THOMAS AQUINAS’ INCARNATIONAL ‘BECOMING’ AS A MODEL FOR THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN SECULAR VOCATION

Abstract

The teaching that Christ is both God and man is the foundation for our salvation and the leitmotif for traditional Christian theism. Nevertheless, it also presents serious logical difficulties and incoherence, especially in the context of identity. How Christ can simultaneously be perfectly divine and fully human is a fundamental problem. Yet without this foundational truth, Christianity crumbles, and faith is unreasonable. This work examines Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of the meaning of person and nature. Thereafter, it presents Thomas’ arguments on the union of the two natures in the single Person of Christ, using his ‘mixed relation’ logic explained by the hypostatic union. This paper affirms that, because Christ became human, human fulfilment consists in this new anthropological vision, not in a radical detachment from the concrete situation in the world, but a commitment to incarnate existence and engagement, to transform the world for good. The Thomistic Incarnational ‘Becoming model’ provides the model for how Christians can engage the world without losing their identity.