scandal of particularity

Noun

 * 1)  The paradox inherent in the idea of a particular individual human (Jesus of Nazareth) incarnating the eternal divine God.
 * 2) * 1994: A materialism was supposed to be what science favoured: and the ‘scandal of particularity’, God becoming incarnate in Christ in human history, was indeed regarded as a scandal — that is, absurd — by contemporary intellectuals. — Richard Swinburne, Reason and the Christian Religion (Oxford 1994, p. 1)
 * 3) * 2006: Reformed theologians look to the scandal of particularity as a way of naming how the unknowable God is known to us. — Cynthia L Rigby, ‘Scandalous Presence’, Feminist and Womanist Essays in Reformed Dogmatics (John Knox 2006, p. 59)