Review: Born of a Virgin
Born of a Virgin? queries this new provocative work by Andrew Lincoln, professor of New Testament at the University of Gloucestershire, England. Throughout the book, Lincoln endeavors to build a case from Scripture, church tradition, and biology suggesting that the answer is a firm but resolute “no.” Appealing to the diversity of Scripture in the hope that the “old conservative-liberal divide on the virgin birth be left behind” (302), Lincoln urges focus “on the incarnation rather than its means” and asks that he not be dismissed “as having retreated from orthodoxy and capitulated to rationalistic secular thought” (302). In fact, Lincoln hopes to convince readers that “the stance that has been advocated can be critically embraced, refined, and developed as part of the church’s ongoing attempt to be faithful in its interpretation and proclamation of Scripture and creeds for our own day” (302). To this end, he embarks on his mission: Reconceiving Jesus in the Bible, Tradition, and Theology.
