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Reginald H. Fuller

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Reginald Horace Fuller (b. May 24, 1915, Horsham, England) is an Anglo-American Biblical scholar and Anglican priest. He is known for his consequential analysis of New Testament Christology.

Life events

Fuller attended the University of Cambridge (B.A., First Class Hon., Classics and Theology, 1937; M.A., 1942) and matriculated from General Theological Seminary (S.T.D., 1955), NYC. He studied in Germany in 1938-39. There he met Ilse Barda; they married in 1942. He was a curate in England from 1940 to 1950. During that time he also lectured in theology at the Queen's College, Birmingham and the University of Birmingham (1946-50). He was professor of theology at St. David's College, Lampeter, Wales (1950-55).

Fuller became a U.S. resident in 1955. He was professor of New Testament at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, languages and literature (1955-1966), Union Theological Seminary, NYC, and Columbia (adj. prof.)(1966-72), and Virginia Theological Seminary (1972-85, professor emeritus 1985, adj. 1994-2002). He also taught at seminaries and colleges in Austin, Tx., Berkeley, Ca., Canberra, Nashotah, Wis. Saskatoon, Sask., Richmond, Va. and Washington, D.C. He became a U.S. citizen in 1995.

Fuller translated such works as Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship (1948) and Letters and Papers from Prison (1953), Bultmann's Kerygma and Myth, 2 v. (1953 & 1962), Schweitzer's Reverence for Life (1969), and Bornkamm's The New Testament (1973).

Fuller was president of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas[1] (1983-84). He is currently Canon at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.

The Foundations of New Testament Christology (1965)

Fuller's book The Foundations of New Testament Christology illustrates aspects of his scholarly publications. The treatise defines key terms, states assumptions, describes the method used, and develops implications in cumulative fashion. Thus, 'Christology' (the doctrine of Jesus Christ's person) refers to a response to a particular history, not the action of God in Jesus as such nor the history itself. Analysis of New Testament Christology begins with the disciples' belief in the resurrection. It is concerned with "what can be known of the words and works of Jesus" and how these were interpreted. 'Foundations of New Testamant Christology' refers to presuppositions of NT writers rather than to the theology of their finished product (pp. 15-17). The book considers the response of the early church as to conceptual tools available in successive environments of Palestinian Judaism, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Graeco-Roman gentile world. "What can be known" of the historical Jesus and the early church's mission depends on critical methods and tests applied to documents from the gentile mission. Such methods and tests distinguish the knowledge of early writers about Jesus, their own theology, and other traditions to which they responded (pp. 17-20). The book makes explicit which elements of sources are accepted as going back to each stratum of the early church. It accepts assignment of a tradition to a specific stratum:

  • without elaboration in case of wide acceptance
  • with a summary of the argument in case wide acceptance is lacking
  • with elaboration in case a common assignment is rejected or a new assignment is proposed (p. 21).

The concern of the book is, with the emergence of a post-Bultmann school of Biblical criticism, "to establish a continuity of the historical Jesus and the christological kerygma of the post-resurrection church." The real continuity, Fuller felt, "was obscured, if not actually denied, by Bultmann's own work," to the possible disadvantage of the church's proclamation (p. 11). The analysis of the book concludes that the christological foundations of the early church (as recoverable from the New Testament and formulations of church fathers) "are also the foundations of Christology today" (p. 257).

Selected publications

  • Reginald H. Fuller, 1954, The Mission and Achievement of Jesus: An Examination of the Presuppositions of New Testament Theology, SCM.
  • _____, 1962. The New Testament in Current Study, Scribners.
  • _____, 1963. Interpreting the Miracles, Westminster.
  • _____, 1965. A Critical Introduction to the New Testament, Duckworth.
  • _____, 1965. The Foundations of New Testament Christology, Scribners. ISBN 684-31039-2
  • _____, 1971, 2nd ed., 1980. The Formation of the Resurrection Narratives, Fortress.
  • _____, 1976. Longer Mark: Forgery, Interpretation, or Old Tradition?, Center for Hermeneutical Studies.
  • _____, 1984. Preaching the New Lectionary: The Word of God for the Church of Today, Liturgical.
  • _____, 1990. He That Cometh: The Birth of Jesus in the New Testament, Morehouse.
  • _____, 1993. "Jesus Christ," in Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Bible, pp. 356-66. Oxford. ISBN 019-504645-5
  • _____, 1994. Christ and Christianity: Studies in the Formation of Christology, Trinity Press International. ISBN 156-338076-5
  • Reginald F. Fuller and Pheme Perkins, 1983. Who Is This Christ: Gospel Christology and Contemporary Faith, Fortress. ISBN 0-8006-1706-1
  • Richard Hanson and Reginald Fuller, 1948, 2nd ed., 1960. The Church of Rome: A Dissuasive Seabury.

References

  • Arland J. Hultgren and Barbara Hall, ed., 1990. Christ and His Communities: Essays in Honor of Reginald H. Fuller, Forward Movement.
  • Who's Who in America 2006, p. 1596.
  • Raymond E. Brown, 1990. "Christology" and "The Resurrection of Jesus," in Raymond E. Brown et al., ed., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, pp. 1354-59, 1373-77.
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