Distancia Más Inmensa: On the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Ground Who Became the Grounded

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Authors: Oscar Gaitan
Cited by: 6
References: 3

Abstract

This essay examines how the doctrine of divine grounding relates to two central mysteries of Christian theology: the Trinity and the Incarnation. Building upon the author's earlier account of grounding as the continuous ontological dependence of every creature's present upon God, it asks how that account must be understood when the Ground of all being is confessed as three divine Persons in one essence, and when one of those Persons assumes a complete human nature. Drawing upon the classical tradition—from Augustine and Aquinas to the ecumenical councils of Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople II—the essay argues that Catholic doctrine already provides the conceptual resources necessary to answer this question. The Trinity's external works are undivided, the divine Persons are subsistent relations rather than parts of God, and Christ's humanity remains fully dependent upon divine sustaining without compromising either His divinity or His authentic humanity. The essay further explores enhypostasis, the communicatio idiomatum, and the Thomistic question of Christ's act of existence (esse), while deliberately distinguishing settled doctrine from open theological discussion. It concludes by interpreting Luis de Góngora's celebrated verse, "Distancia más inmensa," as a poetic expression of the metaphysical asymmetry between necessary and contingent being. Within the framework developed throughout the corpus, the Incarnation appears as the unique event in which the Ground who sustains every created Now also becomes, in His assumed humanity, the recipient of that same sustaining act.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Early Modern Women Writers Cultural and Social Studies in Latin America Religious and Theological Studies

Publication details

Journal / source
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
Publication date
1 August 2026
Language
EN
Document type
Book