Ep. #120 – Classical Theism & Incarnation w/ Dr. Gorman
Summary
What is the doctrine of the Incarnation? How does Aquinas discuss the doctrine? How is the Incarnation compatible with classical theist doctrines of simplicity, immutability, and impassability? Dr. Michael Gorman joins the podcast to answer these questions and more.
Guest Bio
Dr. Michael Gorman holds degrees from The Catholic University of America (Ph.L., Philosophy, 1989), the State University of New York at Buffalo (Ph.D., Philosophy, 1993), and Boston College (Ph.D., Theology, 1997). After serving as assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia from 1997 to 1999, he joined the faculty of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, where he has taught ever since. A fellow of The Catholic University’s Institute for Human Ecology, he has also been an Alexander von Humboldt fellow (Leipzig 2004), a Fulbright fellow (Cologne 2008), and a scholar in the Templeton Foundation’s Working Group “Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life” (2015-2017).
He works primarily on metaphysics, especially the metaphysics of essence, substance, and normativity, and on applications of metaphysics in areas such as theory of mind, Christology, action theory, and ethics. Additionally, he is the author of Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union (Cambridge, 2017) and over thirty scholarly articles. He is particularly interested in how analytic philosophy and medieval philosophy can be brought together in a way that is historically accurate and philosophically fruitful.
Topics
- What’s your book on the Incarnation about?
- What is Aquinas’ basic view of the Incarnation?
- How can the Incarnation be understood consistently with doctrines of divine immutability and divine impassibility?
- What can we say about the doctrine of divine simplicity and the Incarnation?
- What does it mean that the human nature of Christ does not ground its own person? Why did Aquinas hold this?
Resources
Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Hypostatic Union by Dr. Michael Gorman
Dr. Michael Gorman’s personal website
Divine Unity and Simplicity (Thomistic Institute talk) by Dr. Michael Gorman
Is God a person? (Thomistic Institute talk) by Dr. Michael Gorman
Related Episodes
Ep. #67 – Simplicity & Incarnation w/ Dr. Tim Pawl
