The Incarnation is best understood “…more fundamentally as an act of love, an expression of God’s own nature. Even had there been no fall, God in his own limitless, outgoing love would still have chosen to identify himself with his creation by becoming human.” – Kallistos Ware
I wanted to reflect a little more fully on this quote. There’s only so much one can do in a Sunday morning message!
Though it may not necessarily seem like it on the surface, this is a profound, and earth-shattering idea for many in the Western Church. The idea that absent the Fall, the Incarnation would have still happened. The West, meaning churches that trace their roots to the Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic Church, has been historically dominated by the theological thought of Bishop Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430). Augustine underwent a dramatic conversion experience under the tutelage of another famous early Christian thinker and Bishop, Ambrose. Augustine became a prolific writer and influenced much of what was to follow in Christian thought. While there is much to be commended in Augustine’s work, a lingering problem is his commitment to philosophical dualism, which he inherited through his pre-Christian education in Neo-Platonism. The reality is that these issues of philosophical divergence from the Biblical text are almost always a problem of the disciples of a certain thinker, in this case, how Augustine’s thought was incorporated into the dogma of the Western Church and especially the use of his thinking by later theologians of the Protestant Reformation.
Dualism is the prevalent worldview in the Western World today. Dualism teaches there are two opposing forces in the universe, good and evil. In general, dualists believe that the human body is tainted by evil, but there is a pure human soul that is good. “Christian” dualism, informed by Augustine, teaches the meaning of Christmas is the fact that Jesus came to set us free from the contamination of evil, namely it’s expression in personal sin, and allow the pure soul to experience the Good God.
Eastern thought has a different slant. Eastern theologians approach the study of humanity (anthropology) from more of a Biblical, non-dualistic angle. Jesus’ mission is about making people holy from the perspective of helping them discover and live out their true identity, created persons who are dependent on the love of God. Sin is seen, not so much as breaking rules, as denying relationship with God and the need for God. Even without the entrance of sin in the world, out of his desire for relationship, God would still send his Son in order to extend the communion of the Trinity to all of creation. God’s mission is a mission of engaging in love.
I have to admit, there’s a lot of my dissertation topic in this. As a matter of fact, as I write this I am sitting in Starbucks getting ready to write the theological section. I finished the Biblical last week, at least the first draft, and now I am getting ready to delve head first into a bunch of theologians arguing for the unique personhood of the human being based on the personhood of each member of the Holy Trinity. Sound like fun? In my twisted world, it is!
Comments