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The following review
appeared in the Winter 2004 edition of "The Open Door", the newsletter of Bangor
Theological Seminary.
Robert Sherman. King, Priest, and Prophet: A Trinitarian Theology of the Atonement. (New York and London: T & T Clark. 2004).
Review by Glenn Miller
The renewed interest in the Trinity as the ground for Christian theology is in part responsible for inspiring Professor Sherman’s exploration into the doctrine of Atonement through a Trinitarian lens. His Trinitarian discussion is based on the old Reformed formulation of Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. Each of Christ’s “offices,” Sherman argues, makes its own contribution to our redemption. This three-fold approach expands traditional thinking about the doctrine of Atonement to include Christ’s redemptive work in addressing such manifestations of sin as anxiety, finitude, and aimlessness.
King, Priest, and Prophet is biblical theology. Sherman roots his understanding of the atonement in what the Bible says about the work of Christ. At first glance, the reader is tempted to think that Sherman has left the historical critical method of interpretation behind. His approach to the text is not that simple. Sherman does not base his method of interpreting Biblical text on arbitrary inspiration, an approach that assumes Scripture is essentially a string of doctrinal loci that need only to be arranged systematically to yield the truth. Rather, taking hints from such theologians as George Lindbeck and Hans Frei, Sherman maintains that the Bible offers us a dynamic narrative that conveys truth through the telling and retelling of God’s story. Inherent to the God-story is an enduring applicability to our own existential situation, inviting us to locate our lives in God’s grace.
Professor Sherman believes that the Biblical narrative, and subsequent theological reflection on its meaning, must be drawn from the Bible as a whole. In contemporary biblical scholarship, the tendency is to get behind the highly interpreted accounts that we have in the Bible toward something closer to what actually happened. Such studies, as Professor Sherman notes, are not necessarily accurate. After all, if the sources are thoroughly corrupted theologically, then any reconstruction based on those sources will be likewise corrupted. Sherman’s insistence on the whole of Scripture, has another more profound root: the meaning of an event or passage is not always obvious in its earliest conception. The provocative example of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, illustrates this point aptly. At that time in history, a person reading the account of the demonstration in the newspaper, or even a person who was actually there, may or may not have anticipated that this address would become one of the fundamental documents of American democracy, and yet, to a person attending a Martin Luther King celebration today, that conclusion would seem obvious.
As an Evangelical, I was somewhat taken back by Sherman’s decision to discuss the importance of Christ’s kingly role before taking up his work as priest and sacrifice. But, as the exposition makes clear, this is part of Professor Sherman’s understanding of our own age. The paradox of our contemporary world is that the things we sought to provide us with liberation often rob us of that experience. But, in accepting Christ as Lord or King, one comes to know who one is and how one should live. Like Luther’s famous paradox—the Christian is a free person, subject to no one; the Christian is a slave, subject to all—Sherman’s rich language invites the reader toward introspection and reflection.
How then was Sherman’s exposition of the Kingly work of Christ “Trinitarian”? On this point, the author’s language becomes almost mystical. Jesus is not Lord on his own hook but because He receives his Lordship from the Father and exercises the Father’s sovereign power on God’s behalf. Jesus is, to use a compelling biblical metaphor, the one who is anointed by the Father to be both Lord and Christ. Nor is this Lordship something other than God’s gentle guidance through God’s own Spirit. The Father gives the “new heart” that is needed to follow Jesus, the rightful King of a new and radically different Kingdom.
Professor Sherman’s discussion of the priestly work of Christ on our behalf was, for me, the high point of the book. Significantly, its central position in the discussion—put between the Sovereign Work of Christ the King and the Sanctifying Work of Christ the Prophet—is intended to convey the fact that the priestly work of Jesus is His own proper work; that is, the work that is “proper” to the Second Person of the Trinity. In that sense, it is this work, above all, that lies at the very heart of the mystery of why God became man and dwelt among us. Professor Sherman is very careful to interpret this proper work not in terms of a neat equation by which Christ’s sacrifice balances our sinfulness, but as a fitting and proper way for God to affect our salvation. Interestingly, the liturgical phraseology is drawn from Anselm’s famous Cur Deus Homo.
The work was first useful to me in distinguishing the different Biblical meanings of sacrifice. The church has always spoken much about Christ as the offering for sin, who, like the Scapegoat of old, was driven beyond the gates of the city to die. But two other biblical uses of sacrifice that have not received the same attention, Sherman elucidates here: the idea of the first fruits that were to be offered to God, and, the Paschal Lamb whose death heralded the beginning of the Exodus. The first of these clarifies many biblical passages that stress the link between Christ’s death and the inauguration of the eschatological age. Christ is the first fruits of a new humanity, the one whose appearance, like the appearance of new crops, symbolizes the return of prosperity and peace.
Sherman’s discussion of Jesus as Prophet draws from both Christ’s personal embodiment of the Spirit of prophecy and Christ’s role as the one who inaugurates the great age of the Spirit by promising and then sending the Holy Spirit. To use one of Sherman’s phrases, it is “fitting” that Christ’s work as prophet follows Christ’s work as the delegated Ruler of the Father’s Realm and as the one who lays the groundwork for our new lives at the cross. Without this strong focus, the work of Christ as King and Priest would be incomplete. As Irenaeus said, “God the Father has two hands: the Word (Christ) and the Spirit.” Professor Sherman intended this book to be pastoral theology. It is important to understand what he means by that. Many people use the word “pastoral” or its cognate, “professional,” to mean “stripped-down” or “not-too-intellectually-challenging.” To the contrary, this is theology written for those who are willing and able to do serious biblical study and even more serious biblical reflection. But it is pastoral theology in a profound sense. In his carefully measured prose, the author has provided the theological foundations that a pastor needs to preach the faith candidly and that every minister needs in order to do effective counseling. In answer to the pressing question, “What shall I preach?” Professor Sherman gives a clear and reasoned answer. King, Priest, and Prophet is a thoughtful exposition of the heart of the faith with many clear lines between the exposition and the actual situation that we face in our daily work as ministers. Not sure this paragraph is necessary – addresses scholars more than the overall audience. Are there questions and reservations after reading this volume? Of course. I would have appreciated, for example, more discussion of how Jesus’ work affects my own quest for peace and justice, and, while I appreciate and applaud Sherman’s emphasis on the Bible, I wonder how his understanding would address those of us who have experienced Christ’s work through participation in various movements and cultural shifts. But, these criticisms cannot overshadow my deep appreciation for this volume. My own Christological categories, Jesus the Prince of Peace, and Jesus the Giver of Gifts, have been deepened and broadened through my encounter with Professor Sherman’s careful exegesis.
Glenn T. Miller is Academic Dean and Waldo Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Bangor Theological Seminary.
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