Christian Apologetics, ch. 21

Defending the incarnation of Jesus has been a subject scrutinized for centuries. Groothuis carefully unpacks the logic and metaphysics of the incarnation without over-stepping his philosophical bounds. Some of the more helpful points for me in this chapter was his clarification that God never claims to be "totally Other" as Barth and Kierkegaard assume. God is personal, accessible, and has made us in His image. This does not mean we will have comprehensive knowledge of Him, but we can have sufficient (for now) knowledge of Him. I am seeing this as an important clarification in light of the works of Peter Rollins. Another helpful clarification is the material and immaterial of humans and how that shapes our understanding of Jesus. This is further clarified in the description of Jesus as suspending the use of some of His power as human much like Michael Jordan might if he were playing basketball with children. I found this chapter to be a helpful clarification of the incarnation of Jesus.