He Came Down from Heaven

"Accompanying all the new studies of the life of Jesus has been the question of Jesus' identity. Was he anything more than a human creature? A key issue in this debate is the claim of Jesus' pretemporal existence as the divine, uncreated Son of God before his incarnation on earth. Douglas McCready provides a thorough survey of the doctrine, covering New Testament teaching, Jewish and Hellenistic backgrounds, and historical development. He carefully weighs the evidence and engages the arguments for and against the orthodox Christian conviction of Christ's preexistence." "Drawing on expert scholarship, McCready makes this important subject of debate accessible to students and other nonexperts who want to understand this central doctrine of Christian faith. This book will be especially useful as a supplementary text for theology courses on Christology or in biblical studies courses on the New Testament witness to Jesus Christ."--BOOK JACKET.