Andrew Lincoln, a respected NT scholar (former President of the British NT Society), most recently serving as Portland Professor of New Testament in the University of Gloucestershire, has written an important book on the early Christian tradition that Jesus was conceived without the aid of a human father: the “virginal conception” tradition (often popularly referred to as “virgin birth”): Born of a Virgin? Reconceiving Jesus in the Bible, Tradition and Theology (SPCK, 2013). Having reviewed the book for a journal, I want to bring it to the attention of other readers.
Emphasizing his own Christian faith-stance, and writing particularly for fellow Christians, Lincoln offers some serious and impressive reasons for what will be for many/most a major re-thinking of the matter. Of course, others (often from critics outside the circle of Christian faith) have urged that a virginal conception is incompatible with “modern” thinking. But Lincoln repeatedly aligns himself as…
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