Incarnation (Christianity)

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Christ en majesté, Matthias Grünewald, 16th c.: Resurrection of Jesus

The doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ is the belief that the second person in the Christian Godhead, also known as the Son or the Logos (Word), "became flesh" when he was miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In the Incarnation, the divine nature of the Son was united with human nature in one divine Person Jesus Christ, who was both "truly God and truly man". The incarnation is commemorated and celebrated each year at the Feast of the Incarnation, also known as Annunciation.

The doctrine is central to the traditional Christian faith as held by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and most Protestants.

[edit] Importance of the doctrine

In the early Christian era there was considerable disagreement regarding the nature of Christ's Incarnation. Christians believed that he was the Son of God. The exact nature of his Sonship, however, was contested.

Eventually, the doctrine of Christ being fully God and fully Man simultaneously was defined as doctrine by the Catholic Church, and all competing beliefs were labelled heresies. The most well known of these are Docetism, which stated that Jesus was a divine being that took on human appearance but not flesh, Arianism which held that Christ was a created being, similar in concept to an angel,^{[dubious – discuss]} and Nestorianism, which held that the Son of God, and the man, Jesus, shared the same body but retained two separate natures.

The most widely-accepted definitions of the Incarnation and the nature of Jesus were made by the early Catholic Church at the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Council of Chalcedon in 451, & the First Council of Nicaea in 325. These councils declared that Jesus was both fully God, begotten from, but not created by the Father; and fully man, taking His flesh and human nature from the Virgin Mary. These two natures, human and divine, were hypostatically united into the one personhood of Jesus Christ.

The significance of the Incarnation has been extensively written-upon throughout Christian history, and is the subject of countless hymns and prayers. For instance, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, as used by Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics, includes the "Hymn to the Only Begotten Son":

O only begotten Son and Word of God,

Who, being immortal,

deigned for our salvation

to become incarnate

of the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary,

and became man without change;

You were also crucified,

O Christ our God,

and by death have trampled Death,

being One of the Holy Trinity,

glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit—

Save us!

The Athanasian Creed contains what may be considered a comprehensive definition of the Incarnation.

[edit] Fortuitous and Necessary Incarnation

The link between the Incarnation and the Atonement within systematic theological thought is complex. Within traditional models of Atonement, such as Substitution, Satisfaction or Christus Victor, it is essential that Christ be Divine in order for the Sacrifice of the Cross to be efficious, for our sins to be 'removed' and/or 'conquered'. In his work "The Trinity and the Kingdom of God", Jurgen Moltmann differentiated between what he called a 'fortutious' and 'necessary' Incarnation. The latter speaks of the sole aim of the Incarnation as having a soteriological emphasis - that the Son of God became incarnate 'so that' He could save us from our sins. The former speaks of the Incarnation as a fulfilment of the love of God, and His desire to be present and living amidst us, to 'walk in the garden' with us. Moltmann favours 'fortuitous' incarnation primarily because to speak of an incarnation of necessity is to do an injustice to the life of Christ.

Moltmann's work, along side other systematic theologians, opens up avenues of liberation Christology, and the incarnation remains central to Christianity.