Incarnation of Christ

As followers of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, the Messianic Jewish movement has the task of communicating the divinity of Messiah to the Jewish world. A popular method for recontextualizing the incarnation as a Jewish concept has been to cite ancient Jewish precedents for the idea. This historical-textual approach, as popularized by Daniel Boyarin and others, has significant benefits. However, it also ignores underlying theological and philosophical issues that make the idea of incarnation nonsensical or redundant in the eyes of religious Jewish people. In order to address the objections of religious Jewish people, the Messianic Jewish movement may need to increase its proficiency in theological and philosophical discourse. This paper outlines a second approach to explaining the deity of Messiah, called the Theological-Philosophical approach.

The Dumbarton Oaks Papers were founded in 1941 for the publication of articles relating to late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine civilization in the fields of art and architecture, history, archaeology, literature, theology, law, and the auxiliary disciplines. Articles should be submitted normally in English or French. Preference is given to articles of substantial length, but shorter notes will be considered if they relate to objects in the Dumbarton Oaks collections. Articles for submission should be prepared according to the submission guide, style guide, and list of abbreviations posted on the Dumbarton Oaks website, www.doaks.org/publications. Dumbarton Oaks Papers is published annually. Current and previous issues may be ordered online at http://www.hup.harvard.edu/. Standing orders may be placed by contacting customer service at 800-405-1619 or customer.care@triliteral.org. Volumes 1-59 of Dumbarton Oaks Papers are available in digital form through JSTOR; volumes 53-57 are also available at no charge through the Dumbarton Oaks website at

Building on my paper presented at SVS 2013, which sketched out the proposal that the manner of Jesus’ own coming into the world defines the manner of the coming of his kingdom into the world, this paper argues that the concept of kenosis provides vitally important insight for a robust understanding of the ways and patterns of the kingdom of God as experienced in this “time between the times.” The paper first examines the Christological question of how the Son’s incarnation and his kenosis are related to one another, arguing that the two should not be confused and clarifying that incarnation is the logical prerequisite for Christ’s kenosis, rather than vice-versa as is often assumed. With this clarification in hand, the paper next argues that the reason Christ’s incarnation took place initially in the mode of kenosis was so that the advent of his kingdom could be saving rather than destructive for our fallen world. Finally, several implications this has for the present mode of his kingdom are drawn out. This includes consideration of how the new order created by God’s reign in the present is characterized by weakness and vulnerability to suffering, self-giving service, obedience to and sheer trust in God, and a laying aside of any claim to authority of one’s own.

At the heart of James B. Torrance’s theological project was a concern to demonstrate the importance of an evangelical account of repentance, over against a legal account. This was a concern that he inherited from John Calvin, who stood as the greatest theological influence on Torrance. Out of his respect for Calvin, Torrance did not seek to commandeer Calvin’s work on this topic for his own project. Rather, he sought to communicate Calvin’s own vision of evangelical repentance to a new generation. Accordingly, this essay will primarily devote itself to exploring Calvin’s position. Before so doing, however, I shall provide a brief analysis of the distinction between the “covenant God” and “contract God,” which underlays Torrance’s emphasis on Calvin’s distinction between legal and evangelical repentance. Also, following our exploration of Calvin, I shall look briefly at Torrance’s own account of evangelical repentance, as it followed Calvin’s trajectory.

It is frequently charged by critics of classical Christian theism that its core tenets are incompatible with the doctrine of the Incarnation. This accusation is plausible so long as one is compelled to hold either that the divine Word subtracted something from himself in assuming a human nature or added something to himself. But contrary to widespread recent opinion, subtraction and addition are not the only options. Thomas Aquinas, among others, repudiates both these approaches, expounding instead a doctrine of terminative assumption. Termination eludes the liabilities of subtraction and addition by requiring neither privation of being nor passive potency in the divine Word in order to account for his becoming man. If terminative assumption is the correct way to understand the Word's assumption of a human nature, then classical theism is not in conflict with the doctrine of the Incarnation.

Any theory of the atonement is fundamentally shaped by one's view of the identity of Christ. Depending on how one thinks of his person and nature will determine how one thinks of the cross. In this essay, I will explain the person of Christ and how that shapes the event of the atonement.

