Wills in the Trinity and Incarnation

                                                 
        Wills in the Trinity and Incarnation

            How many wills are present in the Trinity? Some claim that there is one will amongst the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, while others claim each person has their own will but their wills are necessarily in agreement with each other. One can define personhood in the Trinity as distinct centers of knowledge, love, will, and action in an individual mental substance with intentionality and consciousness. With this definition, it seems to be the case that will is a property of personhood rather than nature. To account for the change in personal identity overtime, it is posited that man has a soul. Therefore, the personhood of a human is synonymous with their soul. When it comes to the Incarnation, one must ask if Christ had one or two wills. When discussing both the Trinity and the Incarnation there are four possible options, it is either that: 
1. The Trinity possesses one will while Christ possesses two 
2. Both the Trinity and Christ possess one will 
3. The Trinity possesses three wills while Christ has two 
4. The Trinity possesses three wills while Christ possesses one
It is arguable that only the first and fourth are consistent. If one possesses will as a property of nature, in the Trinity, there is one divine nature, and therefore there is one will despite there being three persons. In the case of Christ, if he was one person with two complete natures, divine and human, there will be two wills in Christ. However, to say that there is one will in the Trinity but two in the incarnation despite will being a property of nature, there is an inconsistency as Christ has two natures. If there are three wills in the Trinity under the assumption that will is a property of personhood, as Christ is one divine person, he has one will. To say he has two wills in this scenario entails that Christ is two persons which is the heresy known as Nestorianism. To say that there are three wills in the Trinity and one will in Christ, which is the heresy known as Monothelitism.
    The Incarnation involves the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, assuming a human nature and all that entails. What does it mean to have a human nature? It can either be abstract or concrete. The latter entails that human nature is a composite reality of a body, soul, and mind. The former entails that human nature is a collection of properties and therefore when the Son assumes a human nature, he assumes the property of being a human such that he assumes a human body and a human way of thinking/acting. An abstract soul can be described as an Aristotelian soul while a concrete soul can be described a Cartesian soul. Therefore did Christ have two souls in his Incarnation? One may argue that he did not have two concrete souls as that may entail Nestorianism but then how does one confirm that he took on all of which a human possesses apart from sin as to say that he only possessed one soul is the heresy known as Monophysitism. Therefore, to avoid heresy, one tries to put forth that he has two abstract souls therefore he takes upon a property rather than a concrete entity. However, when one describes a soul of a human, it is described in a Cartesian sense and therefore to refer to Christ’s soul in an Aristotelian sense is a false equivocation and therefore it is not a true incarnation. Simply, if the Trinity had three wills and Christ had two wills, then Christ would be two persons.

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