Kathryn Tanner. Christ the Key. Cambridge University Press: 2010. ISBN: 9780521732772.
Meet the Author
Kathryn Tanner joined the faculty of Yale Divinity School as Professor of Systematic Theology earlier this year. Previously she taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School for fifteen years and at Yale University’s Department of Religious Studies for ten years. Tanner’s research relates the history of Christian thought to contemporary issues of theological concern using social, cultural, and feminist theory. She is the author of six books including Christ the Key (2010), Economy of Grace (2005), and Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology (2001). Tanner serves on the editorial boards of Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and Scottish Journal of Theology, and is a former coeditor of The Journal of Religion.
Book Basics
Christ the Key is the sequel to and continues the theological vision of Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: “God wants to give us the fullness of God’s own life through the closest possible relationship with us that comes to completion in Christ” (p.vii). Christ is the key that unlocks each of her chapters: what it means to say that humanity is created in the image of God (chapter 1), grace (chapters 2&3), the trinity (chapters 4&5), the cross (chapter 6), and the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who follow Christ (chapter 7).
A full review of this rich academic text is beyond the scope of this blog. For those wanting a more thorough consideration, I recommend Todd Walatka’s five part book review, which includes links to bloggers who were present when she presented the material for the Warfield lectures at Princeton Seminary in 2007.
So What?
Should Christ be viewed as the key to the Christian faith? Would making such a claim in some way diminish the other two persons of the Trinity?
I am intrigued with the claim that a sociological observation of a given local congregation or denomination will always show that every group shows a preference for one person of the Trinity. Do Pentecostals favor the Spirit? Do Baptists favor the Son? Do Presbyterians favor the Father? Would an outsider’s observation of your own life of faith show you to favor Creator, Christ or Comforter?