Generations of Christians, Janet Soskice demonstrates, once knew God and Christ by hundreds of remarkable names. These included the appellations ‘Messiah’, ‘Emmanuel’, ‘Alpha’, ‘Omega’, ‘Eternal’, ‘All-Powerful’, ‘Lamb’, ‘Lion’, ‘Goat’, ‘One’, ‘Word’, ‘Serpent’ and ‘Bridegroom’. In her much-anticipated new book, Soskice argues that contemporary understandings of divinity could be transformed by a return to a venerable analogical tradition of divine naming. These ancient titles – drawn from scripture – were chanted and sung, crafted and invoked (in polyphony and plainsong) as they were woven into the worship of the faithful. However, during the sixteenth century Descartes moved from ‘naming’ to ‘defining’ God via a series of metaphysical attributes. This made God a thing among things: a being amongst beings. For the author, reclaiming divine naming is not only overdue. It can also re-energise the relationship between philosophy and religious tradition. This path-breaking book shows just how rich and revolutionary such reclamation might be.

This chapter argues that the distinction between “low” and “high” Christologies as well as the assumed incompatibility of the Synoptic Christologies and that of the Fourth Gospel both need drastic revision. Instead, this chapter argues that a discernable measure of compatibility of the Synoptic witness to the Johannine does exist, but it can only be seen and understood where a twofold condition is met: 1) the Synoptics are interpreted first and on their own terms, and 2) John is not read through the lens provided by the fifth-century Christological dogma. One of the greatest needs – if Chalcedonianism is to become more widely respected outside the circles of “orthodox” dogmaticians – is for a Christology that does not suppress the all too human character of the Jesus born witness to in the first three Gospels especially.

Both this chapter and the next try to find a biblically funded picture of the self-humiliating God in an effort to repair Chalcedon. This chapter focuses on Paul’s theology of kenosis, particularly found in the “Christ hymn” of Philippians 2:6–11. In assessing the dogmatic uses authorized by scripture, this chapter asks, first, what are we required to say as dogmatic theologians? Second, does it rule anything out? And, third, what does it permit us to say? In addition to the “Christ hymn,” this chapter makes use of material found in Paul’s wider corpus of writings. It also examines the relevance of the Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews for elaborating a dogmatic construction of divine kenosis.