Deliverance from the Cross — Page 32
particular attribute in its hearers that Jesus was. . . God, the Son Incarnate, is not literally true, since it has no literal meaning, but it is an application to Jesus of a mythical concept whose function is analogous to that of the notion of divine sonship ascribed in the ancient world to a king. ¹ The writers of this book are convinced that another major theological development is called for in this last. part of the twentieth century. The need arises from growing knowledge of Christian origins, and involves a recognition that Jesus was (as he is presented in Acts 2:22) 'a man approved by God' for a special role within the divine purpose, and that the later conception of him as God Incarnate, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, living a human life, is a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance for us. This recognition is called for in the interests of truth; but it also has increasingly important practical implication for our relationship to the peoples of the other great world religions. ² God is not subject to the contingencies of birth and death. He is Ever-living and neither begets, nor is begotten. The Quran sets forth a true concept of Him which does not in any way diminish, confine, or limit Him. For instance: 'He is God, the Single; God, the Self- Existing and Besought of all. He begets. 1 The Myth of God Incarnate, Preface, p. ix. 2 ibid, p. 178. 32