The Resurrection of God Incarnate by Richard Swinburne
"The Resurrection of God Incarnate" by Richard Swinburne is a theological exploration that focuses on the belief in Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead and the implications of this event within the framework of classical theism. Divided into three parts, the work begins by evaluating the background evidence for the resurrection, particularly the existence of God, which Swinburne posits as a necessary precondition for any miraculous event. He suggests that if a God exists, that being has the power to suspend natural laws, thereby raising the probability of Jesus's resurrection. The author examines the role of eyewitness testimony, asserting it should generally be deemed credible unless contradicted by substantial evidence.
In subsequent sections, Swinburne argues that Jesus fulfills the criteria for being God Incarnate, emphasizing his moral teachings, self-identification as divine, and the establishment of a church to propagate his message. The final part of the book focuses on historical evidence supporting the resurrection claim, including the empty tomb and various eyewitness accounts. Swinburne dismisses several alternative theories that challenge the resurrection narrative, ultimately asserting that the resurrection serves as a divine endorsement of Jesus’s life and mission. This work appeals to those interested in the intersection of theology, philosophy, and the historical foundations of Christianity.
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The Resurrection of God Incarnate by Richard Swinburne
First published: New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Biblical studies; critical analysis; theology
Core issue(s): Atonement; death; God; Incarnation; Jesus Christ; reason
Overview
The Resurrection of God Incarnate is divided into three parts. In the first part, Richard Swinburne assesses the general background evidence related to the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. One crucial aspect of background evidence is whether the God of classical theism exists. Swinburne assumes that there is a fifty-fifty chance that such a God exists, and he refers the reader to some of his other works that explore this question in more depth. If such a being exists, then the laws of nature depend on that being, and God can suspend those laws if he chooses to do so. This raises the probability that God will raise Jesus from the dead. With respect to the Resurrection, an important source of available historical evidence is the testimony of eyewitnesses to the Resurrection. In Swinburne’s view, testimony in general must be taken to be accurate, unless there is evidence to the counter, and therefore the specific testimony to the historicity of the Resurrection should be viewed as accurate.
Swinburne also argues that God would have at least three reasons for becoming incarnate. First, the God of classical theism would want to provide people with a means of atonement. Second, God would do so to identify with people’s suffering. Third, God would want to show people a dignified human life and what a perfect human life looks like. Next, Swinburne turns to a consideration of the attributes of God Incarnate and claims that an incarnate God would live a life of supererogatory goodness and would engage in physical, psychological, and social healing. An incarnate God would also teach people how to live and would do so by means of revelation that they could not obtain or discover on their own. God Incarnate must also believe that he is God Incarnate and must ultimately reveal his identity to humanity, teaching that his life provides atonement. He should found a church to carry his message to other generations and cultures. Finally, a super miracle should validate the life of God Incarnate, something like rising from the dead.
In the second part, Swinburne assesses the claim that Jesus satisfies all of the foregoing requirements for God Incarnate, except for the final one, which he considers in the third part. According to Swinburne, the contents of the New Testament appear to be testimony and should be taken as literal historical claims. While some discrepancies exist, this is to be expected and does not undermine his case for the truth of the Resurrection.
Jesus lived a perfect moral life and taught people how to live. For example, he taught that people should love and worship God, love and forgive others, and ask God for good things. Jesus also implied that he was God Incarnate by granting forgiveness of sins and implying his own eternal existence. Also, people are reported to have explicitly acknowledged his divinity in his presence, and Jesus neither corrected them nor disagreed with them. Swinburne also provides textual evidence from the New Testament in support of the claim that Jesus himself was the source of the teaching that he would provide atonement for humanity, and he finally notes that Jesus founded a church that continues to relay his teachings. Swinburne concludes the second part of his work by stating that Jesus is more probably God Incarnate compared with any other prophet in history with respect to the foregoing criteria for being God Incarnate.
