Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Book Review of “The Monotheizing Process”

Book Review of “The Monotheizing Process”

Last updated on: November 30, 2023 at 6:28 pm by Kermit Zarley

0 Comments

Book Review of “The Monotheizing Process” 2023-11-30T18:28:09-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

James A. Sanders was professor emeritus at Claremont School of Theology in Pasadena, California, when he died in 2020 at the age of 92. He perhaps was known academically mostly for his work as a textual critic of the Old Testament, but especially his early work with the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely the Psalm Scroll of Cave 11, and his early publications about the DSS.

Professor Sanders was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He achieved his PhD at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, under the supervision of the renown Jewish scholar Samuel Sandmel. Sanders then taught at prestigious schools such as Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, both in New York City. He taught twenty-one years at Claremont until his official retirement there in 1997. He then taught for many years at Bloy House of The Episcopal Theological Seminary at Claremont.

James A. Sanders’s last book seems to have been The Monotheizing Process: Its Origins and Development. It was published in 2014 by my publisher Wipf and Stock Publishers in Eugene, Oregon, Although only 100 pages, it is endorsed by eminent Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann of Columbia Theological Seminary, Georgia. He states, “No one has thought as well and as long, as imaginatively and helpfully about canon as has Jim Sanders.”

That is what this book is about–how early religious communities conceived of oral tradition and Bible manuscripts as canon that had been passed down to them. Sanders calls this “a monotheizing process.” He also applies it to dialogue between the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He explains more acutely (p. 7), “To monotheize is to confess that the One God of All is beyond human ability to define or describe.” Sanders obviously was not a systematic theologian.

My interest in this book is that Sanders constantly refers to YHWH–the God of the Bible whose name is usually pronounced “Yahweh”–as “the One God of All.” Sanders therefore teaches a strict monotheism for normative Judaism and that both Judaism and Islam worship the same God. But Sanders questions if post-apostolic Christianity can be categorized as monotheistic due to its doctrine of the Trinity and therefore that Jesus is God, which latter Sanders repeatedly refutes biblically. Yet Sanders is sound in Christian faith by believing Jesus is the promised Messiah whom God raised from the dead.

I wrote a book, The Restitution: Biblical Proof Jesus Is Not God, which is in agreement with Sanders on this topic. In fact, many of Sander’s statements affirm much of my book. Rather than provide a thorough review of Sanders’s book, I will now quote several of its texts that address the identity of God and Jesus, with a bare few other texts added:

Sanders says of Christians, “we engage in blatant idolatry of Jesus as our Christ instead of worshiping God” (p. 51). This reminds me of some important and provocative statements Jimmy Dunn says in his book, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? (See my review of this book.) Dunn says therein, “only God, only the one God, is to be worshipped” (p. 146). Dunn continues, “Christian worship can deteriorate into what may be called Jesus-olatry. … The danger of Jesus-olatry is … that Jesus has been substituted for God, … the worship due to God is stopping at Jesus” (p. 147). Dunn asks, “Did the first Christians worship Jesus? … No, by and large the first Christians did not worship Jesus as such” (p. 150).
Sanders applies his “monotheizing hermeneutic” to Jesus’s Sermon on Mount by saying, “when one loves one’s enemies” that person listens to them and thereby “understands their point of view instead of denigrating it in order to argue one’s own” (p 53).
Sanders calls us to “eliminate all vestiges of (Barthian) christocentric theism, and to engage in efforts to understand what a theocentric Christology would truly mean for church and world. … Monotheizing would require restudying what the Gospels say about Christ in terms of belief that God is the One God of all humankind” with the result of an “emerging theocentric gospel” (p. 57).
Sanders continues, “The churches must move from their present focus on (Barthian) christocentric theology to a theocentric Christology in which the focus would be on the One God of All that we all profess” (p. 59).
Sanders adds, “Christianity has come dangerously close to idolatry in adoring Christ instead of God in Christ. Instead of worshiping our Christ, we Christians should worship and adore God and not any of God’s gifts, not even his greatest gift in Jesus Christ” (p. 60).
Sanders alleges, “We are convinced that neither Judaism nor Christianity in its present forms can be described as consistently monotheistic in outlook and practice” (p. 66).
Sanders recalls the church councils of the 4th and 5th centuries, wherein Trinitarianism was developed, and explains, “The basic story about Jesus got lost in debates over details about who Christ was and how. Right belief became more important for Christians than the simple story when they in turn had power. Christians forgot what Jesus had taught about loving their neighbor, even their enemy. They made concepts of Christ idolatrous and forgot what Jesus taught about God” (p. 81).

Jewish

Education and Religion

Previous Post

November 13, 2023

What about After this Gaza War?

Next Post

December 2, 2023 "You Can't Tell Palestinians to 'Get Out of the West Bank'"

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Glen, you seem to be advocating a preterist viewpoint, with which I disagree." I'm a ..."

Kermit Zarley

Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and ..."

"THESIS is a SCRIPTURE QUOTE.“Remember the predictions foretold by the holy prophets and by the ..."

glen smith

Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and ..."

"How are they going to answer it. They don't have unlimited financial resources. They're trying ..."

Kermit Zarley

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Getting Much Worse

"...but isn't that an important question to answer?"

Harold Porter

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Getting Much Worse

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who became king after David and built the first Temple in Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Rehoboam Adonijah Solomon Absalom

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »