Category:Incarnation (subject)

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Incarnation is the Christian belief that the divine Logos became man ("flesh") in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Overview

The Incarnation of the Christ is one of the central Christian doctrines. Although there are different understandings, the Incarnation can be described as the process through which the divine Logos (Jesus) was believed to have become flesh.

The incarnation was defined as a dogma only after long struggles within the early church. The Council of Nicaea (325) defined the divinity of the Christ (Jesus) against Arianism; the Council of Constantinople (381) defined the full humanity of the incarnate Christ against Apollinarianism; the Council of Ephesus (431) defined the unity of the Christ's person against Nestorianism; and the Council of Chalcedon (451) defined the two natures of the Christ, divine and human, against Eutyches.

While the doctrine of incarnation is still at the center of contemporary Christian theological debate, since the mid-nineteenth century scholars (Baur, Harnack, Ottley) have begun tracing its historical development, from its origins to the present.

Once assumed to be a common doctrine in the entire New Testament (and a doctrine that Christians saw theologically announced already in the Old Testament), the doctrine of incarnation (and of the divinity of the Christ) first explicitly appeared only in the Gospel of John and subsequent literature. Its presence in the earliest Christian writings (including Paul and the Synoptics) is now disputed.

Major Theological Treatises on the Incarnation of the Christ

• De Carne Christi (around 210), by Tertullian

• De incarnatione Verbi Dei (4th cent.), by Athanasius of Alexandria

• De trinitatis erroribus (1531), by Michael Servetus.

• Immanuel; or, The mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God (1645), by James Ussher.

• The Incarnation: Collected Essays in Christology (1987), by Brian Hebblethwaite.
  • A collection of essays defending the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation against its modern critics.

• Divinity and Humanity (2007), by Oliver Crisp.
  • "The doctrine of the Incarnation lies at the heart of Christianity. But the idea that 'God was in Christ' has become a much-debated topic in modern theology. Oliver Crisp addresses six key issues in the Incarnation defending a robust version of the doctrine, in keeping with classical Christology. He explores perichoresis, or interpenetration, with reference to both the Incarnation and Trinity. Over two chapters Crisp deals with the human nature of Christ and then provides an argument against the view, common amongst some contemporary theologians, that Christ had a fallen human nature. He considers the notion of divine kenosis or self-emptying, and discusses non-Incarnational Christology, focusing on the work of John Hick. This view denies Christ is God Incarnate, regarding him as primarily a moral exemplar to be imitated. Crisp rejects this alternative account of the nature of Christology."--Publisher's description.

External links

• Wikipedia
• BELIEVE Religious Information Source web-site