Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T05:42:30.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Brian Hebblethwaite's arguments against multiple incarnations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2015

TIMOTHY PAWL*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of St. Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota, 55105, USA e-mail: timpawl@stthomas.edu

Abstract

In this article I present two arguments from Brian Hebblethwaite for the conclusion that multiple incarnations are impossible, as well as the analyses of those arguments provided by three other thinkers: Oliver Crisp, Peter Kevern, and Robin Le Poidevin. I argue that both of Hebblethwaite's arguments are unsound.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Marilyn Mccord (1985) ‘The metaphysics of the Incarnation in Some fourteenth-century Franciscans’, in Frank, William A. & Etzkorn, Girard J. (eds) Essays Honoring Allan B. Wolter (St Bonaventure NY: Franciscan Institute), 2157.Google Scholar
Adams, Marilyn Mccord (2009) ‘Christ as God-Man, metaphysically construed’, in Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 239263.Google Scholar
Adams, Marilyn McCord & Cross, Richard (2005) ‘What's metaphysically special about supposits? Some medieval variations on Aristotelian substance’, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 79 (1), 1552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arendzen, J. P. (1941) Whom Do You Say? A Study in the Doctrine of the Incarnation (New York: Sheed & Ward).Google Scholar
Baker, Kenneth (2013) Jesus Christ – True God and True Man: A Handbook on Christology for Non-Theologians (South Bend IN: Saint Augustine's Press).Google Scholar
Bonting, Sjoerd L. (2003) ‘Theological implications of possible extraterrestrial life’, Zygon, 38, 587602. doi:10.1111/1467–9744.00523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brazier, Paul (2013) ‘C. S. Lewis: the question of multiple incarnations’, The Heythrop Journal, 391408. doi:10.1111/heyj.12049.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2006) ‘Flint's radical Molinist Christology not radical enough’, Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers, 23, 5564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, Oliver D. (2008) ‘Multiple incarnations’, Reason, Faith and History: Philosophical Essays for Paul Helm (Burlington VT: Ashgate), 219–38.Google Scholar
Crisp, Oliver D. (2009) God Incarnate: Explorations in Christology. 1st edn (London & New York: T&T Clark).Google Scholar
Cross, Richard (2005) The Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Davies, Paul (2003) ‘ET and God’, The Atlantic Monthly, 292, 112118.Google Scholar
Fisher, Christopher L. & David, Fergusson (2006) ‘Karl Rahner and the extra-terrestrial intelligence question’, The Heythrop Journal, 47, 275290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, Thomas P. (2001) ‘The possibilities of incarnation: some radical Molinist suggestions’, Religious Studies, 37, 307320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flint, Thomas P. (2012) ‘Molinism and Incarnation’, in Perszyk, Ken (ed.) Molinism: The Contemporary Debate (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 187207.Google Scholar
Freddoso, Alfred (1983) ‘Logic, ontology and Ockham's Christology’, The New Scholasticism, 57, 293330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freddoso, Alfred (1986) ‘Human nature, potency and the Incarnation’, Faith and Philosophy, 3, 2753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, Marie I. (2001) ‘Aquinas on intelligent extra-terrestrial life’, The Thomist, 65, 239258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gondreau, Paul (2009) ‘St. Thomas Aquinas, the communication of idioms, and the suffering of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane’, in Keating, James F. & White, Thomas Joseph O. P. (eds) Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of Human Suffering (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans), 214245.Google Scholar
Hebblethwaite, Brian (2001) ‘The impossibility of multiple incarnations’, Theology, 104, 323334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hebblethwaite, Brian (2008) Philosophical Theology and Christian Doctrine (Malden MA: Wiley).Google Scholar
Kereszty, Roch A. (2002) Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology, 3rd edn (Staten Island NY: Alba House).Google Scholar
Kevern, Peter (2002) ‘Limping principles: a reply to Brian Hebblethwaite on “The Impossibility of Multiple Incarnations” ’, Theology, 105, 342347. doi:10.1177/0040571X0210500503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leftow, Brian (2004) ‘A timeless God Incarnate’, in Davis, Stephen T., Kendall, Daniel, & O'Collins, Gerald (eds) The Incarnation (New York: Oxford University Press), 273299.Google Scholar
Le Poidevin, Robin (2009) ‘Identity and the composite Christ: an incarnational dilemma’, Religious Studies, 45, 167186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Poidevin, Robin (2011) ‘Multiple incarnations and distributed persons’, in Marmodoro, Anna & Hill, Jonathan (eds) The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 228241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mascall, Eric Lionel (1965) Christian Theology and Natural Science: Some Questions in Their Relations (Hamden CT: Archon Books).Google Scholar
Morris, Thomas V. (1987) The Logic of God Incarnate (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
O'Collins, Gerald (2002) ‘The Incarnation: the critical issues’, in Davis, Stephen T., Kendall, Daniel, & O'Collins, Gerald (eds) The Incarnation (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 130.Google Scholar
Pawl, Timothy (2014) ‘Thomistic multiple incarnations’, The Heythrop Journal. doi:10.1111/heyj.12230.Google Scholar
Pohle, Joseph (1913) Christology: A Dogmatic Treatise on the Incarnation (St Louis MO: B. Herder Book Co.).Google Scholar
Relton, Herbert (1917) A Study in Christology (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge).Google Scholar
Schmaus, Michael (1971) Dogma 3: God and His Christ (Mission KS: Sheed & Ward).Google Scholar
Stump, Eleonore (2004) ‘Aquinas's metaphysics of the Incarnation’, in Davis, Stephen T., Kendall, Daniel, & O'Collins, Gerald (eds) The Incarnation (New York: Oxford University Press), 197218.Google Scholar
Sturch, Richard (1991) The Word and the Christ: An Essay in Analytic Christology (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, Norman P. (1990) Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press).Google Scholar
Ward, Keith (1998) God, Faith, and the New Millennium: Christian Belief in an Age of Science (Oxford: Oneworld).Google Scholar