 3) and that Jesus is both the Son of God and the exalted Lord of heaven and earth. In so doing, Fee clearly explicates that Paul possesses a very high view of Christology. Fee consistently shows that Paul is unequivocal in his declaration that Jesus of Nazareth is both God – and man – at one and the same time, supported definitively within Paul by the fluidity, for example, in which he transference between talking of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, hence equating the two. Given Fee’s acute exegesis, his accurate analyses, and his expansive coverage, it is nigh impossible to deny any of his conclusions. Pneuma Review readers will value the attention to detail, along with the various chapter appendices serving as compendia of the relevant passages.Although this text does not in any way attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the Spirit, Fee nonetheless enters into the Pneumatological debate at various junctures, which may be direct interest for readers of the Pneuma Review. For example, Fee takes the proactive measure of consistently including the Spirit as being an active component in the Trinitarian relations within the Godhead in salvation, and not limiting salvation to the Son alone. Fee also explores the relationship between Christ and the Spirit and considers the Person and role of the Spirit in Paul’s thought. Appendices cover the theme of Christ and Personified Wisdom, wherein Fee strongly argues that Paul knew of no such thing as Wisdom Christology, and Paul’s use of Kurios (Lord) in reference to Jesus of Nazareth and the Septuagint allusions, which are definitely excellent sermonic material.. Fee also has some very good material on the development of the idea of the Trinity, for which he finds good evidence for in Paul’s writings, even though Paul himself, Fee considers, was not “Trinitarian,” as per se, though he was a “proto-Trinitarian” (592). It may be inferred from numerous comments by Fee throughout his text, that he is no adherent to the notion of “Spirit Christology”, which may be of import to some of Pneuma Review’s readers. All in all, Pneuma Review readers cannot go wrong in purchasing this book, as it is proverbially loaded with excellent coverage regarding a quintessential Christian doctrine. Fee is clear: Jesus is an object of worship, to whom Paul is completely devoted. May we be likewise.
Bradford McCall
Regent University