LA ENCARNACIÓN COMO DIVINIZACIÓN EN LA LITURGIA Y EN LOS PADRES GRECOmORIENTALES por Pablo Argárate Introducción La temática de la Encarnación ha sido recentrada y valorizada en nuestros días en el marco teológico y cristológico. La cristología ha tratado de pensar nuevamente el misterio de la Encamación del Señor, ha redescubierto su trascendencia y las consecuencias enormes que de ella se siguen para unaWeltanschauungque pretenda ser verdaderamente cristiana, o sea, en y desde Cristo. Así ha experimentado nuevamente la profunda relación en el único misterio de Cristo, Dios encarnado, de la Irrupción de lo divino en el mundo y la redención del mismo. Es esto y no otra cosa el objeto central de la cristología, inteligencia de Cristo. En ella hay un lazo Indestructible entre el esse y el operari, entre cristología (en sentido ontológico) y soteriología. No es posible llegar a una recta comprensión del misterio desde una acentuación unilateral.

في كثير من الأحيان يُفسّر التجسد بطريقة ترى أنَّ حالة إخلاء المسيح كافية لتتميم الخلاص. في حين أنَّ قوله المعروف جيدًا: "إنَّه [أي الابن] أصبح إنسانًا حتَّى يُمكِّننا أن نصير آلهة" قد يوحي بهذا بسهولة، فإنَّ العمل ككلّ يحتوي على نسيج غني يدرك الخلاص الذي يتحقق فقط من خلال التدبير الخلاصيّ بأكمله- أي، تجسده بجانب جميع أعمال الخلاص أثناء وجوده على الأرض بما في ذلك موته على الصليب وقيامته غير الفاسدة. في محاولة لتقديم رؤية القديس أثناسيوس المتعددة الأوجه للخلاص، نأمل في هذا المقال تقديم مساهمة في الفهم الحديث للخلاص في اللاهوت النظامي الذي يميل إلى عزل الأحداث المختلفة.

Teistyczne pojęcie Boga – pojęcie Boga osobowego, wszechmocnego i miłującego – pociąga za sobą uznanie, że taki Bóg będzie skutecznie otwarty na pozytywne i znaczące relacje z ludźmi, co uniemożliwi występowanie w świecie tzw. niewiary bez oporu, czyli niewiary w Boga u tych osób, które nie są na nią zamknięte. Skoro jednak taka niewiara w świecie występuje, teistycznie pojęty Bóg nie może istnieć. Tak brzmi ateistyczny argument „z ukrycia” opracowany przez Johna L. Schellenberga.

"Książka ks. Marka Dobrzenieckiego stanowi jedyną w literaturze polskiej – i unikalną w literaturze światowej – pełną i szczegółową monografię na temat aktualnych dyskusji toczących się wokół powyższego argumentu. Praca dostarcza bogatego materiału erudycyjnego, przede wszystkim z zakresu współczesnej analitycznej filozofii religii i teologii chrześcijańskiej, a także proponuje oryginalne rozwiązanie problemu. Napisana została typowym dla filozofii anglosaskiej jasnym i precyzyjnym stylem, z dużą dbałością o ścisłość argumentowania, a zarazem bezpośrednim i żywym językiem, co sprawia, że może być czytana nie tylko przez specjalistów, ale także przez wszystkich – przygotowanych intelektualnie – ludzi wierzących, wątpiących i poszukujących".

prof. dr hab. Jacek Wojtysiak (KUL)

"Rozprawa została doskonale skomponowana, ujęta w eleganckim stylu, z maestrią myślową i precyzją pojęciową. Nieobce są jej autorowi emocje polemiczne. Tego rodzaju krytycyzm nie jest cechą często spotykaną w polskich środowiskach naukowych".

ks. prof. dr hab. Jan Sochoń (UKSW)

This paper discusses the theme of "personal justice" in the Summa theologiae, a concept inherited from the Nicomachean Ethics wherein Aristotle says that a man is just toward himself only metaphorically, insofar as the parts of man are appropriately ordered with the higher ruling the lower and the body subjugated to the soul. This paper demonstrates how Aquinas extensively utilizes this concept of metaphorical justice across the tripartite division of the Summa in his accounts of original justice in the prima pars, the humanity of Christ in the tertia pars, and justification of the sinner in the secunda pars. As a response to critiques that Thomistic moral theology is not properly centered in the person of Christ, I will show that, for Aquinas, Christ's personal justice both fulfills the right ordering of humanity lost through sin and restores that integrity to mankind in the grace of justification—the root of the Christian's entire moral life.

