The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation

by Ian A. McFarland

Publisher:

Westminster John Knox

, 2019

Overview

Most theologians believe that in the human life of Jesus of Nazareth, we encounter God. Yet how the divine and human come together in the life of Jesus still remains a question needing exploring. The Council of Chalcedon sought to answer the question by speaking of “one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in divinity and also perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly a human being.” But ever since Chalcedon, the theological conversation on Christology has implicitly put Christ’s divinity and humanity in competition.

While ancient (and not-so-ancient) Christologies “from above” focus on Christ’s divinity at the expense of his humanity, modern Christologies “from below” subsume his divinity into his humanity. What is needed, says Ian A. McFarland, is a “Chalcedonianism without reserve,” which not only affirms the humanity and divinity of Christ but also treats them as equal in theological significance. To do so, he draws on the ancient christological language that points to Christ’s nature, on the one hand, and his hypostasis, or personhood, on the other. And with this, McFarland begins one of the most creative and groundbreaking theological explorations into the mystery of the incarnation undertaken in recent memory.

Key Features

• Explores the significance of the humanity and divinity of Christ
• Examines the confession from the Council of Chalcedon
• Surveys the Orthodox, Catholic, and Reformation Christological traditions

Contents

Part 1. The Great Divide

• The Life of the Creator
• The Being of Creature

Part 2. The Bridge

• “One and the Same”
• “Perfect in Divinity”
• “And Also Perfect in Humanity”

Part 3. The Crossing

• Christus Victor
• Jesus’ Presence Now

Top Highlights

“In short, God becomes incarnate because God wishes to share the divine life with us, so that the incarnation is part of God’s plan for creation independently of human sin.” (Page 10)

“If Christians expect salvation from Jesus, then they cannot regard him as any less than God.” (Page 1)

“Gregory of Nazianzus would put it in the fourth century, ‘that which he has not assumed he has not healed; but that which is united to his Godhead is also saved.” (Page 2)

“Jesus in explicitly human terms as someone who walked, talked, hungered, slept, wept, and so forth. Interestingly, these very ordinary human characteristics came to be seen as having soteriological implications of their own, as evident in Paul’s judgment that ‘since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being’” (Page 2)

“the Word ‘was made a human being that we might be made God.’^{19” (Page 10)}

Endorsements

How to regard Christ Jesus as the God who saves? In this fine study, Ian McFarland offers a contemporary answer to this question by way of learned and hugely instructive pursuit of what he styles a ‘Chalcedonianism without reserve’. Refusing to cleave thinking about Christian from thinking about salvation and anchoring the doctrine of the person of Christ in a trinitarian account of creation, McFarland’s vibrant dogmatic argument for the continued viability of theological thinking in Chalcedonian tradition is a compelling and much needed intervention in contemporary Christological debates.

—Rev. Professor Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen

Ian McFarland’s The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation proposes “a Chalcedonianism without reserve” that develops the best of Orthodox, Catholic, and Reformation christological traditions in lively conversation with contemporary biblical scholars and theologians (as well as philosophers and natural scientists). McFarland’s book is a clear-headed, imaginatively written, bold rethinking of how Jesus Christ informs and upholds a clear distinction between Creator and creature, as one hypostasis in two natures whose resurrection, ascension, and return are less further episodes in Jesus’ humanity than God’s complete vindication of this crucified Lord—a humanity glimpsed in Scripture, baptism, and Eucharist, and most comprehensively our embodied logoi (as Maximus the Confessor puts it) participating in God’s logos become flesh. This is, in short, a veritable theological summa that will be central in future conversations and arguments about the Word made flesh.

—James J. Buckley, Professor Emeritus, Loyola University Maryland

McFarland’s theology has a rare combination of pellucidity and breathless excitement. Here, he makes a bold case for a Chalcedonian Christology that resolves key modern objections in a strong reading of the divine enhypostasis in the human person of Jesus. In this endeavor, he thinks alongside the whole arc of Christian thought, and challenges us to think alongside him.

—Judith Wolfe, Professor of Philosophical Theology, School of Divinity, St Mary's College, University of St Andrews

Product Details

• Title: The Word Made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation
• Author: Ian A. McFarland
• Edition: First edition
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox
• Print Publication Date: 2019
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Person and offices; Jesus Christ › History of doctrines; Incarnation › History of doctrines
• ISBNs: 9781611649574, 9780664262976, 1611649579, 066426297X
• Resource ID: LLS:WRDMDFLTHNCRNTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-09T22:47:30Z

About Ian A. McFarland

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