Catherine Tkacz (Theology, Ukranian Catholic), "The Incarnation as the Reset of Creation," 2/28/2023, Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute
As the central mystery of God’s revelation of himself in history, the Incarnation-the joyous message that “God is with us” clothed in human form in all of his divine fullness-would seem to beggar the resources of our rationality. Is the Incarnation then a reproach to the project of integrating faith and reason? In a word, No. Pope Saint John Paul II addresses this in his seminal encyclical Fides et ratio (1998, §80), arguing that it shows the complementarity of faith and reason as it reveals the mysterious bond of divine and human:
"The mystery of the Incarnation will always remain the central point of reference for an understanding of the enigma of human existence, the created world and God himself. The challenge of this mystery pushes philosophy to its limits, as reason is summoned to make its own a logic which brings down the walls within which it risks being confined. Yet only at this point does the meaning of life reach its defining moment. The intimate essence of God and of the human being become intelligible: in the mystery of the Incarnate Word, human nature and divine nature are safeguarded in all their autonomy, and at the same time the unique bond which sets them together in mutuality without confusion of any kind is revealed." (Pope St John Paul II, Fides et ratio (1998, §80).
Catherine Brown Tkacz earned her Ph.D. from the Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame (1983). She is currently Professor of Theology and Guest Lecturer in Women’s Studies, Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukraine, a position she has held since 2015. She was appointed by Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane as Intellectual Formation Consultant for Bishop White Seminary in Spokane, WA. In 2020 she was appointed to the Vatican Commissione di Studio sul Diaconato Femminile by Pope Francis.
This talk is part of a set of presentations sponsored by the Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute under the title “Reading the Bible with the Church.” These talks are in turn a special commemoration of a project organized and carried out by the Institute, a set of lectures from 2016-19 on the general topic The Church and Her Scriptures. That older lecture series was inspired by and organized around a lecture given by Gonzaga Religious Studies professor Fr. Patrick J. Hartin on Vatican II’s statement on biblical interpretation, Verbum Dei (1965) and culminated in the publication of the collected lectures in a volume titled The Church and Her Scriptures: Essays in Honor of Patrick J. Hartin (Pickwick, 2022).
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