Date of Award
Spring 1995
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Philosophy
Abstract
Biblical Christianity has become intellectually disreputable in many circles. The picture of believers in general, and Christian scholars in particular, as mental lemmings is too commonplace. It is my conviction that this perspective is not due to the simplicity of theology or theologians. Rather, it comes from a naturalistic philosophy, which also underlies many of the sciences, that says, "Those of us who are enlighten know that God and the miraculous do not exist." The religion that remains with us as we approach the twenty-first century is an evolutionary anomaly, a vestige of the days of superstition and ignorance--or so we are told. I began my philosophical studies with the provisional belief that naturalistic philosophy and science cannot provide all the answers-only propositional revelation from a Being outside of nature can do that. Twelve years later this is still my conviction. Christianity, however, not only answers the questions, it is ,internally coherent as a belief system, it is supported by historical evidence, and it "fits" with our knowledge of the world and of human nature. As a Christian philosopher, I believe it is important, then, to establish Biblical Christianity as coherent and as providing the best answer to many philosophical questions. That is the motivation behind this study. I chose to focus upon the doctrine, of the incarnation here ' since this doctrine is central to the Christian' belief system. My goal in this study is simple: to show that the doctrine of the incarnation is coherent. My original intent was to present', and attempt to rebut, many of the detailed arguments against the coheirence of the doctrine of the incarnation. To my surprise I found few such arguments. For this reason I have paid closer attention to the attempts to formulate this doctrine in a coherent fashion...