As I’m on the editorial group for Grove Doctrine, I plan to promote (but not review) each of the books released in the series as and when they’re published.
Justin was an early Christian apologist martyred around ad 165 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. His surviving writings—Dialogue with Trypho the Jew and the Apologies—are supreme examples of how Christian thought was developing during the second century. In this Grove Book, Andrew Hayes focuses on Justin’s articulation of Jesus as messiah, as teacher, and especially as the incarnate logos of God, a concept that traces back to the Jewish scriptures and resonates with certain philosophies of Justin’s time. ‘Presenting Jesus as logos needs to be justified to his Jewish brethren, as [Justin] calls them, and the presence of truth and wisdom in the world, via the logos, needs to be communicated with reference to the uniqueness of Christ to a pagan audience’ (p. 25). Hayes makes it clear how Justin’s defence of his faith in Christ as logos generated concepts that helped shape later Christian orthodoxy.
Jesus Christ in the Theology of Justin Martyr is available for £4.95 from the Grove Books website (in both print and electronic formats), as well as through Christian bookshops.
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