My doctoral student, Daniel Gustafsson, will defend his dissertation, “Aspects of Coherency in Luke’s Composite Christology,” on Friday, September 20, 2019, beginning at 10:15 a.m. in Humanistiska Teatern (Engelska parken, hus 22). Daniel’s secondary advisor is my colleague Cecilia Wassén. The external examiner (opponent) will be Mikael Winninge (Umeå/Uppsala), and the evaluation committee (betygsnämnd) is comprised of Jonas Holmstrand (Uppsala), Birger Olsson (Lund), and Heike Omerzu (Copenhagen). What do I find most interesting about Daniel’s study? In my admittedly biased view, there are at least three noteworthy contributions:
• In the Gospel of Luke, the same christological title can have different meanings, depending on who is speaking (e.g., Jesus, the disciples, or Jesus’s opponents).
• In the same passage, Luke (like his predecessor, Mark) can use several christological titles without indicating nuances in meaning between those titles. In some instances, the titles seem to have overlapping meanings, or may even be synonymous.
• Using a narrative approach, Daniel traces developments in Luke’s use of the christological titles, and how some titles take on new, and even unanticipated, meanings over the course of the narrative.