In the final part of the book, Swinburne examines the available evidence for the belief that Jesus’ life and teachings were validated by a super miracle, namely, raising Jesus from the dead. He first notes that many of the followers of Jesus believed that he appeared to many people after his death and that although there are some differences between the Resurrection accounts, they are not significant enough to undermine the basic elements of the story. Other evidence in support of the Resurrection includes the empty tomb of Jesus as well as the evidence from New Testament texts that the Sunday observance of the Eucharist originated in the post-Resurrection teaching of Jesus. From these two observations, Swinburne infers that people believed they were interacting with Jesus on or soon after Easter Sunday, after he had been crucified, died, and was buried. Next, Swinburne considers five rival theories of what happened—Jesus did not really die on the cross, the disciples misidentified the tomb where Jesus was buried, or the body was stolen by enemies of Jesus, grave robbers, or friends of Jesus—and concludes that all five are incorrect. The Resurrection is what Swinburne calls a super miracle, and he argues that it is God’s way of authenticating the life and mission of Jesus. It signifies God’s acceptance of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, as well as the teachings of Jesus.
Christian Themes
Swinburne’s strategy is different from that which most scholars adopt when assessing whether Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Only the last third of Swinburne’s book focuses on historical evidence from the New Testament and other historical documents regarding the historicity of the Resurrection. Swinburne claims that as long as we have sufficient evidence in favor of the claim that God exists, the need for historical evidence is diminished. Rather than relying solely on historical evidence, Swinburne holds that by examining the life of Jesus and the kind of life God would resurrect, it is evident that Jesus was the kind of individual whom God would raise from the dead. He argues that there is a significant probability that God would resurrect Jesus. The difficulty in the minds of those who would argue against Swinburne lies in how to assess the a priori probability that God would resurrect Jesus and what kind of life God would see fit to resurrect.
In response, it seems likely that Swinburne’s justification for this lies in his view of the unique status of Jesus in history. While many religious prophets were reported to have performed miracles, according to Swinburne two things stand out about Jesus: the large number of miracles attributed to him and their centrality in his ministry, and Jesus’ representation of those miracles as the Kingdom of God advancing in a needy world.
Moreover, while someone may charge Swinburne with reading his own theology and religious belief back into his case for Jesus being God Incarnate and a likely candidate for someone whom God would raise from the dead, Swinburne attempts to defend the early followers of Jesus from such a charge. For example, the notion that God would become incarnate was not expected by those followers, and this is a reason against the claim that they were reading their theology back into history. The Resurrection was also unexpected, which in Swinburne’s mind goes to show that the disciples did not have to marshal belief in the Resurrection because they expected Jesus to rise bodily from the dead. Rather, they were surprised by this, because it did not fit into their religious expectations of what a Messiah would be and do. Their belief that this event occurred helped spark a worldwide movement that continues to this day.
Sources for Further Study
Hall, Lindsey. Swinburne’s Hell and Hick’s Universalism: Are We Free to Reject God? Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2003. A comparison of the thought on Swinburne and John Hicks on the idea of whether people can reject God. Hicks believes in universal salvation, while Swinburne argues that hell must exist for Christians.
Messer, Richard. Does God’s Existence Need Proof? New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Shows the disparity between the thought of Swinburne, who believes that an attempt to prove God’s existence is worthwhile, and that of D. Z. Phillips, who does not believe such an attempt is valuable.
Padgett, Alan G., ed. Reason and the Christian Religion: Essays in Honour of Richard Swinburne. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Two essays in this collection focus on Swinburne’s views of the Trinity and Incarnation.
Swinburne, Richard. The Existence of God. 2d ed. New York: Clarendon Press, 2004. Contains the arguments that Swinburne refers to several times in The Resurrection of God Incarnate, which are intended to show that it is more probable than not that theism is true.
Swinburne, Richard. Faith and Reason. 2d ed. New York: Clarendon Press, 2005. Explores the relationship between the probability of God’s existence and religious faith.
Swinburne, Richard. Providence and the Problem of Evil. New York: Clarendon Press, 1998. Offers a detailed answer to the question of why a loving God allows so much suffering.