Thomas V. Morris (1) (1952–)

2017: Having read this a second time, my opinion remains the same. It’s a great book that should be mandatory reading for any Christian interested in formulating their understanding of the Incarnation. Merry Christmas!

2016: This is a fantastic, thought provoking book that I will definitely read again. As promised in the synopsis, Morris does a great job parsing out the key metaphysical distinctions for retaining the coherency of the orthodox claim that God the Son is identical to Jesus of Nazareth. The key takeaways: (i) common properties are not necessarily essential properties and (ii) merely human and fully human are not the same thing.

For much of the book, I was skeptical of his proposed "two-minds" model. The terminology is terrible because it sounds exactly like he is promoting Nestorianism. Well, he isn't and while I'm a little hesitant to fully endorse it, it does seem like a coherent and plausible model. I was especially persuaded by his argument concerning the possibility of multiple incarnations.

It was difficult for me to get my head around some of the concepts because of my layman knowledge of metaphysics. Nevertheless, the salient points are well communicated and I definitely recommend this book if you are interested in sophisticated defenses of Chalcedonian Christology.

Rating: 4.6… (more)