Overview
In The Incarnation as God's First Intention, Edwin Chr. van Driel advocates a transformative perspective on the incarnation, proposing that God's decision to become incarnate was not a response to human sin but was instead God's first and foundational intention. Engaging the historical and theological roots of this supralapsarian (before the fall) Christology, van Driel, a leading scholar on the topic, invites readers to reconsider long-held views on God's engagement with creation.
With clarity and depth, van Driel unpacks how understanding the incarnation as God's original purpose reshapes the doctrines of creation, election, salvation, and eschatology. His insights offer a fresh framework for the church's mission in today's world, suggesting that God's presence with us is not merely a remedy for human fallenness but, rather, God's first intention and ultimate goal for creation.
Written for students, theologians, and all who seek a deeper understanding of God's relation to the world, this book challenges readers to see the incarnation, God's dwelling among us, as God's central purpose.
With clarity and depth, van Driel unpacks how understanding the incarnation as God's original purpose reshapes the doctrines of creation, election, salvation, and eschatology. His insights offer a fresh framework for the church's mission in today's world, suggesting that God's presence with us is not merely a remedy for human fallenness but, rather, God's first intention and ultimate goal for creation.
Written for students, theologians, and all who seek a deeper understanding of God's relation to the world, this book challenges readers to see the incarnation, God's dwelling among us, as God's central purpose.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Firstborn of All Creation
Part 1: Historical Explorations
1. God and God's Beloved: A Constructive Rereading of Scotus's Supralapsarian Christological Argument
2. "To Know Nothing . . . Except Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified": Supralapsarian Christology and a Theology of the Cross
3. "Too Lowly . . . to Reach God Without a Mediator": John Calvin's Supralapsarian Eschatological Narrative
4. "His Death Manifested Its Power and Efficacy in Us": The Role of Christ's Resurrection in John Calvin's Theology
5. Sharing in Nature or Encountering a Person: A Tale of Two Different Supralapsarian Strategies
6. All Things Summed Up in Christ: Reading Lesslie Newbigin's Missional-Ecumenical Project in a Supralapsarian Key
Part 2: Constructive Explorations
7. "All Things Have Been Created . . . for Him": On Christ, Election, and Creation
8. "So That He Might Be the Firstborn Within a Large Family": On Supralapsarian Christology and Israel's Election
9. "In Him All the Fullness of God Was Pleased to Dwell": On Trinitarian Theology and Supralapsarian Christology
10. "In Him All Things Hold Together": Supralapsarian Christology and Astrotheology
11. "By Making Peace Through the Blood of His Cross": Supralapsarian Christology and Atonement
12. "First Place in Everything": Supralapsarian Christology and Eschatological Expectation
13. On Being With and Resonance: Supralapsarian Christology for a New Missional Era
Conclusion: The Promise of Supralapsarian Christology
Index
Part 1: Historical Explorations
1. God and God's Beloved: A Constructive Rereading of Scotus's Supralapsarian Christological Argument
2. "To Know Nothing . . . Except Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified": Supralapsarian Christology and a Theology of the Cross
3. "Too Lowly . . . to Reach God Without a Mediator": John Calvin's Supralapsarian Eschatological Narrative
4. "His Death Manifested Its Power and Efficacy in Us": The Role of Christ's Resurrection in John Calvin's Theology
5. Sharing in Nature or Encountering a Person: A Tale of Two Different Supralapsarian Strategies
6. All Things Summed Up in Christ: Reading Lesslie Newbigin's Missional-Ecumenical Project in a Supralapsarian Key
Part 2: Constructive Explorations
7. "All Things Have Been Created . . . for Him": On Christ, Election, and Creation
8. "So That He Might Be the Firstborn Within a Large Family": On Supralapsarian Christology and Israel's Election
9. "In Him All the Fullness of God Was Pleased to Dwell": On Trinitarian Theology and Supralapsarian Christology
10. "In Him All Things Hold Together": Supralapsarian Christology and Astrotheology
11. "By Making Peace Through the Blood of His Cross": Supralapsarian Christology and Atonement
12. "First Place in Everything": Supralapsarian Christology and Eschatological Expectation
13. On Being With and Resonance: Supralapsarian Christology for a New Missional Era
Conclusion: The Promise of Supralapsarian Christology
Index
Endorsements
“Edwin van Driel is an exemplary scholar. His philosophical argumentation is delicious in its meticulousness and rigor. The Christology for which he contends in this book reaches back before the foundation of the world and thus has transformative ramifications for fundamental commitments in theology. He presents a truly theocentric vision of the gospel that is far more exciting than the lame, anthropocentric versions the church has propagated for centuries. This is the best kind of theology—the kind that brings us to praise the living God more profoundly and humbly than we did before we read it.”
Samuel Wells, King’s College London
Author
Edwin Chr. van Driel
Edwin Chr. van Driel (PhD, Yale University) is the Directors' Bicentennial Professor of Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Incarnation Anyway: Arguments for Supralapsarian Christology and Rethinking Paul: Protestant Theology and Pauline Exegesis. He is the editor of What Is Jesus Doing? God's Activity in the Life and Work of the Church and the T&T Clark Handbook of Election. He is also an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).