Embodied Souls, Ensouled Bodies: An Exercise in Christological Anthropology and Its Significance for the Mind/Body Debate

Written by Marc Cortez Reviewed By Michael Allen

Marc Cortez’s book nicely fits the bill as the first volume in this series, which aims to present monographs “with a particular focus on constructive engagement with the subject through historical analysis or contemporary restatement.” The book helps contemporary doctrinal construction in both ways: offering a historical analysis of Karl Barth’s anthropology adjoined with a contemporary restatement of the mind/body debate, viewing its shape in light of Barth’s christocentric theology. Readers interested in anthropology, dogmatic method, or the theology of Karl Barth will find this book worthwhile. It should be added that the volume proves an excellent entryway into philosophical debates regarding mind and body for the uninitiated. Dealing with wide swaths of literature, Cortez manages to show a keen sense of judgment, balance, and breadth. In addition, the book includes very few typos to detract from his compelling account.

Cortez introduces the terrain, and then he engages issues of christological method in chapter two. Chapters three and four focus on phenomenological and ontological components of anthropological debate. He then turns in chapters five and six to assessing nonreductive physicalism and holistic dualism, respectively. Finally, he concludes the book with a suggestion for further christological consideration of anthropology. The book’s thesis is that the biblical portrayal of Christ sets the parameters within which we must think about human nature and by which various theories of human nature must be assessed. Cortez finds eight implications for human beings from the exegesis of the plot-line of the Gospels (p. 106). He applies them specifically to one major debate: the mind/body debate.

Two terminological issues arise throughout the book. First, does the book address the body/soul or the mind/body debate? Second, is “christological anthropology” equivalent to some form of “christocentric theology” and, if so, which? Cortez’s comments in chapter three are necessary but not sufficient to address this second question, which will be related to how one assesses Barth’s methodology throughout his Church Dogmatics (especially after II/2). It would be helpful here to see Cortez deal with Barth’s exegesis of christological types in the OT, to see if a “christocentric approach” and a “covenantal ontology” (both terms endorsed by Cortez) can be a fully canonical project.

It is helpful to plot this book within the world of Barth studies. Whereas George Hunsinger believes that it is unhelpful to speak of Barth having an ontology, for his remarks about being as such are piecemeal and ad hoc, Cortez joins John Webster in demurring and continuing to speak of Barth’s ontology (what Webster calls a “moral ontology,” Cortez refers to as a “covenantal ontology”). By this, neither Webster nor Cortez suggest that Barth believes there is a dogmatic perspective to be taken on every issue in thinking the human; rather, as Cortez puts it, “although such an account does not provide a specific theory of human nature, it can serve to limit the range of legitimate options for such a theory” (p. 108). The Word of God (and our dogmatic efforts to witness rightly to it, to whatever degree they are faithful) guides, but does not replace human intellectual efforts.

Furthermore, Cortez offers insight into how Barth thought about the relationship of body and soul. He notes the polemical attacks upon both monism and dualism in Barth’s oeuvre (3.II), and he wisely moves beyond the hyperbole to suggest some sort of dogmatic superstructure. George Hunsinger’s suggestion that Barth operates according to the “Chalcedonian pattern” in thinking about the relationship of divine and human reality arises in Cortez’ exegesis of Barth’s anthropology, with each of Hunsinger’s three elements finding a correlate here (pp. 88n39, 93n55). Barth thinks the body and soul must be viewed together (intimacy), as really distinct, each in their own right (integrity), and in a certain order of soul preceding body (asymmetry). This “theological grammar” does play out across Barth’s construal of divine and human communion (p. 93), and Cortez has done a great service in showing its manifestation in the realm of anthropology.

Finally, Cortez does suggest ways in which the body/mind debate may proceed according to a christological paradigm. He suggests strengths and weaknesses of both the nonreductive physicalist and the holistic dualist positions (pp. 154, 187). He points to lingering questions about each theory, noting possible systematic ramifications that might prove troubling (e.g., can nonreductive physicalism maintain a robust notion of human freedom?). In addition, Cortez suggests further application of Barth’s christocentric paradigm, how reassessment of the biblical narratives might turn to various anthropological questions (e.g., Christ’s two wills and the issue of compatibilism). “The point at every step, though, would be to recognize that we need to broaden the scope of our investigation and sharpen the focus of our christological vision, so that we begin to comprehend fully what it means to say that ‘[t]he nature of the man Jesus alone is the key to the problem of human nature’ [III/2, 136]” (p. 197). Having savored this monograph, one surely hopes that Cortez will follow his final suggestions with more exegetical analysis and dogmatic reflection on christological anthropology in related works.


Michael Allen

Michael Allen is John Dyer Trimble professor of systematic theology and academic dean at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.

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