ABSTRACT
The epistemic shifts in the philosophy of science provide a context that is hospitable for resolving some of the traditional difficulties in the doctrine of the incarnation and articulating a radically relational understanding of the identity of Jesus Christ. Understanding the human capacity for acquiring knowledge is important for both Christology and evolutionary biology, but each discipline approaches the task with its own particular methods, modes of questioning and ways of evaluating answers. Three sets of philosophical categories figure largely in both christological and scientific discourse and are particularly relevant for the current case study on the incarnation and evolutionary biology: sameness and difference, body and soul, and origin and goal. The category of difference will be as important as the category of sameness in the articulation of the identity of Jesus Christ. Denis Edwards also recognizes that evolutionary biology challenges some traditional formulations of Christian theology, including and even especially the doctrine of the incarnation.
