Book Review: Metaphysics and Christology in the Seventeenth Century
Ministry Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches and currently serves as the chairman of the Affinity Council.
Book Review: Richard Cross, Metaphysics and Christology in the Seventeenth Century.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. 311pp.
What do we mean when we say that God the Son assumed human nature? In evangelical circles we may be familiar with this kind of language, but we often seem to be unaware of the theological issues below the surface, let alone the deep historical disputes raised by them.
How did this hypostatic union come to be? Is Christ’s humanity a particular or universal human nature – and how do we avoid Nestorianism if Christ’s humanity consisted of a human body and a human soul? How is there not also then a human person? How are we to understand the hypostatic union? In what way was the human nature assumed? Was the human nature joined to the divine nature as one Lego brick is joined to another, or was a third thing required for the union as when two pieces of cloth are sewn together with thread?
These questions, particularly the mechanics of the hypostatic union, are the theological focus of the third instalment of Richard Cross’ multi-volume project on the history of the metaphysics of Christology. The first was The Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus, and the second was Communicatio Idiomatum: Reformaion Christological Debates. The historical focus of the project is the question of Lutheran departures from Catholic and Reformed Chalcedonian Christologies, and therefore, much of the work consists of surveying various key theologians from these traditions.
The book developed from Cross’ desire to examine the thesis that later Lutheran theology employed a homo assumptus (assumed man) Christology in contrast to the Classical Chalcedonian position. The thesis is comprehensively confirmed by Cross as he surveys a galaxy of Roman Catholic and Reformed theologians concerning their overlapping theological positions.
Cross argues that, according to the Creed of Chalcedon, the incarnation is the divine person of the Son assuming a human nature in such a way that it is united in his person – the Word – to his divine nature. Thus, we have one Lord Jesus Christ. One person in two natures. Therefore, the union of the Word or Logos – God the Son – with the human nature is the necessary and sufficient condition for the union of the human nature with the divine nature. Much of the book sets out and surveys the two dominant union theories in the Scholastic era. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, Cross illustrates the two union theories with two possible ways of uniting different objects. Either as with Lego bricks, by some intrinsic property (the bumps on each brick), or, as with pieces of cloth, by a third thing that brings about the union (the thread used to sew them together). The Lego bricks illustrate what Cross calls the “communion theory” advanced by Thomas Aquinas. And the cloth and thread illustrate what Cross calls the ‘union theory’ advanced by John Duns Scotus. Many of the differences among Scholastic theologians can be traced to disagreements between Aquinas and Scotus.
Moving forward to the Reformation, Cross argues that many of the Lutheran theologians tended to follow Aquinas and the Dominican school in the ‘communion theory,’ whereas the Reformed theologians tended to follow Scotus.
It is useful to be aware of Cross’ qualified commitment to Classical Theism in which he slightly modifies the Classical doctrines of divine immutability and impassibility.[1] Cross’ theology proper inevitably influences his Christology.
One aspect of the book I found particularly helpful in my own work[2] was his deep analysis of the Trinitarianism and Christology of the Jesuit theologian Franscisco Suárez. Suárez’ reverence towards Aquinas is clear, but he favours the Scotist doctrine of the analogy of human and divine being – univocity of being. Apart from this fundamental epistemological difference, Suárez attempts to retain Aquinas’ metaphysical structure in his systematic theology. Many of the Reformers opposed Suárez alterations of Thomistic metaphysics, especially Suárez’ Molinist view of God’s sovereignty.
In my book, Intimately Forsaken: A Trinitarian Christology of the Cross, I interact extensively with Suárez’s use of the formal and modal distinctions between persons and natures in Christology and the Trinity. He predominantly opposes the modal distinction in the Trinity on the grounds that the test for a modal distinction is non-mutual separability.[3] For example, Socrates may exist as sitting on a chair. The fact that he is sitting may be non-mutually separated from Socrates existence because he could also be running. In the Trinity. Cross helpfully draws attention to rather obscure passage in Suárez[4] in which he acknowledges the possibility of a modal distinction in the Trinity between persons and nature in a way that is more inline with Aquinas view that the Triune persons are permanent modes in which the Divine nature exists. That is, God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The work is rich in historical research and deep in theological insight. It is, therefore, a challenging read (especially the Scholastic semantics) – but hugely worthwhile. And as with the previous book I reviewed for Foundations, the price may be prohibitive, but I expect a cheaper paperback will be available soon.
Footnotes:
[1] Richard Cross, The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 205. 317-318.
[2] Thomas Brand, Intimately Forsaken: A Trinitarian Christology of the Cross (Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).
[3] Thomas Marschler, Die Spekulative Trinitätslehre des Francisco Suárez S.J. in ihrem philosophisch-theologischen Kontext (Munster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2007), 719.
[4] Fransisco Suárez, In ST I, lib. 3, c. 5, n. 8 (Vives ed., I, 597).
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