bum extra carnem nee caro extra Verbura). He lias in the totality of his being become man, his existence-and-life-form is that of a corporeal-spiritual man subject to the limitations of time and space. The other side of this relation is that the human nature is taken up entirely into the divine, and is pervaded bv it. It has neither a special human consciousness nor a special human activity of the will for itself in distinction from that of the Logos, just as the latter has nothing which does not belong to the former; in the human thinking, willing, and acting, the Logos thinks, wills, and acts. All duaHsm of a divine and human existence-form, of a divine and human consciousness, of a concomitancy of divine and human action, is of necessitv excluded : as is also anv successive comrauni- cation (Hineinbildung) of one to the other; it is an identical liWng activity, sensibility, and development, because it is one Ego, one divine human personality (unio, communio. communicatio, natu- rarum)." ^
As to the manner in which this complete identification of the human and divine in the person of Christ is effected, there are, as above intimated, two opinions. According to Dorner there is a human soul to begin with, to which the Eternal Logos, without subjecting Himself to any change, from time to time communicates his divinity, as the human becomes more and more capable of recei\-ing the perfections of God, until at last it becomes completely divine. With this Dorner connected a philosophical theory con- cerning the relation of Christ to the universe, and especially to the whole spiritual world. ^
The other view of the subject is, that the Eternal Logos, by a process of self-limitation, divested Himself of all his divine attributes. He ceased to be omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. He
1 Thoraasiu?. vi suptxL, pp. 201. 203
2 Baar, in his I^kre ropi der Drda»igieiU vol. iii. p. 937, gires the following acconnt of Dorner's theory: TVie der Mensch das Haapt and die Krone der naturiichen Schrpfiing sei, so sei auch die Menscheic aJs die aaseinander^tretene Tielheit eines huhern Ganzeiu einer hohern Idee, zu betracliten, n.^mlich Chrisri. Cnd wie die Xatur sidi nicht bios in der Idee eines Mens<;hen zar Einheit versammle, sondem im ■wirklichen Mensdiea, so fa^e sich anch die Men-=chheit nicht zusammen in einer blossen Idee, einem idealen Christns, sondem in dem wirklichen Giittmenjichea. der ihre Toullta: pers..<alich darstdle, and alter einxelnen Indivndaalitaten Urbilder cJer ideale Persor.Iichkeicen ia sich rersammle- Und wenn die erste Zasanimenfassung lerstrenter Momente in Adam, wenn anch aelbst noch ein NatnT- Nresen, doch eine unendlich hdher^ Gestal: dargestelh habe, als jedes der einzelnes Xatnr- wesen. >o stehe auch der zweite Adatn. obwohl in sich eine Zosammen&ssang der Menseh- heit und sel(>st noch ein Menscb. doch als eir.e aner.dlich bobere Gest^ da, dena alle emzelnen Darstellungeu nnserer Gattung. Sei Adam das Haapt der BaturUcbea SchopAog gewesen, a]* solches aber bertirs hinQbeireichend mij seiEem Wesen ia das Reich des Geistas and hiniiber^rreitend iiber die nariirliche We'.u «..■> sei Chrstu; dis Haapt der peistigen Schop- rung, al* solches aber schon hiniiberweisend von der ilenschheit aof eine kosmisc ic Oder metapbviiche Bedeutacg seiner Person.
VOL. u. i&
4o4 PART m. Ch. m. — the person of CHRIST.
reduced Himself, so to speak, to the dimensions of a man. While an infant, as before said, He had no knowledge or power which does not belong to any other human infant. He went through the regular process of growth and development, and had all the experi- ences of ordinary men, yet without sin. But as the substance of the Logos was the substance of the infant born of the Virgin, it continued to develop not only until it reached a height of excellence and glory to which no other man ever attained, but until it ulti- mately culminated in full equality with God.
On this point Thomasius says, First, that if the Eternal Son, after the assumption of humanity, retained his divine perfections and prerogatives, He did not become man, nor did He unite Him- self with humanity. He hovered over it ; and included it as a larger circle does a smaller. But there was no real contact or communication. Secondly, if at the moment of the incarnation the divine nature in the fulness of its being and perfection was commu- nicated to the humanity, then Christ could not have had a human existence. The historical life is gone ; and all bond of relationship and sympathy with us is destroyed. Thirdly, the only way in which the great end in view could be answered was that God Himself by a process of depotentiation, or self-limitation, should become man ; that He should take upon Himself a form of exist- ence subject to the limitations of time and space, and pass through the ordinary and regular process of human development, and take part in all the sinless experiences of a human life and death.^
Ehrard.
Ebrard puts the doctrine in a somewhat different form. He holds that the Logos reduced Himself to the dimensions of a man ; but at the same time retained and exercised his divine perfections as the second person of the Trinity. In answer to the question, How human and divine attributes can be united in the same person, he says the solution of the difficulty is to be found in the original constitution and destiny of humanity. Man was designed for this supreme dominion, perfect holiness, and boundless knowledge. " The glorification of God as Son in time is identical with the acme of the normal development of man." It is held by many, not by all of the advocates of this theory, that the incarnation would have taken place had men never sinned. It entered into the divine purpose in reference to man that he should thus attain oneness with Himself.
1 Tbomasios, Christi Person und Werk, vol. ii. pp. 141-143.