Finite infinite

The puzzle of the incarnation is often posed as “how could the infinite become finite?”

It’s the wrong question. The Son is infinite in all his attributes – His wisdom, power, goodness, truth. But He is not infinite-without-qualification.

He is not infinite in the sense that He has no bounds in any sense. As soon as we call Him Son, we are saying He has a Father; and as soon as we say “the Father is God, and the Son is God, and yet the Father is not the Son,” we are saying that there is a “boundary” between Father and Son Even if that boundary is imagined perichoretically, it’s still there, because the Son who indwells the Father exhaustively is not the Father.

When the Son became flesh, he assumed new, human boundaries. But He knew boundaries already, because He is the eternal Word who is from the Father and “toward” the Father.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Moral Certitude and the Iran War

Steven A. Long

The current military engagement with Iran calls renewed attention to just war theory in the Catholic tradition.…

The Slow Death of England: New and Notable Books

Mark Bauerlein

The fate of England is much in the news as popular resistance to mass immigration grows, limits…

Ethics of Rhetoric in Times of War

R. R. Reno

What we say matters. And the way we say it matters. This is especially true in times…