podcast 143 – Dr. Timothy Pawl’s In Defense of Conciliar Christology – Part 1

Roman Catholic theology is officially committed to the teachings of 21 councils. Eastern Orthodox theology accepts only the first seven of these, called “the seven ecumenical councils.” While no Protestant accepts the authority of all 21 Catholic councils, Protestantism has been ambivalent about the first seven – with a few accepting all, many accepting the first four, some eschewing all such in preference for the Bible, and some accepting such teachings only insofar as they are in fact summarizing the teachings of scripture. In this book Dr. Timothy Pawl constructs a philosophical defense of the self-consistency of “conciliar christology,” meaning all that these first seven councils claim about Christ.

In this episode, Dr. Pawl briefly recaps the seven ecumenical councils, and then discusses some crucial definitions in his book: “supposit,” “person,” and “nature.” We then discuss whether or not catholic christology should be understood as God becoming embodied in a human body, or God coming to cooperate and live along with a certain man. Finally, Dr. Pawl explains why he discusses these issues in terms of incompatible predications (terms applied to Christ) rather than incompatible properties (attributes of Christ).

Correction: In the introduction I say that Dr. Pawl taught at Notre Dame. As his C.V. says, he held a visiting fellowship there, but this did not (as I wrongly assumed) include teaching any classes (other than the occasional guest lecture). Thanks to Dr. Pawl for the correction.

Next week we’ll hear about Dr. Pawl’s proposed solution, and what he thinks of other recent approaches in the literature, such as “kenosis” and “two minds” theories about the incarnation.

Links for this episode: