Divine Becoming: Rethinking Jesus and Incarnation

by Charlene P. E. Burns

Overview

The universally human element of Jesus' incarnationDespite the feverish pace of publishing in historical Jesus studies, biblical scholars and theologians have not notably progressed in addressing the meaning and significance of the figure of Jesus in ways credible for contemporary persons.

In this creative and insightful work, Burns seeks to understand the significance of Jesus and his incarnation through the category of participation. The central theological claims in the traditional concept of incarnation are anchored and illumined by Jesus' particular ability for empathy, sympathy, attunement, and entrainment. This notion, derived from the psychological research of Daniel Stern, allows Burns to show that incarnation the capacity to participate in the life of others is present not only in Jesus but to some extent in all people and in all religions. It further illumines features of God's trinitarian life and our lifelong journey into God (deification).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800632786
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	11/07/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Charlene P. E. Burnsis professor and Chair,department of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She is the authorof More Moral Than God:Taking Responsibility for Religious Violence(2008) and Divine Becoming: Rethinking Jesus and Incarnation(Fortress Press, 2001), andthe editor ofMis/Representing Evil: Evil in an Interdisciplinary Key(2009).

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Was Jesus God?

Jesus and Incarnation

The Capacity for Incarnation

A Road Map

Integrating Theology and Culture

2. The Question of Incarnation

The Many Incarnations of God

Incarnation in a Christian Key

3. A Short History of Christology

From Nazareth to Chalcedon

Deification, Incarnation, and the Energies of God

Western Revisions of the Chalcedonian Paradigm

Conclusion

4. The Empathic, Relational God

A Mutable God

God's Fellowship with Humanity

5. The Empathic, Relational Human

Developmental Psychology and Selves in Infancy

Cosmic Sympatheia: Entrainment and Altruism in Nature

Drawing Near to a Theological Anthropology

6. The Incarnation as Participation

Jesus the Man: Fully Human

Jesus as Symbol: Fully Divine

The Incarnate God

Jesus as Christ: Fully Human and Fully Divine

7. Participation in Good and Evil

Creating Compassionate Community

Learned Compassion in Buddhism

Sin and Evil in Participatory Creation

Notes

Index