The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology (2010 Taliaferro, Meister), edited volume

The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology (2010) is a volume edited by Charles Taliaferro and Chad V. Meister.

Abstract

In this edited volume on Christian Philosophical Theology, Richard Cross describes the various ways that theologically minded philosophers have wrestled with and tried to make sense of the putative contradictions implicit in the doctrine of the Incarnation. He begins by providing a working definition of this doctrine. For him, the "Christian doctrine of the Incarnation maintains that the second person of the Trinity became a human being, retaining all attributes necessary for being divine and gaining all attributes necessary for being human" (452). Yet this definition, as several others have previously pointed out, contains a number of puzzling paradoxes. How is it, for instance, that "one and the same thing could be both divine (and thus, on the face of it, necessary, and necessarily omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, immutable, impassible, and impeccable) and human (and thus, on the face of it, have the complements of all these properties)" (453). Cross then examines five primary ways that contemporary philosophers have dealt with these challenges, by exploring: 1) Reduplication and Adverbial Modifiers, 2) Relative Identity Solutions, 3) Parts and Properties, 4) Restriction Solutions, and 5) Two-Minds Solutions. Cross finds the final suggestion the most plausible, namely that in Christ the divine person includes two 'minds' or two 'systems of belief, since it provides the beginnings of a solution to incarnational paradoxes while remaining firmly within orthodox belief. In many ways, as Cross notes, these recent philosophical attempts mirror the arguments made at the Third Council of Constantinople (680-681 CE), the ecumenical council that clarified that Christ as two energies, two wills, and two modes of acting-- both human and divine. ~Deborah Forger

Editions and translations

Published in

Contents

• Trinity / Ronald J. Feenstra
• Necessity / Brian Leftow
• Simplicity / Brian Davies
• Omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence / William J. Wainwright
• Goodness / John E. Hare
• Eternity and providence / William Hasker
• Incarnation / Katherin A. Rogers
• Resurrection / Stephen T. Davis
• Atonement / Gordon Graham
• Sin and Salvation / Paul K. Moser
• The Problem of Evil / Chad Meister
• Church / William J. Abraham
• Religious Rites / Charles Taliaferro
• Revelation and Miracles / Thomas D. Sullivan, Sandra Menssen
• Prayer / Harriet Harris
• Heaven and Hell / Jerry L. Walls

External links

• [ Google Books]