In Contra Gentes Athanasius dealt with heathen idolatry and philosophical pantheism before postulating creation as revelation of the one true God through the Word, and concluded by anticipating the treatment of the Incarnation in De Incarnatione, the second part of his treatise, which is the subject of this brief study.

Non-dualistic, Divine-human Reality as Continous Incarnation in Willigis Jäger’s Thought

The article aims at showing elementary theological convictions of Willigis Jäger included in his book Modlitwa kontemplacyjna and other selected writings with a special respect to the theme of the wholeness of reality seen as non-dualistic, divine-human, centred in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.incarnation

"Abstract.
Cyril of Alexandria was not only one of the finest Christian theologians of his day, he also stands out in the ranks of the greatest patristic writers of all generations as perhaps the most powerful exponent of Christology the church has known. Nestorius was enthroned as archbishop on April 10th 428. The contemporary historian Socrates called Nestorius a proud and ignorant man whose innate and undisputed oratorical power masked a weakness of incisive thought. Nestorius argued that Theotokos did not do justice to the fact that, strictly speaking, Mary was not the mother of God but rather the mother of the man whom Christian faith recognizes as divine and thus calls God. On the other hand, the term Anthropotokos acknowledges that Mary is the mother of this man but can itself be taken to suggest that he is merely a man, which again is offensive to orthodox Christian faith in the deity of Christ. In Cyril’s letters against to Nestorius, Cyril not only defends the title Theotokos against accusations that it was reviving the heresy of Apollinariusm, but he denies the very legitimacy of using alternative Christological schemes a such as the ‘association of personas’ the Antiochian thinkers had spoken of. For Nestorius, the language of the exchange of properties was generally suspect, and often odious. He found, in the expressions «Mother of God» and «God suffering», little more than an ignorant piety that had cut so many corners in its implications that it stood very close to pagan mythical conceptions of the deity. For him, God the Logos raised the dead Lazarus, while the man Jesus wept at the tomb.
In Nestorius’ letter to Cyril, he argues that Cyril was right to teach the two natures were united in one person, and right to say that the divinity cannot suffer in itself, but that when he goes on to speak of the deity «participating in suffering» he undoes all his good work. Cyril insists that while of itself human nature is not powerful but passible, in its union with the godhead, as in the dynamic act of Incarnation, the human nature of the Logos thereby becomes an instrument of omnipotent power and thus, in a real thought paradoxical sense, an omnipotent instrument. It is at once powerful and fragile, majestic and humble. One of his favorite phrases is: «The Logos suffered impassibly».
Christ had two natures. Jesus Christ was both fully human and fully divine. Cyril insists that Mary, the mother of God, should be called Theotokos. If Jesus was only human, Cyril argues, and God was elsewhere, the Incarnation, the Word become flesh, would be meaningless. Cyril plunges into the debate with sharp invective, addressing one document «To Nestorius, the new Judas»."

The Kierkegaardian account of becoming a Christian has come to be perceived in radically egocentric terms. This study serves to challenge this perception by demonstrating that Kierkegaard was devoted to expounding Christian conversion as a transformative process of becoming that is grounded in an active relationship initiated through the agency of the eternal God who has established kinship with us in time.
At the same time, this study will also explore the way that Kierkegaard confronts some of the key errors that arise in overly systematic accounts of Christian conversion: (1) the inherent weakness of approaches that seek to dichotomise, and then quantify separately, the contributions of God’s grace and human freedom; (2) the inclination to objectify God and human beings in ways that neglect their existence as living agents; (3) the overemphasis on conversion as a monadic event of individual transformation rather than an event of reconciliation; (4) the tendency to prioritise epistemology over ontology in discussions of becoming a Christian; and (5) the propensity to lose sight of God’s all-embracing purpose of reconciling persons into their one true form of existence ‘before God’.
Finally, this study will also consider how Kierkegaard was able to negotiate his emphasis on the God-relationship with his emphasis on the importance of individual reflection, decision and action in the Christian life. It will conclude that, for Kierkegaard, the freedom to become a Christian is not the freedom to awaken ourselves into the Christian life but a decision to embrace the Christian life into which God awakens us.

