Why Did God Become Man? The Absolute Primacy of Christ According to Blessed Duns Scotus – Prof. Thomas Ward

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Dec 25, 2025

In this discussion, guest Thomas M. Ward, an expert in medieval philosophy, sheds light on Duns Scotus's radical view that the Incarnation was part of God's eternal plan, not just a remedy for sin. He explores how scripture leaves the purpose of the Incarnation somewhat open-ended and challenges Aquinas's interpretation that ties Christ's coming solely to atonement. Scotus emphasizes that God's choice for the Incarnation flows from divine freedom, positioning Christ as the central figure in creation, aimed at glorifying Him above all.

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INSIGHT

Basic Doctrine Of The Incarnation

The Incarnation means the second person of the Trinity assumed a full human nature while remaining fully divine.
Jesus Christ is therefore one person with two natures, divine and human, the Son who is fully God and fully man.

INSIGHT

Scripture Leaves Purpose Indeterminate

Scripture affirms both Christ's divinity and that his death and resurrection bring salvation, but it does not definitively state the primary purpose of the Incarnation.
This textual indeterminacy leaves room for theological reflection on whether salvation is the main reason for the Incarnation.

INSIGHT

Traditional View: Incarnation For Atonement

The mainstream tradition sees the Incarnation primarily as a response to human sin, expressed through ransom, satisfaction, or penal theories of atonement.
Thinkers like Anselm and later scholastics treat atonement as the chief raison d'être for God becoming man.

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Prof. Thomas Ward explains Scotus’s bold claim that the Incarnation is not primarily a response to human sin, but the centerpiece of God’s eternal plan for creation, so that Christ would have become incarnate even if Adam had never fallen .

This lecture was given on March 4th, 2025, at Universidad Panamericana.

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About the Speakers:

Thomas M. Ward is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin, in the School of Civic Leadership. He specializes in the history of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages. Ward is the author of After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher (Word on Fire, 2024), Ordered by Love: An Introduction to John Duns Scotus (Angelico, 2022), Divine Ideas (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and has translated, with commentary, John Duns Scotus’s Treatise on the First Principle (Hackett, 2024). He has been a NEH Fellow (2022) and Harvey Fellow (2009-2011), and is a past winner of the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy Founder's Award (2013) and the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly Rising Scholar Essay Contest (2018). He studied philosophy at Biola University (BA 2004) and theology at Oxford University (M.Phil 2006), where he was Head Resident at the Kilns, the former residence of C.S. Lewis. His PhD in philosophy is from UCLA (2011). Ward is married with six children and is a member of St. Peter Catholic Student Center in Waco.

Keywords: Absolute Primacy of Christ, Blessed Duns Scotus and Incarnation, Christ as Head of Creation, Divine Freedom and Predestination, Incarnation and Fall of Adam, Primacy of Christ in Salvation History, Sin and Redemptive Suffering, Thomism vs. Scotism, Why God Became Man