The Incarnation as God's First Intention

“Edwin van Driel is an exemplary scholar. His philosophical argumentation is delicious in its meticulousness and rigor. The Christology for which he contends in this book reaches back before the foundation of the world and thus has transformative ramifications for fundamental commitments in theology. He presents a truly theocentric vision of the gospel that is far more exciting than the lame, anthropocentric versions the church has propagated for centuries. This is the best kind of theology—the kind that brings us to praise the living God more profoundly and humbly than we did before we read it.”

“In this wide-ranging study, Edwin van Driel not only makes his case for a radically supralapsarian Christology; he also works out its implications for topics ranging from the Trinity and creation to missions and everlasting life. Shaped by the conviction that, rather than being just a means to an end, the incarnation is itself the goal of God’s works, The Incarnation as God’s First Intention offers a powerful vision of what it means to confess Jesus as Emmanuel—God with us.”

“Christian doctrines seek to go on talking about God as the Bible does to answer the questions it raises. The most famous of those may be, Would Jesus have come if we hadn’t sinned? Implied in this are the most intimate questions about what God must desire, if the biblical stories hang together. Theologians like Van Driel make careful distinctions and seem to know more about God than is quite decent. The best book about election I know of, after Wyschogrod and Barth.”

“In this engaging book, Edwin Chr. van Driel reassesses the meaning of classical Christian doctrine in light of the premise that God’s first intention was to embrace human nature as a good in itself—irrespective of humanity’s fall into sin—and through the incarnation to be with humanity throughout creation’s history and eschatological destiny. In fluid prose and cogent argumentation, the author extols this beautiful christological idea on every page and shows how this minority tradition can reshape our understanding of the scriptural narrative, as well as of Christian belief and practice.”

“In this courageous, exegetically driven, and historically informed analysis Van Driel considers what it means to rethink Christian doctrine by placing Jesus Christ at the center of the theological task. The result is a trinitarian interpretation of God and creation that not only elevates God’s covenantal and koinonial purposes but provides profound insight into the account of the atonement and the vision of participation at the heart of the New Testament. A brilliant and timely study!”