The Christology of John Macquarrie

The Christology of John Macquarrie comprehensively scrutinizes the life and writings of Scottish-born systematic theologian and philosopher John Macquarrie (1919-2007) in an attempt to comprehend and evaluate his Christology. The author examines the people (e.g. Heidegger, Schleiermacher), the philosophical and theological positions, and the writings that formed Macquarrie’s thinking. One major influence was his commitment to modern critical theology including the premise that, in the modern world, the only acceptable Christological tenets are those that can stand up to the scrutiny of modern critical reasoning. The work concludes that this commitment profoundly shaped Macquarrie’s theology, especially his Christology. The book also discusses Macquarrie’s evaluation and criticisms of the Christology of other theologians (e.g. Kierkegaard, Moltmann, Pannenberg, and others), concluding that Macquarrie’s understanding of the Christian faith and the person of Jesus Christ is consonant with modern liberal Anglo-Catholicism. This idea furthers the argument that Macquarrie’s reluctance to accept traditional incarnational categories suggests that his Christology is a modern form of Adoptionism.