Contents

Introduction
I. Listening to Kierkegaard Alongside his Pseudonyms
a. Kierkegaard and Climacus
b. Anti-Climacus and Kierkegaard

Chapter One: The Communication of the Christian Truth
I. Can the Truth Be Learned?
II. The Relationship or Non-Relationship between Subjectivity and Objectivity
III. The Revelation of Sin
a. Despair
b. The infinite qualitative difference and sin-consciousness
IV. Being in the Truth
V. Passion in Kierkegaard’s Thought
a. The Passion of Thought
b. Passionate Responsibility
c. The Passion of Faith
VI. Conclusion

Chapter Two: The Possibility of Reconciliation
I. The Tale of the King and the Maiden
II. Drawing Another to Oneself
III. The Possibility of Reciprocity
IV. The Possibility of Offense
V. Encountering God in Time
VI. Conclusion

Chapter Three: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God
I. The Religious Category of Existence
II. Søren Kierkegaard’s Christian Realism
III. Immanent Religiousness and Christianity
IV. Sin-consciousness and Guilt-consciousness
V. Repentance
VI. Conclusion

Chapter Four: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God
I. Following Scripture Faithfully
a. Reading a Letter from a Beloved
b. The Perspicuity of Scripture
c. The Uncertainty of Scripture
II. The Single Individual
III. Christ is the Way
a. Following Christ
b. Following Christ Voluntarily
c. Christ as Prototype and Redeemer
IV. Becoming a Christian in the World
V. Conclusion

Chapter Five: The Freedom to Become a Christian in Relationship with God
I. Approaching Christianity
II. The Passionate Transition
a. Venturing the Leap
b. Preparing to become a Christian?
c. Relationship with “the paradox”
III. Faith in the Presence of God
IV. The Choice to Become a Christian
a. The Freedom of the Individual to Relate to God
b. Willing Beliefs
c. Human Responsibility for Sin
d. Transforming the Will
V. The Freedom to Love
VI. Conclusion

Closing Reflection
I. Kierkegaard’s Low Pneumatology
II. Communion with the One Who Establishes Kinship with Us in Time
III. Conclusion

This research paper will demonstrate the context of the ani\anawim as integral in understanding, communicating, and exploring kenosis concerning both Jesus and His followers. Discussions of kenosis seemingly diminish anawimic components to secondary results or subordinate of kenotic action and participation. This tendency tilts the conversation and understandings away from covenantal history and the First Testament's  prophetic tradition, thus diminishing and distorting the significant import of the ani\anawim in all areas of theology and life.

This paper will argue that kenosis is better understood through an anawimic context and possibly only achievable within that position. This paper will posit that kenosis is better understood within the posture and position within the salvific narrative, which is intrinsically anawimic. The ani\anawim is the “How” of kenosis.  This will be demonstrated by defining terminology vital to understanding this thesis supported by scriptural witness and supplemented with historical examples that illustrate this idea. Research and literature from various sources and Christian traditions over the last two thousand years will be utilized to establish the argument of the necessity of kenosis embedded and interpenetrating within an anawimic context. This interpenetration of ani/ anawim and kenosis may prove beneficial to better understanding, listening, communicating, and participating in a devoted response to Jesus.
Additionally, the importance of trauma will be tangled within this document for potential further discussion and assisting on this journey as there is a significant connection with ani/anawim.

Morris claims in his book, The Logic of God Incarnate, which he describes as a polemic effort, that “simple metaphysical distinctions and a solid dose of logical care will suffice to explicate and defend the doctrine against all extant criticisms of a philosophical nature.”

