"Jesusanity"

Darrell Bock has a recent post about Jesusanity as distinct from Christianity. I would add to his observations that our contemporary tendency to refer regularly to the post-ascension Christ simply as “Jesus” tends to aid and abet some of the tendencies he observes. I’m old enough to remember when we first began to do this (in the ’60s) and why we did it (it broke away from tradition and sounded cool). Prior to this, we generally reflected the Biblical pattern of referring to “Jesus” when speaking of the earthly ministry of the Son of God, but “Christ”, “Jesus Christ”, “Lord”, “Lord Jesus” etc. when addressing him or referring to him in his exaltation.

While I’m not suggesting we need to be absolutist about this (there is a handful of references to the exalted “Jesus” in the epistles – and we ought to consider the literary-theological effect intended by the use of the name alone), the overwhelming usage in post-ascension contexts in the NT is to employ one of the more honorific designations. There may be a difference between calling on someone to “trust Jesus” (which one?) and what we observe Paul doing to the end of his ministry as reported by Luke at the close of the book of Acts, “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”

Given the Biblical concern for names and titles and their significance, perhaps we ought not to treat this as a matter of total indifference.