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Divine holiness and the explanation of Christ's impeccability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2020

MARK C. MURPHY Open the ORCID record for MARK C. MURPHY [Opens in a new window]
MARK C. MURPHY*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20057, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Supposing that Christ is impeccable – that, necessarily, Christ does not sin – what explains that impeccability? While there have been multiple theories of how the operations of Christ's human will could be fully free while Christ's sinlessness is nevertheless guaranteed, such accounts cannot be exploited to provide the requisite explanation. And not all of the divine purposes sufficient for becoming incarnate would also be sufficient to explain why Christ must be sinless. We should instead explain Christ's impeccability normatively, in terms of the reasons that God has to respond appropriately to God's own perfection by refraining from taking on a human nature with a will that ever opposes the divine will. Such reasons are reasons of divine holiness.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 683 - 702
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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