The Shadow of the Almighty: Father, Son, and Spirit in Biblical Perspective

by Ben Witherington III, Laura M. Ice

The Shadow of the Almighty introduces readers to the nature of God by exploring the biblical references to God as "Father", "Son", and "Holy Spirit". This fruitful approach offers fresh insight into the meaning of the biblical language used for God, giving readers the background necessary for properly understanding the trinitarian perspective of the New Testament and of the Christian faith". "Divided into four chapters, the book looks at "Father" language in early Judaism, at "Father" language in early Christianity, at "Son" language, and at language designating the Spirit. This thorough review of the traditional God language across the biblical texts shows what the earliest Christians understood by using these terms and, ultimately, what these terms mean for modern faith and practice". "While much of this material is deceptively familiar, the authors' close examination of how and where the different terms are used reveals some surprising results. It makes clear, for example, that speaking of God in trinitarian terms was not as radical a departure from early Jewish monotheism as many have thought, and it shows that while early Christianity was characterized by disparate ideas, the first Christians nevertheless shared a common understanding of God. Equally engaging findings of the book include the authors' support for the traditional gendered term "Father" when speaking about God". Complete with helpful questions at the end of each chapter, The Shadow of the Almighty provides an excellent place to begin a deeper study of God.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2002

About the author

Ben Witherington III (PhD, University of Durham) is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and is on the doctoral faculty at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the author or coauthor of more than thirty books, including The Jesus Quest, The Paul Quest, and The New York Times bestseller The Brother of Jesus. He has appeared on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN.

Reviews

[Coyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was... fine, I guess. At least, I think it was anyway. It seems that the authors couldn't decide if they wanted it to be a scholarly work or a devotional one, so they settled on both and ended up with a bit of neither. That is, the authors regularly cite, rely on, and refute scholarly sources (as any good scholarly work would do); AND each chapter includes a series of devotional/reflective questions for the reader (as most popular devotionals do). The mix is... odd, to say the least.
I suppose it may be the case that this book is intended to be apologetics directed at the scholarly community, which would actually make sense given the approach the authors take. And this at least is interesting: in essence, they grant all the arguments of the higher criticism (something not really necessary, since at this point higher criticism is on its last academic legs anyway) and argue that the Trinity is still clearly discernible in the pages of Scripture. This can be a useful exercise: find the rare holdout who holds to the higher critical view of the text (at this point they're probably going to be over 50) and have them show you what books/passages of Scripture are legitimately from the hands of the Apostles. Odds are you're going to be left with much of Mark, the passages that are found in both Luke and Matthew, Galatians, James, and one or two other books. From these, even having granted absolutely everything to the person in the higher critical school, you can still defend all the traditional doctrines of the church: the Trinity, the humanity and Divinity of Christ, the substitutionary atonement, etc. The authors have basically done just that with the Trinity in this book.
The result, unfortunately, is a book that is going to be inaccessible to the layman and uninteresting to the academic. The terminology of "Q", for example, is going to be a bit heavy for someone without a background in textual arguments to sift through, while the orthodoxy of the author's position is going to drive away the average academic.

All that to say that The Shadow of the Almighty is fine theologically, but is dense and technical enough that the average joe isn't likely to want to wade through it and orthodox enough that the average academic (we need a name for that--the "average albert?") isn't going to want to.

[Zach Waldis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book says that it is about gendered language for God (pronouns, using "Father", etc), but really it is a disparate and short take on the Bible's language for God. I recommend Marianne Meye Thompson's book, which this one is critical of, more for thinking about what language and pronouns to use for God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Skip it.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Loved it. Awe-inspiring.