Abstract
This book is a collection of thirty-two essays by Larry W. Hurtado previously published between 1979 to 2017. The essays in this volume are the fruit of Hurtado’s study of the origins of devotion to Jesus, about ‘how Jesus of Nazareth came to be treated as bearing and sharing divine honor in early Christianity’ (p. 1). The articles are arranged thematically: Scholarly Context (chapters 1–6), The Ancient Jewish Context (chapters 7–10), Explanations (chapters 11–13), and Expressions (chapters 14–32). Readers are advised to note carefully the publication dates for each essay (p. xiii). Full citations for the original publications are found in the ‘credits’ section (pp. 661–664). As may be expected, there are overlaps of themes, but the reader must work out such cross-references mindful of original publication dates. (pp. xiii–xiv) The thematic organization helps in this regard. There is only one index, which cites modern authors.
One important feature of this volume is that Hurtado explains a change in vocabulary from his earlier research. In his Author’s Preface, Hurtado explains that he exchanged his original ‘binitarian devotional practice,’ which is found in his earlier work, for ‘dyadic devotional practice.’ Similarly, Hurtado replaces ‘Christ-devotion’ with ‘Jesus-devotion’ or ‘devotion to Jesus’ in later works. (p. xiii) With this publication it was decided to retain the original form and content of the articles, though some footnotes get helpful updates. For example: page 54, footnote 51 originally refers to a forthcoming article, updated to include the complete citation and its location in this volume; page 158, footnote 65 gives original and updated publication information and page numbers; etc. This is sure to encourage use of this volume’s editions to engage Hurtado’s research.
Those who research or are otherwise interested in the scholarly discussion of Christian origins, early devotion to Jesus, and christology will benefit greatly from this volume. Readers should not conflate this volume with Hurtado’s other recently published volume of essays, Texts and Artefacts (Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2018), where attention is given to Hurtado’s research on Christian manuscripts. Each book presents a distinct set of essays not found in the other. All the more reason for students and scholars to find Ancient Jewish Monotheism and Early Christian Jesus-Devotion a valuable resource from this respected scholar.