A Truly Human Incarnation: Recovering a Place for Nativity in Contemporary Christology

Abstract

Theological reflection on the person and saving work of Christ in the past several decades has been concerned primarily with the adult man Jesus, his life-giving ministry, his consequent death on the cross, and the salvation that his life, death, and resurrection offer to sinful human beings and a broken and unjust world. But the liberating good news of divine incarnation does not begin with Jesus’ public ministry as an adult. Rather, it begins with a socially high-risk pregnancy; with a humble, messy, and painful birth; and with the natal body of a squalling, dependent, and vulnerable infant. This article draws on both contemporary feminist scholarship and premodern theological voices to posit that recovering the nativity as a christological symbol brings into focus at least three important theological insights that a predominant emphasis on the adult Jesus marginalizes in christology and the Christian community today: that the natal life taken on in the Incarnation, like all human life, is inherently vulnerable from the start; that the nativity is an overlooked, yet powerful icon of divine redemption; and that contemplating the vulnerability of Christ’s natality can cultivate the practice of peace in a vulnerable and violent world.