When muttering the word “God” doesn’t come easy, what does it mean to call Jesus “the Christ?” Fuller offers a robust constructive Christology that engages three theological registers - historical, existential, and metaphysical.
Beginning Christology not from above or below but from within the Disciple’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, Fuller constructs a powerful Open and Relational Christology. At the heart are three pairings of contemporary thinkers who share a thematic center with distinct trajectories. Fuller weaves each into a vision of God’s self-investment in history and the person of Jesus. The constructive proposal not only uses an Open and Relational vision but reshapes it in light of God’s self-investment in Christ. The significance of Fuller’s proposal is wide-reaching, engaging revelation, divine power, evil, the cross, hope, the imago dei, and the Spirit.
Tripp Fuller is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh.
He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Claremont Graduate University.
Tripp is the founder and host of the Homebrewed Christianity podcast.
"This is an innovative study of Christology as it can be understood in an Open and Relational theology. It is filled with new insights and is an exciting positive contribution to understanding Jesus today."
- Keith Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at the University of Oxford, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Roehampton University, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is a Canon of Christ Church, Oxford
“This ambitious Christology marks Tripp Fuller as one of the most significant young systematic theologians to emerge on the scene in recent years. One can profitably read this book as an introduction to Open and Relational Theology; as a refresher on Logos Christology, Spirit Christology, and the quest for the historical Jesus; or as a primer on his six theological discussion partners. But the brilliance of the volume is actually the blending of biblical, classical, and process insights into a single moving vision of God’s self-investment in creation, Israel, and Jesus. Rarely have I encountered a young theologian who writes with this level of systematic depth.”
- Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology
“Tripp Fuller masterfully engages the crucial Christian question: Who do we say Jesus is? Engaging history, philosophy and theology, Fuller offers a vision of Jesus that weds evangelical convictions with progressive insights. His work stands aside that of John Cobb, David Griffin and Elizabeth Johnson for required reading in Christology.”
- Monica A. Coleman, Professor of Africana Studies, University of Delaware, author of Making a Way Out of No Way: a Womanist Theology
“Systematic theology comes alive in Protestant circles only occasionally. After a significant dry spell Open and Relational Theology shows signs of renewing it. Once again, systematic theology flourishes, dealing with the history of distinctively Christian thought in a fully scholarly and open-minded way, and taking very seriously the questions generated internally to the Christian tradition. If Tripp Fuller's "Divine Self-Investment" sets the norm, the quality will be excellent. Three cheers for the renewal of "systematic theology"!”
- John B. Cobb Jr. is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is the preeminent scholar in the field of process thought and in 2014, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cobb is a founding co-director of the Center for Process Studies and Professor Emeritus of Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University.