Re: [asa] Physicalism and Incarnation

Johan, check out Nancey Murphy's book "Bodies and Souls, or Spirited
Bodies" (http://tinyurl.com/36bw9b) I think she makes a good case for a *
nonreductive* physicalism as a legitimate Christian option. In this view,
consciousness / the soul are not separate entities from the body, but
neither are they entirely reducible to the body. Murphy employes the ideas
of emergence and supervenient causation to help make this case. I'm not
sure if this is the right approach, but it seems helpful to me.

On 3/1/07, Johan Jammart <j_jammart@yahoo.fr> wrote:
>
> I have read articles on asa3.org claiming that incarnation of Christ was
> incompatible with physicalism ==>
> http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2005/PSCF9-05Siemens.pdf
>
>
> I have read a discussion on this also on an blog:
> http://trinityandincarnation.blogspot.com/
>
> JJ: *Trenton Merricks in an unpublished paper entitled 'The Word Made
> Flesh: Dualism, Physicalism, and the Incarnation' presents a different view.
> We are human organisms. To be human is to be a human organism. So a divine
> subject becomes human by becoming a human organism. So an immaterial simple
> becomes a material composite. I think that no immaterial being can become a
> material being and that no simple can become a composite. So I do not hold
> this view.*
>
> BV: *You are a wise man.*
>
> JJ: *But the strategy is a coherent one.*
>
> BV: *How? It appears to be absurd on the face of it. An immaterial simple
> becomes a material composite without ceasing to be an immaterial simple?!?
> Next stop: The Twilight Zone.*
>
>
> Is really physicalism incompatible with incarnation? Can an immaterial
> Christ became only material?
>
> Blessings,
>
> Johan
>
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Mar 1 08:41:54 2007