impassibility: An attribute of God, according to Platonism and the church
fathers, which means that he suffers no passions. That is, nothing is done
to him that moves him or causes him to change, to suffer, or to respond
emotionally. According to Western medieval theology, a similar freedom
from suffering is one of the four qualities of glori¿ ed bodies in the
resurrection, along with clarity, subtlety, and agility. (See passion.)
imputation: From a Latin word which translates a Greek word in the
New Testament whose basic meaning is to credit something to a person’s
account, to reckon or “count as.” It is a fundamental term in doctrines of
forensic justi¿ cation, according to which the righteousness that justi¿ es
believers in God’s sight is not acquired by their efforts nor infused in them as
created grace, but imputed to them when the merits of Christ are credited to
their account.
Incarnation: Literally “en-À esh-ment” (from the Latin for “À esh,” carnem),
the doctrine concerns how Christ is both God and man. In Christian theology,
the term “Incarnation” refers only to Christ, not to human embodiment in
general or to theories of “re-incarnation,” as in Hinduism.
incomprehensibility: From a Latin term meaning literally “ungraspability.”
In Nicene Christian theology, God is typically described as incomprehensible,
which means beyond the understanding of any created mind.
indulgence: In Roman Catholicism, a formal promise by the church (in
Luther’s day, typically in a written document that could be purchased) that
someone meeting certain criteria (for example, participating in a crusade,
going on a speci¿ ed pilgrimage, or purchasing a written indulgence) will
receive a reduction in the amount of time one suffers in purgatory.
infralapsarianism: From the Latin phrase infra lapsum meaning “after the
Fall.” In the Calvinist theology of the decrees of God, this is the view that
the eternal decree of double predestination logically follows the decrees to
create the world and permit the Fall. (Contrast supralapsarianism.)