Marilyn McCord Adams

Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford

Christ and Horrors: The Coherence of Christology

In her series of lectures, Adams offers a systemic Christology that is both biblical and philosophical. She shows how human vulnerability informs what is true about Christ as the defeater of horrors, resolving all problems of the human condition. Defending the two-natures theory of Christ, she argues in favour of literal body resurrection and corporeal Eucharistic presence. Adams concludes that Christ is the one in whom Christian doctrine, the cosmos, the church, and human psyche hold together.

Biography

Marilyn McCord Adams was born on 12 October 1943 in Oak Park, Illinois. The first woman appointed Regius Professors of Divinity at Oxford, she defended same-sex partnerships as expressions of Christian love. Ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1987, she taught at UCLA from 1972 to 1993. Appointed Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale Divinity School in 1998, she became Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral in 2004. In 2009, she was made Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at UNC Chapel Hill and later at Rutgers University.

Adams cofounded the Society of Christian Philosophers and was Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Notable works include ‘Is the Existence of God a “Hard” Fact?’ The Philosophical Review vol. 76 (1967), The Problem of Evil, coedited with R. M. Adams (1990), Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (1999), Some Later Medieval Theories of the Eucharist (2010). She published a book of sermons, Wrestling for Blessing (2005), and a book of prayers, Opening to God (2008).

Published/Archival Resources

Published as Christ and Horrors: The Coherence of Christology.