DESCRIPTION: This is a 6-unit seminar designed for PhD and ThM students in the CATS program, also offered at the 500-level as a 4-unit course open to five MDiv/MA students by written permission. It is a critical examination of some of the central themes in contemporary philosophical-theological accounts of Christology, with an emphasis on articulating and defending a constructive theological understanding of the person of Christ.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Christology is one of the central and defining dogmas of Christianity. It is therefore of fundamental importance that the formation of any Christian theologian provide an opportunity for sustained reflection upon this topic.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students completing this course will have demonstrated their ability to (1) identify key methodological choices and agendas in Christology; (2) analyze critically and assess the contribution of analytic philosophers and theologians to central aspects of Christology; (3) offer a reasoned response to various proposals offered by these philosophical theologians in light of tradition and current intellectual milieu; and (4) begin to formulate their own approach to doing systematic/constructive Christology.

COURSE FORMAT: The seminar will meet weekly for three-hour sessions. Appointed members will introduce the week's readings by giving a critical analysis with comment. All members are expected to study beforehand the required readings for the week, and take part in the discussion.

REQUIRED READING:

Adams, Marilyn McCord. Christ and Horrors. Cambridge University Press, 2006. xii + 331 pp.

Crisp, Oliver D. Divinity and Humanity: The Incarnation Reconsidered. Cambridge University Press, 2007. xiv + 187 pp.

_____. God Incarnate: Explorations in Christology. T&T Clark, 2009. 192 pp.

Macleod, Donald. The Person of Christ. InterVarsity Press, 1997. 303 pp.

Morris, Thomas V. The Logic of God Incarnate. Wipf & Stock 2001 [1986]. 220 pp.

NB: In addition to this, a course-pack of weekly seminar readings will be made available to registered students via Moodle at the beginning of the course. This will contain at least 4 additional chapter-length required readings each week drawn from a variety of sources including historic theological works as well as contemporary articles, essays, and chapters. Here is an indicative sample of such material from the final week of the course:

Topic 10: Multiple Incarnations

Aquinas, St. Thomas. Summa Theologiae IIIa. Q. 3.

Fisher, Christopher L., and David Fergusson. "Karl Rahner and the Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Question." Heythrop Journal 47 (2006): 275-90.

Freddoso, Alfred J. "Human Nature, Potency and the Incarnation." Faith and Philosophy 3.1 (1986): 26-53.

Hebblethwaite, Brian. "The Impossibility of Multiple Incarnations." Theology 104 (2001): 323-34.

Le Poidevin, Robin. "Multiple Incarnations and Distributed Persons." In Marmadoro and Hill (2011), pp. 228-41.

Adams, Marilyn McCord. What Sort of Human Nature? The Aquinas Lecture, 1999. Marquette University Press, 1999.

Anderson, James. Paradox in Christian Theology: An Analysis of its Presence, Character, and Epistemic Status. Paternoster /Wipf & Stock, 2007. Chs. 1, 3-8.

Brown, David. The Divine Trinity. Duckworth, 1985.

Chr van Driel, Edwin. Incarnation Anyway: Arguments for Supralapsarian Christology. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Crisp, Oliver D. An American Augustinian: Sin and Salvation in the Dogmatic Theology of William G. T. Shedd. Paternoster/Wipf & Stock, 2007.

_____, ed. A Reader in Philosophical Theology. T&T Clark, 2009. Part II.

_____. Retrieving Doctrine: Essays in Reformed Theology. IVP Academic, 2011.

_____. Revisioning Christology: Theology in the Reformed Tradition. Ashgate, 2011.

Cross, Richard. The Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Davis, Stephen T. Christian Philosophical Theology. Oxford University Press, 2006. Chs. 5-10.

_____, Daniel Kendall, and Gerald O'Collins, eds. The Incarnation. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Evans, C. Stephen. The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith: The Incarnational Narrative as History. Oxford University Press, 1996.

_____, ed. Exploring Kenotic Christology: The Self-Emptying of God. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Hebblethwaite, Brian. The Incarnation: Collected Essays in Christology. Cambridge University Press, 1987.

_____. Philosophical Theology and Christian Doctrine. Blackwell, 2005.

Hick, John. The Metaphor of God Incarnate. Westminster John Knox, 1993.

_____, ed. The Myth of God Incarnate. SCM Press, 1977.

Marmodoro, Anna, and Jonathan Hill, eds. The Metaphysics of the Incarnation. Oxford University Press, 2011.

McKinley, John E. Tempted For Us: Theological Models and the Practical Relevance of Christ's Impeccability and Temptations. Paternoster/Wipf & Stock, 2009.

O'Collins, Gerald. Christology. 2d ed. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Rea, Michael C., ed. Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology, Vol. I: Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement. Oxford University Press, 2009. Chs. 7-12.

Spence, Alan. Christology: A Guide for the Perplexed. T&T Clark, 2009.

Sturch, Richard The Word and the Christ: An Essay in Analytic Christology. Oxford University Press, 1991.

Swinburne, Richard. The Christian God. Oxford University Press, 1994. Chs. 9-10.

_____. The Resurrection of God Incarnate. Oxford University Press, 2003. Chs.1-6, 13.

Tanner, Kathryn. Christ the Key. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Van Inwagen, Peter. "Incarnation and Christology." In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge, 1998.