Was Jesus God? [Hardcover]

Richard Swinburne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2008

Writing clearly and powerfully, Swinburne argues that it is probable that the main Christian doctrines about the nature of God and his actions in the world are true. In virtue of his omnipotence and perfect goodness, the author shows, God must be a Trinity, live a human life in order to share our suffering, and found a church which would enable him to tell all humans about this. It is also quite probable that he would provide his human life as atonement for our wrongdoing, teach us how we should live, and tell us his plans for our future after death. Among founders of religions, Jesus uniquely satisfies the requirement of living the sort of human life which God would need to have lived. But to give us adequate reason to believe that Jesus was God, God would need to put his "signature" on the life of Jesus by an act which he alone could do--raise him from the dead. And there is adequate historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Swinburne, British philosophy professor and the author of books on religious belief, the philosophy of mind and epistemology, explains the point of this book: to show that God conforms to specifically Christian definitions of God and that Christian doctrines and theology are true. By comparison with the author's earlier Is There a God? this book focuses particularly on the foundational Christian doctrine that Jesus was (and is) God. Swinburne uses the Nicene Creed as a road map, but the defining paradigm is God's love, particularly how God's love for us characterizes God and necessitates Jesus. Despite the sophistication of his argument, Swinburne depends on a sympathetic audience predisposed to his conclusions. For example, not everyone will agree that we exist in a state of original sinfulness from which we can only be reconciled to God by "offering a perfect human life which might well... end in a death by execution." Although regular use of boldface words and phrases help direct readers through Swinburne's reasoning, many will find the academic language of philosophy daunting. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Swinburne shreds the popular perception—fostered by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and other prominent atheists—that intelligent reasoning invariably leads to unbelief. For in this formidably argued analysis, readers see a powerful mind defending Christian faith as both rational and coherent. After first establishing the plausibility of God as creator of the world, Swinburne establishes a chain of logic justifying acceptance of Jesus as the divine incarnation of that God. As links in that chain, scriptural accounts of the miracles performed by Jesus fit within a consistent reading of the historical record. Swinburne argues with particular forcefulness for the reality of Jesus’ physical Resurrection, carefully scrutinizing—and rejecting—the major skeptical theories for explaining the empty tomb. Focusing on doctrines generally shared by Christians, Swinburne declines to settle divisive questions of ecclesiastical authority and scriptural interpretation. Tough-minded materialists may find Swinburne unconvincing, and average churchgoers may not wish to parse the fine points of hypostasis and Monophysites. But this book will attract theologically serious Christians and intellectually honest doubters. --Bryce Christensen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199203113
• ISBN-13: 978-0199203116
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,373,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Case for the Trinity, by an "Elite" Philosopher, May 12, 2011

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TruthBehold - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Was Jesus God? (Paperback)

If there was ever a question that I had the most problem putting to rest, it was definitely the Trinity question.

Some people ask what does it matter if Jesus was God or if Jesus was the literal Son of God?

Richard Swinburne brings in the philosophical power and describes in great detail why this all makes sense. Swinburne is far beyond most philosophers in knowledge, wit and expertise so it might take a few reads, before you can clearly understand what this brilliant man is stating.

The dissection of the Nicene Creed and events before and after that is where this book really takes off. Swinburne is precise to the point of where you really open your mind and say to yourself "ah why didn't I think of that before, that makes more sense".

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Provocative Philosophical Case for the Divinity of Jesus, November 22, 2010

By 

M. Austin (Richmond, KY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Was Jesus God? (Paperback)

Richard Swinburne's book, Was Jesus God?, argues on a partially a priori basis that he was indeed. At first glance, this sounds ludicrous, but the argument is actually something like this: Given that God exists and has these particular traits, it then follows that, for a variety of reasons, Jesus was God.

For example, Swinburne argues that a morally perfect, omnipotent, and omniscient God would be expected to share in our suffering and respond to it and our wrongdoing by living a human life. And this is precisely what has happened in the case of Jesus of Nazareth. If God had done such a thing, and a human prophet was also God, then we would also expect that God would confirm this via a divine signature as an endorsement of the life and teachings of that prophet. This is what we see in the resurrection of Jesus, which seems to obviously be an event that could only be brought about by God, i.e. a miracle. And given the further evidence for the historicity of the Resurrection, Swinburne states that "...even if the prior probability of the existence of God is quite a bit less than 1/4, the historical evidence will still make it more probable than not that Jesus was God Incarnate" (p. 133).

The book ends as follows:

I conclude that the fact that the later Church taught the other items of the Nicene Creed in no way detracts from the very probable truth of the central claim of the Nicene Creed (made, I have claimed, very probable on other grounds) that Jesus was God (that is, a divine person). From that it follows, since no divine person can cease to be divine, that Jesus is God (p. 170).

I enjoyed this book, though at points I was not sure what to make of it. Someone not holding Swinburne's views about religion might simply view the whole project as defective and somehow question-begging. But it surely is not the latter. There is a provocative argument here that is worth considering. If there are a priori grounds for the claim that Jesus was and is God, given classical monotheism, then this is significant for many reasons, one of which is that most arguments for this claim are historical.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for Christians to read, October 2, 2010

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Jms Seven - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Was Jesus God? (Hardcover)

This book argues that Jesus is God from characteristics God. For believers, this is much more than that. It provide believer reflection in the central themes that they believe in - by stating and defining clearly what these things are, and arguing the reasons why these things shoudl or could be.