The Nicene–Constantinopolitan profession that the Son of God is begotten, not made, presents the tension that the Son is caused by God but not created. This claim was a point of controversy in the semi-Arian and Eunomian/Anomean disputes of the fourth century. The latter argued that unoriginateness is central to divinity. Hence, the Son, being originate, cannot be of the same nature as the Father. Some philosophers of religion today echo this same conclusion. In this article, I show, contrary to both ancient and modern critics of the begotten-not-made distinction, that the Eastern fathers offer clear differences between begetting and creating, which clarify why the distinction is cogent and necessary within their metaphysics.

NOTE: The attached PDF is of the author MS, not the journal proofs. However, the author has formatted the MS to ensure that its pagination coincides with the supplied proofs of the published version. The published essay appears in Religious Studies in 2018.

The present work focuses on the saving dimension of incarnation in Gregory of Nazianzus’ writings. After clarifying what mystery means when applied to incarnation, the first part of the article underlines the view of man as a “combination” and synthesis of the earthly element and the spiritual one; this anthropology cannot ignore the Fall of Man. The second part approaches the mystery of Incarnation as a “new combination” of the human and the divine: the elements which mix, the principles which describe this mixture and, finally, the redeeming effect of the Incarnation of the Word.

At what point did Jesus begin to save us? The Cross? The Resurrection? His ministry? Was it the moment Christ became incarnate in the womb of Mary? I will make the case that Jesus' saving work begins in the incarnation and not exclusively in the Easter weekend.

I shall argue that the combination of classical theism and a traditional three-part dyothelite Christology runs afoul of the Two Sons Worry because it cannot offer an account of the hypostatic union. After offering some preliminary remarks, I shall discuss the details of classical theism. Then I shall explain the Two Sons Worry that plagued the traditional three-part dyothelite Christology. After explaining the Two Sons Worry, I shall consider two accounts of the hypostatic union. I shall argue that each account of the hypostatic union fails to avoid the Two Sons Worry.

Brandon Gallaher and Paul Ladouceur, eds. (T&T Clark, 2019).
Publication date: 19 September 2019.
UK site: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-patristic-witness-of-georges-florovsky-9780567540188/
US site: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-patristic-witness-of-georges-florovsky-9780567540188/

This book is a scholarly inquiry into the authenticity of John 1:13 and its theological implications. The research is quite challenging because of the two different readings of the Greek verb "gennao" in various manuscripts, uncials and cursives. The two textual variants are "was born" and "were born". Johannine scholars have no common agreement on this point. Some modern versions of the Bible read it in the singular and some other versions in the plural. Read in the plural, it refers to the Baptismal Birth of Christians. But the singular readings refers to the Virgin Birth of Jesus and implies the theology of Incarnation. Should we read this verse in the singular form (was born) or in the plural form (were born)? This book gets into the intellectual battle between the two opposing groups of scholars. In this detailed and in-depth study, the author takes a position in favour of the singular reading. Then he exegetically analyses it and presents its theological implications. There are three chapters:
1) Textual criticism of John 1.13;
2) Exegetical Analysis of John 1.11-14;
3) Theological Implications of John 1:13 - Christology and Mariology

In traditional African life women have been responsible for the religious needs of families and societies as priestesses; they served in prominent roles of offering prayers, spiritual mediation and obtaining healing ; women were those who often experienced spirit possession and thus
composed sacred songs, hymns, music, rituals and prayers. With the practice of inculturation in the Catholic Church, why are African women not encouraged to embrace the Catholic sacrament of Holy Orders? Being attentive to the Biblical personification of the Holy Spirit as female,
mother and savior raises questions for me on what the interaction of the Holy Spirit with Mary is all about, divinization or possibly incarnation?

This paper explores two different readings of Athanasius on the question of whether Christ possessed a human soul. Aloys Grillmeier (among others) basically said no. Thomas Torrance believed a soul was definitely implied on the basis of Christ's assuming a damaged human nature and sanctifying it. Since all of human nature was damaged, all needed healing (as with Gregory of Nazianzen's "What is not assumed cannot be healed." This paper sides with Torrance's view.

