Abstract

His doctrine of the Incarnation in which the Person of the Eternal Word became the principle of individuality in a human person tends toward Apollinarism. His intent is to relate the doctrine to organic conceptions, but this move causes theological and metaphysical difficulties for the Chalcedonian formulation which he supports because it separates the cosmic series and the eternal order completely. ;Lionel Thornton, An Anglo-Catholic in the Tractarian tradition, has a doctrine of creation which accords well with traditional Christianity. Although strongly influenced by Whitehead's process metaphysics, he rejects the process notion of the dependence of God on the World and the World on God. For Thornton God is beyond the World since He is the ground of the World, and the World is not necessary to His existence. ;Jesus Christ is the unifying principle in revelation no matter where it is found. He rejects the strict separation of natural knowledge and revelation. How the relation of knowledge and revelation is worked out is not made clear by making revelation organic to the world and man's total experience. He supports his views by a typological method of scriptural interpretation that verges on the allegorical. ;Although process philosophy and classical theology are the main influences on Thornton, neo-realism and idealism also had an impact. This eclecticism causes problems in epistemology and metaphysics. Thornton's central difficulty comes from his desire to support traditional theological statements while he struggles to maintain a connection with organic and process categories. He fails. ;Conclusions. He does not accomplish his stated goals. No significant and satisfactory relationship between traditional theology and process categories is established. Philosophical theology is not advanced greatly in its search for a way of relating process to the substance categories of classical Christian theology