The logic and language of the incarnation : towards a Christology of identification (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
Incarnation, as per definition in its simplistic form, wherein God assumes a human nature, is central to the Christian doctrine of faith. The premise upon which the uniqueness of the Christian doctrine of incarnation, as opposed to other religious traditions, is embedded in and among other texts of the Christian Bible, and in the Gospel according to John 1:1-18. This article will articulate some of the philosophies in existence at that time which may allegedly have influenced and elicited a response from the writer of the Gospel according to John (GAJ). An attempt will be made to understand how some of these philosophies view incarnation in forms that may not necessarily reflect incarnation as is traditionally understood in Christianity which is primarily ‘God becoming flesh’. Central to the understanding of Christian incarnation is the philosophical concept of logos which emanated in Greek philosophy. Finally, it should become apparent, that the understanding of ‘incarnation’, in s...
Traditional accounts of the incarnation, which maintain the true divinity and true humanity of Christ, have faced numerous criticisms across the history of the church, criticisms that have never entirely been resolved. What if the problem is not the claim of dual "natures" but rather the philosophical paradigm within which "nature" has been interpreted? In this paper, it is argued that significant issues caused by the traditional dual-nature paradigm can be resolved through a conceptualist account of "nature," that is, ontological identity or similitude with like things. After introducing the classic paradigm and the problems associated with it, conceptualism is proposed as an adequate solution to the problems of natural and personal continuity and, as a result, a strong framework within which to tackle the classic problems associated with the incarnation. Keywords: ontology, Hellenistic philosophy, conceptualism, essentialism, incarnation, Christology.
The Hermeneutics of the Incarnation
In the long history of Christian hermeneutics, the Incarnation is hardly ever addressed as embodiment. In part, this is because the early influence of Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy contributed to the tradition of Christian asceticism that emphasized the denial of the body. Yet to assert, as Christians do, that “the Word became flesh” is to claim that God himself became embodied. This implies that to understand the Incarnation, we have to understand embodiment. The centrality of the Incarnation, the fact that it distinguishes Christianity from Islam and Judaism, demands that we take embodiment as a central element guiding Christian hermeneutics. In this essay, I describe our embodiment in terms of its ontological structure as an intertwining. I then use this structure to interpret the Incarnation.
Reframing the Problem of the Incarnation: Towards a Conceptualist Christology (Draft)
2024
Traditional accounts of the incarnation, accounts which maintain true divine nature and true human nature of Christ, have faced numerous criticisms across the history of the church, criticisms that have never entirely been resolved. What if the problem is not the claim of dual "natures" but rather the philosophical paradigm within which "nature" has been interpreted? In this paper, it is argued that significant issues caused by the traditional dual-nature paradigm can be resolved through a conceptualist account of "nature," that is, ontological identity or similitude with like things. After introducing the classic paradigm and the problems associated with it, conceptualism is proposed as a plausible solution to the problems of natural and personal identity and, as a result, a strong framework within which to tackle the classic problems associated with the incarnation. At the very least, the plausibility of conceptualism as an answer to pressing issues in the doctrine of the Incarnation suggests that the problems are found not in the God-man claim but in a particular construal of the meaning of that claim.
Rightly Defining the Son of God: Examining the Definition of Chalcedon's Conceptual Aparatus
Moore Theological College (PhD Thesis), 2023
Against the background of recent discussion of perceived problems within the Definition of Chalcedon, with reference to its conceptual apparatus, and of the growing body of literature on the Acta of Chalcedon, this thesis has sought to investigate the conceptual apparatus of the Definition of Chalcedon. It has sought to identify its contours and whether there are problems present. To do so, the thesis first establishes the interpretive approach the Acta furnish for the Definition, namely, three interpretive strategies given for understanding the Definition. These strategies are then employed, tracing key terminology and their attendant concepts through the 4th-century authorities indicated by the Acta (Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nazianzus) and the two conciliar letters of Cyril (The Second Letter to Nestorius and The Letter to John of Antioch) with the support of Leo’s Tome. The concepts of universality and particularity are chosen as the objects of investigation because of their central importance to the debates of the prior centuries and because they are the source of the problems identified by contemporary authors. The fruit of this investigation is then applied to the Definition, with the conclusion that there is indeed a conceptual problem in the Definition. The Definition sought to present itself as an application of the Nicene Creed, interpreted by select 4th-century fathers, to the debates of the previous decades concerning the incarnation of the Son. In doing so, it juxtaposed two ontological apparatuses that are not readily reconciled, namely, the account of a derivative essence used for the Trinity, by which three hypostases could be said to have one being or nature (ousia, phusis), and the logical account of two natures, by which one hypostasis could be said to have two essences or natures (ousia, phusis). Potential resolutions drawn from the following centuries and contemporary discussion are evaluated without finding an adequate resolution. Please message me if you would like a full copy of the thesis.