God promised several things about the coming of the Messiah. First, He promised that through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. This means that Jesus had to come from the seed of Abraham, which means that there was a genetic link between Jesus and Abraham. Second, we know that Jesus had to be in the blood line of David in order to have the authority to be king of Israel. God promised to David that one of his descendants would be the ruler of all Israel. If Jesus was not related by blood (that is to say genetically) then He would have no right to sit on David’s throne. Third, in order for Jesus to be our propitiation (substitution) and also High Priest, he had to be one of us, from Adam’s seed. Therefore, the Scriptures declare that the Virgin would conceive and bear a Son. Jesus was connected genetically to His mother Mary as well as to Abraham, David, and Adam.

The paper provides an analysis of the doctrine of redemption in the Presbyterian Church of Australia's Declaratory Statement. It shows how the doctrine of redemption in the Declaratory Statement relates to that doctrine in the Westminster Confession of Faith and in the Christian Scriptures.

Christian theologians have long held that the incarnation and life of Jesus Christ reveal something of the eternal relationships existing within the Godhead between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However, in recent years, many theologians have specifically identified the obedience demonstrated by Jesus Christ as a key factor in understanding these relationships. Karl Barth, the fountainhead of this idea, argued that the humility and obedience of Christ point to a prior capacity for humility and obedience within the Godhead. 1 As Scott Swain and Michael

La thèse principale de cette contribution est qu'Edith Stein, en utilisant le mot 'croix', se réfère au mystère pascal du Christ, donc à la fois à sa mort et à sa résurrection. L'article est structuré en trois parties qui abordent d'abord une typologie des croix humaines à partir de la croix du Christ, ensuite la théologie de la croix en manifestant le lien de la croix du Christ avec tous les autres mystères de la foi, finalement l'anthropologie de la croix avec la question de la participation humaine à la croix du Christ et son importance pour la destinée de la personne humaine dans une vision chrétienne.

Recent defenders of the eternal, functional subordination of the Son have appealed to the trinitarian theology of John Owen in support of their claim that subordination to the Father is a personal property of the Son of God qua Son. In this essay, I examine Owen's account of the Son's obedience within the economy of grace and its implications for Owen's theology of the Trinity. Owen is an interesting figure in these debates, for while sharing many commitments with classical trinitarianism, he rejects traditional arguments that explain the obedience and subordination of the Son simply by reference to his human nature alone. For Owen, the Son's obedience to the Father has its basis and ground in the inner life of God.

However, in order to keep faith with Nicene commitments about the co-equality of the Father and the Son, Owen argues that the subordination of the Son has its basis in a free and contingent divine decision -- namely, in that eternal covenant between the Father and the Son for the salvation of the elect, the Covenant of Redemption (or "pactum salutis"). Through a close reading of Owen's Hebrews Commentary, I show that Owen grounds the subordination of the Son to the Father, and the authority of the Father over the Son, within a free and contingent act of the divine will. Accordingly, the Son's subordination to the Father is depicted as a free act of divine condescension, which is itself both the substance and mystery of God's grace.

When reading through certain areas of Kierkegaard’s writings, there is room to misinterpret his vision of Christianity as being grounded solely in a person’s subjective commitment to her own idea of what Christianity is. In large part, this has contributed to the perception of Kierkegaard as an existentialist who disregards the objective reality of Christianity. In this essay, I contend that Kierkegaard understands the Christian faith as being grounded in a human response to the (mind-independent) reality of the living God who personally involves himself with persons, in history, and does so over against independent or predetermined human ideas of God. To do so, I begin with a close reading of Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in which I focus on the ways that Kierkegaard’s pseudonym, Johannes Climacus, distinguishes Christianity from immanent forms of religiousness. Following a detailed exposition of Climacus’ argument, I then consider, albeit very briefly, two ways in which Kierkegaard employed this position in his own authorship, looking specifically at his understanding of sin-consciousness and repentance.

The Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (No. 12) uses an expression of the patristic and medieval tradition, Verbum Abbreviatum. The expression appears in Isaiah 10:23 and Romans 9:28, and it has received various interpretations throughout history; among them, the identification of Verbum Abbreviatum with Jesus Christ stands out. This paper aims to study this Christological interpretation in depth, highlighting a triple dimension: Begotten Word, Incarnate Word, Confessed Word. The sacrament of the Eucharist gathers together these three aspects: it is humble presence, the body of Christ and a confession of faith; making Jesus Christ present, abbreviated Word, the Eucharist is also Verbum Abbreviatum.