Deep incarnation: From deep history to post-axial religion

Abstract

This article presents in broad outline the theological concept of deep incarnation and brings it into dialogue with correlative ideas of deep history and deep sociality. It will be argued that neither Christology, nor evolution, can be properly understood from a chronocentric perspective. Evolution is not only about development but also about the exploration of ecospace. Likewise, a contemporary Christology should explicate incarnation as a divine assumption of the full ecospace of the material world of creation. It will then be argued that an interactionist view of deep history is preferable to the evolutionary cognitive theory of religion (ECTR). Against this background, the paper will explore Jesus of Nazareth’s role in the context of post-axial mentalities.

Christ, the Praying Animal: A Critical Engagement with Niels Henrik Gregersen and the Christology of Deep Incarnation

“…He writes of Christ's resurrection as 'his reabsorption into the life of God', and seems to understand deep resurrection as the created order similarly being enfolded in the life of God: 'It is exactly the extended body of Christ that is risen from the grave in order to be present as a comprehensive body living for and suffering with all other bodies.' 84 Deep incarnation enables us to ask new questions of our lives together: 'does this interhuman codependence reach beyond our own communities -to those who do not look like us, do not think like us, and do not believe as we believe?' As he reads Paul's description of general resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, 'both incarnation and resurrection are events and processes that (if they are true) are impinging on every moment and epoch in history, and are close to every place in the vast cosmic space.…”

“…79 Deep resurrection, for Gregersen, is ultimately about Christ's presence to and within the cosmos: resurrection is not an act that can be spatiotemporally located, or even partitioned into an age before resurrection and an age afterward. 85 This deep sociality shared by humans, and shared between human and non-human life as well, is present for Gregersen from the beginning of our evolutionary record, constituting 'both the wool and wharf of human societies … The point of Christology is that by conjoining this material world, the Father's eternal Word or Wisdom entered into the matrix of material existence as well as into the field of human social communities.' Before and after.…”

“…As he reads Paul's description of general resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, 'both incarnation and resurrection are events and processes that (if they are true) are impinging on every moment and epoch in history, and are close to every place in the vast cosmic space. 86 Whatever sort of life we lead as part of Christ's resurrected body, it is necessarily and joyfully a communal life healed of the damages inflicted by social injustice and evolutionary processes. Now Yet integral to Gregersen's understanding of creation's new life is an emphasis on 'deep sociality', an incorporation into the body of Christ that itself reflects the sociality of God's triune life as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.…”

“…80 into divine life the inside experience of the world of creation, so that in the end creatures will live and become united in the eternal life of God'. 81 Precisely what this might look like remains an open question.…”

Battle Christologies as a risky act of resistance à la Jesus: A South African perspective

“…6 That an anthropocentric understanding of the world is problematic and, indeed, detrimental from an ecological perspective among others, goes without saying. 6 That an anthropocentric understanding of the world is problematic and, indeed, detrimental from an ecological perspective among others, goes without saying.…”