The Problem of Paradox in Analytic Christology : Some After-Dinner Reflections

The following after-dinner speech was delivered by Sarah Coakley at the Logos Conference, which was held at the University of St Andrews on June 3, 2017. The problem was that the serious matter of the “hypostatic union” did not seem to me to lend itself obviously to the limerick, or the clerihew, or other standard gimmick traditionally useful for this slot; and moreover, it gradually became obvious that actually Alan wanted a bit more from me, anyway. The immediate popular riposte volume to The Myth of God Incarnate, entitled The Truth of God Incarnate, contributed more heat than light to the debate and presented a jumble of conservative responses which by no means consistently nailed the underlying philosophical problems. The attempted erasure—or at least easing—of paradox, on the assumption that it is simply a false baptism of incoherence, has been a striking feature of analytic philosophy of religion's approach to Christology in recent decades.

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