Christ is the only incarnation: Appropriate use of incarnation language
This paper explores the theological use of the term "incarnational." It concludes that the words "incarnation" and "incarnate" need to be reserved for the action of God. The word "incarnational," however, is analyzed through five theological models. The paper concludes that the adjective "incarnational" can be correctly described as the actions of believers seeking to live Christ-like because they are indwelt, in union with, and made in the image and likeness of Christ. This paper was presented at the April 2018 Far West Region Meeting of the ETS.
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ in the Early Christian Creeds
After Constantine. Stories from the Late Antique and Early Byzantine Era, 2023
In this paper, I try to summarize the doctrine about the incarnation of Jesus Christ as it appears in the great Creeds of Christianity, but to see the trajectory of its development I will begin my presentation with a couple of snapshots from the world of the earliest Creed-like statements of the post-Biblical era.
The Metaphysics of the Incarnation in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy of Religion
Verbum Vitae, 2021
The paper presents the latest achievements of analytic philosophers of religion in Christology. My goal is to defend the literal/metaphysical reading of the Chalcedonian dogma of the hypostatic union. Some of the contemporary Christian thinkers claim that the doctrine of Jesus Christ as both perfectly divine and perfectly human is self-contradictory (I present this point of view on the example of John Hick) and, therefore, it should be understood metaphorically. In order to defend the consistency of the conciliar theology, I refer to the work of, among others, Eleonore Stump, William Hasker, Peter Geach and Kevin Sharpe. As a result, I conclude that recent findings in analytic metaphysics provide an ontological scaffolding that explains away the objection of the incompatibility of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In order to confirm this conclusion such metaphysical topics as properties attribution (what it means for an object to have a property), relation of identity (what it means for an object x to be identical with object y), and essentialism and kind membership (what it means for an object to belong necessarily to a kind) are scrutinized in detail.
2021
In the present study, I draw the outline of two Christological frameworks, the identity-language Christology and the composition-language Christology. They appear well marked during the dispute between Cyril of Alexandria and the Antiochian theologians, such as Nestorius and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. The identity-language Christology, characteristic of Cyril, is best expressed in his concept of union according to Hypostasis, and it starts approaching the mystery of Jesus Christ from the unity of the person, thus representing a personalist approach. The alternative is a substantialist approach, which understands Christ from the angle of the two natures which are joined together in union. After describing the pitfalls of both approaches, I move to the Christology of Maximus the Confessor, who adopts Cyril’s identity-language and develops it through new concepts, such as composite hypostasis and theandric activity, which Maximus inherits from the six-century theologians Leontius of Jerusalem and Dionysius the Ps.-Areopagite, respectively. In Ambigua ad Thomam, Maximus arrives at a splendid articulation of the identity-language Christology, which is relevant for our contemporary discussion concerning the relationship between person and nature. More specifically, Maximus introduces the concept of natural energy/activity, which in turn leads to a threefold distinction: person – nature, nature – natural energies/activities, and person – natural energies/activities. From Cyril’s initial union according to Hypostasis, which presupposes a real distinction between person and nature, as it is manifest in his theopaschite doctrine, we arrive, with Maximus, at an elaborated ontological understanding of the Person-Hypostasis of Jesus Christ, which strengthens the surprising aptitudes of the identity-language Christology.
Andrew Ter Ern Loke has proffered a creative, novel, and bold model of the Incarnation as a contribution to analytic theological discussions of Christology. Recent work in this field has offered a distinction between abstract-nature and concrete-nature conceptions of natures. The former holds that entities have properties which entail their membership in a particular kind, the latter holds that being a member of a certain kind entails the having of certain properties. Loke’s model, what he calls the Divine Preconscious Model, holds that at the Incarnation the divine attributes of the Word were submerged into the Word’s preconscious, while the conscious of the Word took on certain human properties. This model, Loke holds, entails Christ’s full divinity and full humanity without falling into Apollinarianism or Nestorianism. However, I argue that because Loke avers that his model runs on a concrete-nature account of natures, he is not able to maintain the full humanity of Christ. I suggest two ways Loke might be able to maintain the integrity of his model, either by embracing a form of new-Apollinarianism or by adopting the abstract-nature perspective of natures.