Emile Mersch on the Unification of the Universe In the Humanity of Christ

This article explores the anthropological basis for Emile Mersch's understanding of the cosmic significance of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Mersch was an important and influential twentieth‐century theologian who helped recover the theology of the mystical body of Christ, although his work is largely neglected nowadays in secondary literature. This neglect is unjustified, as he anticipated the turn to a more cosmic form of Christological and soteriological understanding. The author argues that when Mersch's underlying metaphysics is clarified in a more rigorously existential way, his overall theology provides a key resource for contemporary reflection on the cosmic significance of the incarnation. The metaphysics of esse that underpins his theological understanding is developed in this article in light of a strand of twentieth‐century 'existential Thomism'. Mersch's anthropo‐cosmic Christology is explored, finally, in connection with a contemporary debate between proponents of ‘Deep Incarnation’, on the one hand, and ‘Deep Anthropology’, on the other. The author suggests that Mersch's metaphysical focus clarifies the unification of the universe in the humanity of Christ.