Abstract

The Incarnation is beautiful and mysterious, awe‐inspiring and humbling. The Incarnation helps the dualist out of a familiar problem, providing a decisive reason to reject the premise that the physical and the nonphysical cannot causally interact. Physicalism does not solve every puzzle or answer every question regarding the Incarnation. To take just one example, physicalism is silent on how to reconcile Christ's divinity with his apparently not knowing the hour of his return. So physicalism is not a cure‐all with respect to the Incarnation. Nevertheless, it does cure something, doing away with the embodiment ills brought on by dualism. Given typical dualism, the union of soul and body is partly constituted by the soul's having direct control over the body. Because a soul has mental properties, a soul can believe that the sun is shining, hope that rain will come soon, and be appeared to redly.