This book is the first to reconstruct the obscure origins of Heavenly Flesh Christology, examine its implications, and defend it from the charge of heresy. More importantly, this book uses this Christology to re‐examine theology's commitment to the metaphysics of immaterialism. After surveying ancient metaphysical debates and the contemporary insights of physics about the nature of matter, the author argues that theology needs to reconsider the relationship of spirit to matter, beginning with a new, post-Platonic understanding of the eternal body of Jesus Christ. The result is a defense of an ... More

This book is the first to reconstruct the obscure origins of Heavenly Flesh Christology, examine its implications, and defend it from the charge of heresy. More importantly, this book uses this Christology to re‐examine theology's commitment to the metaphysics of immaterialism. After surveying ancient metaphysical debates and the contemporary insights of physics about the nature of matter, the author argues that theology needs to reconsider the relationship of spirit to matter, beginning with a new, post-Platonic understanding of the eternal body of Jesus Christ. The result is a defense of an anthropomorphic and corporeal understanding of the nature of God. This portrait of God is tested against the theologies of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth. It is also put into dialogue with the metaphysical materialism of Mormonism. Along the way, the author shows how the thought of Duns Scotus and Caspar Schwenckfeld contribute to a new understanding of heavenly flesh, and how this Christology can enable a new way of appreciating the much-neglected position of Monophysitism.