Incarnation

This interdisciplinary study follows an international and ecumenical meeting of twenty-four scholars held in New York at Easter 2000: the Incarnation Summit. After an opening chapter, which summarizes and evaluates twelve major questions concerning the Incarnation, five chapters are dedicated to the biblical roots of this central Christian doctrine. A patristic and medieval section corrects misinterpretations and retrieves for today the significance of the Council ofChalcedon (AD 451) and its aftermath, as well as clarifying Aquinas' enduring metaphysical interpretation of the Incarnation. The volume then moves to theological and philosophical debates: three scholars take up such systematic issues as belief in the Incarnation, the self-emptying that itinvolves, and its compatibility with divine timelessness. The remaining four essays consider the place of the doctrine of the Incarnation in literature, ethics, art, and preaching. There is a fruitful dialogue between experts in a wide range of areas and the international reputation of the participants reflects and guarantees the high quality of this joint work. The result is a well researched, skilfully argued, and, at times, provocative volume on the central Christian belief: the Incarnationof the Son of God.

Review from previous edition The first section of this collection contains three remarkable essays which show that dialogue between systematic theologians and biblical scholars is possible and important., much of this book provides some long-over-due demythologising of what have become common places of recent theology. For this alone it deserves a warm welcome ... the final essay by Marguerite Shuster on trinitarian preaching is a superbly original (and often witty) survey of the eyebrow-raising oddities that pass for sermons on the Trinity in an uncomfortably large number of respectable organs of mainstream churches., O'Collins's introduction is a masterly account of the state of the question, offering some judicious remarks on the difficult issue of gener-specific language., David Brown's piece on artistic representations of the Trinity gives a taste of his magisterial book on revelation and imagination ... Plenty to welcome then., a symposium of high quality ... highly stimulating ... often probing current interpretations.

Stephen T. Davis is Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Claremont McKenna College, California.Daniel Kendall, SJ is Professor of Theology, University of San Francisco.Gerald O'Collins, SJ is Professor of Systematic and Fundamental Theology, Gregorian University, Rome.