Deep Incarnation Research Articles

Cur deus caro: Jesus and the Cosmos Story

There seems to be a vast gulf between the grand-scale story of the world of creation, cosmic in scope and pitiless in its operations, and the small-scale story of Jesus as embodying divine empathy. The concept of deep incarnation offers a bridge by arguing that God's own Logos or Wisdom, when assuming the particular life story of Jesus, also conjoins the material conditions of God's world of creation at large (“all flesh”), shares the fate of all biological life forms (“grass and lilies”), and experiences the pains of all sentient creatures (“sparrows and foxes”). Incarnation is thus the story of God's reach into the very tissue of material and biological existence. In the embodied Logos, the “flesh” of Jesus Christ is co-extensive with his divinity. Otherwise, the incarnation would be skin deep, confined to a historical figure of the past, or merely an external appendix to divine life.

The Twofold Assumption: A Response to Cole-Turner, Moritz, Peters and Peterson

The article discusses points and perspectives offered by the four respondents to the R.J. Russell Fellow Lectures for 2013/14. Joshua M. Moritz and Ron Cole-Turner bring in new material from biblical and patristic traditions relevant for the proposal of deep incarnation. How does the concept of deep incarnation fare in relation to tradition and science? Ted Peters and Daniel J. Peterson raise questions about the compatibility between a compatibilist view of divine action and creaturely freedom on the one hand, and ideas of kenosis on the other. Which models of kenosis models are workable, and which forms of compatibilism?

Incarnation Deep and Wide: A Response to Niels Gregersen

This paper responds to Professor Niels Gregersen's theology of deep incarnation by doing three things. Section 1 summarizes and defines the idea of deep incarnation, with particular reference to what is intended by the key adjective “deep.” Section 2 engages Gregersen's proposal critically in relation to traditional options within the Christian doctrine of the incarnation. If Gregersen's language of “incarnation” is to be taken seriously as a proposal that is grounded in but goes beyond traditional ideas, its best chance for success lies in being as clear as possible about relationship with its traditional sources. Finally, Section 3 offers a few suggestions concerning the promise of deep incarnation for contemporary theology, especially for theology informed in part by serious engagement with the natural sciences.

HOLY SPIRIT, IMAGINATION AND THE QUEST FOR BEAUTY: TOWARDS A TRINITARIAN GRAND NARRATIVE

Human beings have long raised questions about the origin, nature, meaning and, more recently, the destiny of our multi-levelled universe. These lie at the heart of a new-style natural theology that is emerging from contemporary science-and-theology discourse – a project that proceeds from the assumption that the universe is created and sustained by an omnipotent and all-loving God. On the scientific side this involves twenty-first century accounts of cosmic, biological and human evolution, and on the theological side we may look to the patristic view of Son and Holy Spirit as ‘the two hands of God in creation’ – a phrase that can be elaborated in terms of Niels Henrik Gregersen’s proposal of the ‘deep incarnation’ of the Logos of God and John Vernon Taylor’s description of the Spirit as the ‘Go-Between God’. Here we discuss the Spirit as ever at work to beautify and perfect the creation and, in particular, to inspire creative and moral imagination in human minds. These ideas can be expressed in the form of a widely embracing grand narrative of the universe which could help inspire and facilitate the engagement of theologians and Christian communities with interfaith, ecological and nation-building issues.

Deep Incarnation and Kenosis: In, With, Under, and As: A Response to Ted Peters

AbstractIn this response to Ted Peters, I relate the proposal of deep incarnation to Luther's theology of the real presence of the humanity of Christ in creation. Based on a typology of four distinctive models of kenosis, I furthermore argue that a kenotic view of incarnation and divine creativity does not necessarily imply a divine absence and withdrawal from creation, as presupposed by Professor Peters. Deep incarnation is consistent with a compatibilist view of kenosis, but not with ideas of divine abdication, or metamorphosis. Finally I situate the view of deep incarnation to Scandinavian creation theology and to research programs at the Centre for Naturalism and Christian Semantics, Copenhagen University.

Happy Danes and Deep Incarnation

AbstractThe new Copenhagen School of Deep Incarnation posits that, in Jesus Christ, God has become incarnate and therefore present “in, with, and under” all physical and biological processes. This claim raises the issue of “compatibilism,” according to which divine action and creaturely action are compatible, and “incompatibilism,” according to which divine action must be absent to allow for free creaturely action. Niels Henrik Gregersen, representing the Copenhagen School, affirms both compatibilism at the quantum level of physical activity and incompatibilism at the level of nature's self‐organization. This article points out the incoherence of this position along with the positions proffered by process theologians and kenotic theologians.

Joining in the Dance: Catholic Social Teaching and Ecology

AbstractThis paper charts the emergence of environmental themes in Roman Catholic Social Teaching (CST). I argue that not only has this strand not been adequately acknowledged, but also that the theological basis for these ideas are rooted in core Roman Catholic teachings on creation, Christology and anthropology. In other words, concern for environmental issues is not an optional extra for Christian practice, but expresses in a fundamental way deep incarnation and human image-bearing as responsible stewardship. I argue that a particular concern with issues of social justice shapes the way environmental problems are addressed, so terms such as human ecology, ecological conversion, solidarity, the common good and world peace all take up ecological threads that are then woven into the account. While Pope John Paul II arguably laid the foundation for the theological bases for these ideas, Pope Benedict XVI applies these ideas more explicitly to current concerns. Yet while the former gave witness to the power of contemplation of the natural world, the latter is more concerned with distortions in philosophical reasoning in the Western world, including dangers he perceived in naturalism and pantheism. Both pontiffs show a lack of specific understanding of ecological systems and tend to idealise both nature in terms of harmonious relationships and humans in terms of mastery.

Post-Foundationalism and Human Uniqueness: A Reply to Responses

Abstract: J. Wentzel van Huyssteen responds to eight essays that are related either by methodological or content considerations to his post-foundationalist approach to transversal rationality. The essay underscores the fact that human rationality is a shared resource for dialogues between theology and the sciences and that at the heart of Christian theology are multi-layered concerns that allow also for contextuality and thus eschew abstract or over-generalized approaches in its interdisciplinary discourses. The response is appreciative yet discerning enough to clarify a number of points, including his understanding of epistemic status and cognitive parity and issues of revelation, creation, imago Dei, deep incarnation, Logos Christology, human uniqueness, and sexuality.

Post-Foundationalism and Human Uniqueness: A Reply to Responses

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Deep Incarnation: Why Evolutionary Continuity Matters in Christology

Abstract: This article presents the idea of deep incarnation in outline. In dialogue with Wentzel van Huyssteen's interpretation of imago Dei and Christology on the one hand and with Arne Næss's notion of deep ecology on the other hand, it is claimed that evolutionary continuity is as important for Christology as is the evolutionary distinctiveness of the human species. Without a strong continuity between the historical figure of Jesus and the cosmos at large, we end up in a culturally confined Christology. But without referring to the unique human identity of Jesus Christ, we would speak of a Logos principle thinly spread over the universe rather than of Jesus Christ as the living divine bond in and between everything that exists. Incarnation is “deep” both in contradistinction to a purely anthropocentric Christology and as opposed to more shallow proposals of a universalist Christology.