On the Incarnation

The first great systematic defense of the Incarnation in Christian theology, written before Athanasius was thirty. The argument is breathtakingly simple: humanity was created in the image of God but fell into corruption and death. No creature could reverse this; only the Creator could restore what he had made. Therefore the Word — through whom all things were made — took on human flesh, lived a human life, and died a human death, so that in his resurrection humanity might be raised to the divine life it was always meant to share. C.S. Lewis, who wrote the introduction to a popular English edition, called it 'a masterpiece' and recommended it as the first book any Christian should read after the New Testament. The work is short, luminous, and as radical today as when it was written: God became human so that humans might become God.

On the Incarnation is a central text in the Christian mystical tradition, offering insight into the spiritual life, the nature of divine union, and the transformation of the soul.