Crowned with Glory and Honor: A Chalcedonian Anthropology

―Gregg Allison, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Wilkinson’s investigation of a Chalcedonian anthropology gathers together resources from historical, biblical, and systematic theology that should have been brought together long ago. We have needed this kind of careful articulation of the nature/person distinction from Trinity and Christology, with a view to how it analogically informs the Christian doctrine of humanity. This study is at the same time deeply conservative and courageously innovative, and I especially appreciate how Wilkinson freely offers his conclusions to the broader theological community for further consideration.”

—Fred Sanders, Professor, Torrey Honors College, Biola University

“We live in a day when the dominant intellectual questions are anthropological ones. What are the key ontological building-blocks of being human? How is my identity to be determined? What does it mean to be male or female or, as some would have it, neither? When does human life begin? This fresh work, building upon the Christological consensus of Chalcedon, is a marvelous exploration of how the real humanity of Jesus Christ can provide direction in answering these pressing anthropological issues of our day. Highly recommended!”

—Michael A. G. Azad Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Michael Wilkinson makes a large claim here. While linking anthropology to Christology is far from novel, he formulates a precise analogical model for basing the constitution of mere humans like us on the human who is Christ. Following the logic of Chalcedon, he does so without conflating or separating either Christ’s two natures or the person-nature distinction in us. On its own merits, this well-argued thesis deserves careful consideration. But it’s especially relevant at a time when what we are as humans is often disconnected from who and how we are in Christ.”

—Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California

“What is man that God is mindful of him? Coming at the issue with concern for our ontology rather than our significance, Michael Wilkinson answers that question by pointing us to the incarnate Christ as the exemplar for discerning the shape of human constitution. This case for ‘Chalcedonian anthropology’ is richly attuned to contemporary trends of theological retrieval, finely versed in the historical sources of Christological development, fitly aimed at addressing recent competing but unsatisfying debates, and thought-provoking enough to gain some real ground in shaping a theological understanding of human being.”

—Harrison Perkins, Pastor, Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC)

In Crowned with Glory and Honor: A Chalcedonian Anthropology, Michael A. Wilkinson argues that the man Jesus is the way forward. Anthropology should be centered around Jesus. God the Son incarnate is true man, like us in all things except sin. Wilkinson approaches human ontology through Christology by looking to the Chalcedonian Definition and its Christology. Chalcedon confesses the man Jesus to be the divine person of the Son subsisting in a human nature. A Chalcedonian anthropology extends Jesus’s person-nature constitution to define what it means to be human. A human being is a human person subsisting in a human nature. We are more than body and soul because Jesus is so much more.