Incarnation Reconsidered


The traditional description of Incarnation is that God became man to redeem us from our sins and in particular, the original sin of Adam. This is such a central theme in the practice of Christianity that St. Thomas was willing to argue that if Adam had not sinned, there would have been no need for the Incarnation. Indeed, most of the whole explanation of Incarnation is carried out in terms of atonement and sacrifice.

The only alternative interpretation of the Incarnation that we have comes from Duns Scotus, a Franciscan theologian contemporary with Thomas. The Scotus view is that the Incarnation has been in the Mind of God from the beginning, even before the creation of the world took place. God’s love for mankind is so strong that Incarnation, the union of God and the human race, is the whole reason for creation. Redemption from the sin of Adam should be seen as a subtext of God’s overwhelming desire for communion with his creation.

When both Thomas and Scotus were theologizing in the late 13th century, it may not have occurred to them to consider the relationship of God to the world we know today. God has continued to reveal Himself to us as we learn how to read His creation according to the laws of science. Thomas and Scotus had no knowledge of the long geologic history that had taken place, in which drifting tectonic plates widened the oceans and raised mountains where they collided. They had little inkling of the processes of evolution that shaped and continue to shape life on our planet. They would never see the planets of our solar system through telescopes, would never see galaxies beyond our own, would never learn that the universe had begun in a flash of light and energy.

Yet God had all that in mind as He began to create the world into which His Son would come. So, we may ask, what is the purpose of the Incarnation? I would like to think that it is this. When God becomes human, then the very nature of humanity has to be changed. Evolution of living creatures from inert matter still produces only material creatures. How are they to be able to form a loving relationship with their Spirit Creator? Only if their Creator imbues them with spirit life, giving them the ability to interact with Him.

In language we all understand, the God Become One of Us has given us our souls. Not just souls as the Greek philosophers imagined, pale shades of living people. We have become like God, unbounded by time and space in our spirits, free to become as much like Jesus as we want to be. The Incarnation is God’s offer to be as available to us as He can be without impinging on our freedom to accept His offer.

Consider the words in the opening of the Gospel of John:

But to all who did receive him, to those who have yielded him their allegiance, he gave the right to become children of God, not born of any human stock, or by the fleshly desire of a human father, but the offspring of God himself.

This new understanding of the Incarnation is not a standard one and will probably cause consternation among many Christians. What are we to make of a vague Adam and his original sin? If the human race has evolved as science informs us, who were the first man and woman? Did they bite a forbidden fruit in some garden and lead to our estrangement from God? Or is it possible to think of original sin in some other way?

Original sin might be interpreted as the limitations of the physical world in which humans have evolved. Matter alone does not beget spirit, though material needs and desires may weigh heavily upon the spirit. How might spirit evolve from human flesh without some intervention from God? In traditional Catholic teaching, evolution of bodies is acceptable, but a divine act is required for the creation of each soul. We look to the Incarnation as the direct intervention by God that brings spirit life to all human beings.

We can now read the book of John and understand the words:

No one comes to the Father except by me.

We can understand what the Good Shepherd means by:

I have come that men may have life, and may have it in all its fulness.

We can now read the book of Revelation and make sense of what has been done for us:

Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,and the sea was no more.
I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.


I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.”
The One who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”

We can even combine the Old and New Testaments in a way that illuminates the ultimate gift of God to us:

When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God and what God was, the Word was. The Word, then was with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be... Then God said, let us make man in our image and likeness... So the Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us....

As a result of Incarnation, every human being has this God-likeness, the spirit life, unbounded by time and space. This elevated status of our being human is not the whole of salvation — what God has done is to give us the capacity for salvation. God does not force Himself on anyone. As human beings, we each now live a spirit life like God’s. How we live it is our own choice. We can live in love with God, or we can live without Him.

God has brought Himself as close as possible to each of us. All that remains is for us to reach out and accept the offer.

Philip Austin Lawless