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The Metaphysics of the Incarnation

Online ISBN:
9780191725647
Print ISBN:
9780199583164
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Metaphysics of the Incarnation

Anna Marmodoro (ed.),
Anna Marmodoro
(ed.)
Research Fellow in Philosophy, University of Oxford
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Jonathan Hill (ed.)
Jonathan Hill
(ed.)
Research Assistant in Philosophy, University of Oxford
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Published online:
1 May 2011
Published in print:
6 January 2011
Online ISBN:
9780191725647
Print ISBN:
9780199583164
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

The growth of both philosophy of mind and cognitive science has developed our understanding of the human mind in ways that just a few decades ago were unthinkable. As ideas from philosophy of mind begin to cross over into philosophy of religion, there is renewed interest in questions about the divine mind, about how it might relate to a human body, and about whether incarnation itself might be articulated with the conceptual tools offered by the current research developments in the philosophy of mind. This book offers chapters by leading philosophers of religion representing these new approaches to theological problems such as incarnation. The doctrine of incarnation—that Jesus Christ was God become human—has always been one of the most central and distinctive features of Christianity. Similar doctrines about divine humans can be found in other religions, from the claims to divinity made by ancient kings and emperors to the concept of avatars in Hinduism. But many people regard the notion that a human being could also be divine as unjustifiable or incoherent, and none of the many attempts to articulate it philosophically has earned general acceptance. The chapters explore, from a variety of different viewpoints, whether any metaphysically rigorous and coherent model of incarnation can be defended today.

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