Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T23:12:37.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tempering the cosmic scope problem in Christian soteriology: hylemorphic animalism and Gregory of Nazianzus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2019

JONATHAN CURTIS RUTLEDGE Open the ORCID record for JONATHAN CURTIS RUTLEDGE [Opens in a new window]
JONATHAN CURTIS RUTLEDGE*
Affiliation:
St. Mary's College, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JU, UK
*
e-mail: jr229@st-andrews.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Christian scripture provides good reason to think that Christ's redemptive work has cosmic scope (cf. Colossians 1:19–20). Explanations of how Christ's work might extend to all creation (including any sufficiently human-like extraterrestrials) have not, however, received significant sustained attention in theology. In this article, I consider two attempts to explain the cosmic scope of redemption, and after identifying shortcomings with each explanation, I offer a philosophical anthropology (hylemorphic animalism), which when combined with a principle of soteriology due to Gregory of Nazianzus provides a full explanation for how Christ's redemptive work might extend to all creation.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 266 - 286
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, R. M. (2007) ‘Idealism vindicated’, in van Inwagen, P. & Zimmerman, D. (eds) Persons: Human and Divine (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 35–54.Google Scholar
Blatti, S. (2016) ‘Animalism’, in Zalta, E. P. (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/animalism/>..>Google Scholar
Bonting, S. L. (2003) ‘Theological implications of possible extraterrestrial life’, Zygon, 38, 587–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockayne, J. (forthcoming) ‘Analytic ecclesiology: the social ontology of the church’, Journal of Analytic Theology.Google Scholar
Cowan, S. B. & Spiegel, J. S. (2016) Idealism and Christian Philosophy: Idealism and Christianity, II (New York NY: Bloomsbury Press).Google Scholar
Craig, W. L. (2018) The Atonement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, O. D. (2008) ‘Multiple incarnations’, in Stone, M. W. F. (ed.) Reason, Faith and History: Philosophical Essays for Paul Helm (Burlington VT: Ashgate), 219–238.Google Scholar
Crisp, O. D. (2014) Deviant Calvinism (Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, O. D. (2016) The Word Enfleshed: Exploring the Person and the Work of Christ (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic).Google Scholar
Farris, J. R. & Hamilton, S. M. (2016) Idealism and Christian Theology: Idealism and Christianity, I (New York NY: Bloomsbury Press).Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. (2015) Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic).Google Scholar
Gregersen, N. H. (2010) ‘Deep Incarnation: why evolutionary continuity matters in Christology’, Toronto Journal of Theology, 26, 173–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, C. E. & James, F. A. III (2004) The Glory of the Atonement: Biblical, Historical and Practical Perspectives (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press).Google Scholar
Hill, D. J. & Jedwab, J. (2015) ‘Atonement and the concept of punishment’, in Crisp, O. D. & Sanders, Fred (eds) Locating Atonement: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan Academic), 139–153.Google Scholar
Jeffery, S., Ovey, M., & Sach, A. (2007) Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (Wheaton IL: InterVarsity Press).Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. L. (2018) Faith and Humility (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
List, C. & Pettit, P. (2011) Group Agency: The Possibility, Design, and Status of Corporate Agents (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loux, M. (2006) Metaphysics, 3rd edn (London: Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFarland, I. (2010) In Adam's Fall: A Meditation on the Christian Doctrine of Original Sin (Oxford: Blackwell).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middleton, J. R. (2005) The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei of Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids MI: Brazos Press).Google Scholar
Middleton, J. R. (2014) A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic).Google Scholar
Moreland, J. P. & Craig, W. L. (2017) Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, 2nd edn (Wheaton IL: InterVarsity Press).Google Scholar
Oderberg, D. (2007) Real Essentialism (London: Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, E. T. (1997) The Human Animal: Personal Identity Without Psychology (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Olson, E. T. (2007) What Are We: A Study in Personal Ontology. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pawl, T. (2016) ‘Thomistic multiple incarnations’, Heythrop Journal, 57, 359–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, T. (2018) ‘One incarnation or many’, in Peters, T. (ed.) Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extra Terrestrial Life (Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock), 271–302.Google Scholar
Rutledge, J. C. (2017) ‘An epistemological corrective for doctrines of assurance’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 9, 163–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strabbing, J. T. (2016) ‘The permissibility of the atonement as penal substitution’, in Kvanvig, J. L. (ed.) Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, VII (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 239–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swinburne, R. (2013) Mind, Brain, and Free Will (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Thornton, A. K. (2016) ‘Varieties of animalism’, Philosophy Compass, 11, 515–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, A. K. (forthcoming) ‘Disembodied animals’, American Philosophical Quarterly.Google Scholar
Tollefsen, D. P. (2015) Groups as Agents (Malden MA: Polity Press).Google Scholar
Toner, P. (2011) ‘Hylemorphic animalism’, Philosophical Studies, 155, 65–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toner, P. (2014) ‘Hylemorphism, remnant persons and personhood’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 44, 76–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Driel, E. C. (2008) Incarnation Anyway: Arguments for Supralapsarian Christology (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (1990) Material Beings (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. (2004) ‘A theory of properties’, in Zimmerman, D. (ed.) Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, I (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 107–138.Google Scholar
Vidu, A. (2014) Atonement, Law, and Justice: The Cross in Historical and Cultural Contexts (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic).Google Scholar