I don't know much about Kirk or McGrath. I've read a few of McGrath's blogs on Patheos. This doesn't impress me any more than your OP. I'm sure there is an audience for this, but that audience is people who haven't done much of any Bible study. If you do, and are still convinced that Jesus was God, or even that the NT clearly says Jesus was God, then either you wanted to think that in the first place and facts don't matter to you, or, you're just not a very good studier.
I don't know what you are talking about. My whole point is that Jesus is NOT a God, but just a human.
I'm talking about how easy it is to figure out he is not. A book like this seems to be directed to someone who started out thinking Jesus is God, and didn't really question it much. Before reading this book, I'd first need to be convinced why it would take a book of this length to convince someone the Jesus story is anything but an idealized figure.
Kirk's review threw me for a loop right here, "Written in an era when it has become increasingly popular to insist that Jesus is already depicted as a pre-existent figure in the Synoptic Gospels, one who is absorbed into the “divine identity," ".
What era is Kirk living in? It is becoming decreasingly popular to insist that. Fundamentalists are the embarrassing cousins in the Christian family. Very few people believe all the miracles in the Bible, especially the ones with Jesus.