This book is in many ways an extended theological undergirding of Wells’s popular works such as A Nazareth Manifesto (Wiley: 2015), which take the language of ‘being with’ as an (perhaps the) essential tool to articulate the Christian gospel and Christian hope. It is a meaty work, richly grounded in extensive academic engagement with scripture and with a range of Christian thinkers from the early church to the present day, while retaining the pastoral elements of the more popular works by connecting doctrine with everyday life.

The book, in some ways, is an extended reflection on the question ‘Why did Jesus come?’ Christians have often answered that question with reference to the Cross, conceived as the place where Jesus died to counter the effects of human sin. Wells’s overarching theme is that this can narrow and distort the Christian vision of God and God’s engagement with the world. It can limit the purposes of God’s coming to appear simply as problem-solving and constrain our sense of God’s action to a single moment. Such views can, Wells argues cogently, end up focusing far more on us than on God (‘anthropocentrism’ rather than ‘theocentrism’, p. 6).

Rather, Wells contends, God acts on a much wider stage: the Lord’s work is not just what is done on the Cross (however that is conceived); the purpose of his coming is much bigger than just the remedying of human fault. For Wells, it is the incarnation rather than the crucifixion which is the key focus and indicator of God’s action, and God comes not just to redeem us from sin but for a much broader purpose – to give us abundant life, reconciled with ourselves, each other, the created order and God. So, for example, disproportionate focus on the Cross as the locus of individual redemption may well entail insufficient attention to the corporate, social or environmental consequences of salvation (p. 245). Jesus would have come, on Wells’s view, whether or not humanity had sinned: ‘Christ’s incarnation is not dependent on the fall’ (p. 81).

In advancing this argument, Wells relies on a wide and thorough reading of both scripture and a range of Christian texts and periods. Indeed, this is one of the book’s main strengths: Wells engages in detail with both testaments, then with (for example) the Cappadocians, Maximus, Bulgakov and Zizioulas from the eastern tradition; Augustine, Duns Scotus, Aquinas and Barth (from the western) and covering the patristic, mediaeval, reformation and modern eras. He stands a commendable critical distance from his interlocutors even where he agrees with key elements of their account. For example, Wells praises the eastern tradition for its emphasis on deification (our becoming like God), while highlighting problematic features of their account (such as the tendency to overlook questions about power dynamics) (p. 208).

Of course, such a strong account is likely to risk a strong critique – as Wells admirably recognises by identifying and responding to some counterarguments in his conclusion, as well as suggesting further avenues of enquiry. A more basic challenge might be that some quite bold statements are made without always identifying just how radical or controversial they might be: for instance, his broad preference for ‘Scotist’ rather than ‘Thomist’ accounts of the incarnation or assertion of a distinction between ‘essence’ and ‘existence’ (p. 169), or belief that the persons of the Trinity ‘come adrift’ from each other on the Cross (p. 286). The unwary reader might not realise that Wells’s cogent and well-grounded account traverses some very disputed territory, and the strong scheme of the argument can tend to gloss over different perspectives or counterarguments.

This is a well-written and cogently argued book, although the tendency (particularly in the second half of the book) to conduct extended analysis of the literature through footnotes detracts from the flow of the argument. The book demonstrates the clear theological underpinnings of Wells’s wider project and reflects the background of a writer who is shaped by and can speak into both pastoral and academic contexts. It is not for the beginner, but those with some theological training, whether or not they agree with the argument, will find much to stimulate here.