The Incarnation

by Timothy J. Pawl

The Doctrine of the Incarnation, that Jesus Christ was both truly God and truly human, is the foundation and cornerstone of traditional Christian theism. And yet, this traditional teaching appears to verge on incoherence. How can one person be both God, having all the perfections of divinity, and human, having all the limitations of humanity? This is the fundamental philosophical problem of the incarnation. Perhaps a solution is found in an analysis of what the traditional teaching meant by person, divinity, and humanity, or in understanding how divinity and humanity were united in a single person? This Element presents that traditional teaching, then returns to the incoherence problem to showcase various solutions that have been offered to it.

Genres: Theology

78 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2020

Reviews

[Jaden A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a distilled version of ‘In Defense of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay’ published by Oxford University Press. The author defends what he calls Conciliar Christology, i.e., Christology as defined by the first seven ecumenical councils of the catholic church prior to the Great Schism. Subjects include the person of Christ, Christ’s divinity and humanity, the hypostatic union, the activities of Christ, and what Pawl labels as the “Fundamental Philosophical Problem.”

The last of these categories pertains to the claims made of Christ in the ecumenical creeds. Namely, how can Christ be both passible and impassible, temporal and atemporal, etc.? Pawl explicates varying positions that can be taken to avoid contradiction as well as highlighting each position’s weakness. The author also speaks to which of these options is available to one who confesses “Conciliar Christology” versus one who does not. Pawl takes the position that various predicates (e.g. passible and impassible) can be related as subcontraries as opposed to contradictories, rendering orthodox Christology as eminently rational.

Pages 44 – 52 can be slightly difficult to understand, but a motivated reader will make their way through. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this work.

[Neal Tognazzini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great example of contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, chock full of useful summaries of complicated discussions about the logic of the Incarnation. As an appetizer for Pawl’s two much longer books on the subject, and as a jumping off point for further research, it works great. However, reading it is also a great example of what it feels like to read contemporary analytic philosophy of religion - logically impeccable but rather lifeless in the reading. Shouldn’t trying to bang your head against the logic of the Incarnation feel more exciting than this? I’m also an analytic philosopher so I appreciate a good bit of scholasticism every now and then, and like I said, this is wonderful for what it is. It just seems like there’s a mismatch between subject matter and literary form or something.

[Jacob Samuel Raju · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written introduction to the conciliar teaching on the Incarnation. Master this book and you have a good foundation to build your Christology on.
How can the one person Jesus Christ, be both God, having all the perfections of divinity, and human, having all the limitations of humanity? The book provides the conciliar teaching on what is meant by person, divinity, and humanity, or in understanding how divinity and humanity were united in a single person.
By Conciliar Christology, Pawl means the Christology of the first seven ecumenical councils of Christianity: the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the First Council of Constantinople in 381, the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, the Third Council of Constantinople in 680–681, and the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.
He provides the conciliar teaching under the following headings:

The person of Christ
The divine nature of Christ
The human nature of Christ
The union between the natures (i.e., the hypostatic union)
The activities of the God-man, Jesus Christ

This book provides a segue into reading his bigger and more difficult volumes In Defense of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay, and In Defense of Extended Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay.