Dale Tuggy (PhD Brown 2000) was Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Fredonia from 2000-2018. He now works outside of academia in Middle Tennessee but continues to learn and podcast.
Here are three more excellent new videos by Notre Dame’s Center for Philosophy of Religion! (subscribe here): Dr. Carl Mosser on deification. What, you as, is that? And isn’t that just a weird Orthodox idea? OK… but what does it mean? And doesn’t this sort of talk raise a bunch of philosophical issues? But seriously… where is this in the Bible? Want more in depth… Read More »Dr. Carl Mosser on deification in theology and in the Bible
I’ve received some excellent feedback on my two podcast episodes with Dr. Josh Thurow (University of Texas at San Antonio) on theories of atonement in Christian theology. Now, courtesy of Notre Dame’s Center for Philosophy of Religion (subscribe here) you can hear and see him explaining the basic ideas. Here’s your mini-course on atonement. First, watch these: Now, listen to the trinities podcast episodes, which… Read More »a mini-course on atonement by Dr. Josh Thurow
At the end of the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
It is impossible to ignore that prominently in the New Testament, two members of the trinity/Trinity interact in I-Thou, Me-You ways, as person to person, self to self. Thus, Jesus prays to his Father, and sometimes, the Father speaks about or to Jesus. This seems to presuppose that both Father and Son are selves. And in a few passages, “the Holy Spirit” is said to speak,… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #5 “Persons” – Part 2
In standard formulations of trinitarian theology nowadays, one says that there is (only) one God “in three Persons.” But what does this mean? We can ask about how these “Persons” relate individually or collectively to the one God. How exactly are they “in” him? But more fundamentally, what is meant by “Person” here? Some trinitarians will tell you that the answer is, basically: nothing. The… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #5 “Persons” – Part 1
Does the Bible say in the fourteenth Psalm that atheists are fools? And what about Paul’s critiques of the Gentiles in Romans and Ephesians – do these teach that atheism is caused, in all cases, by willful rejection of God, preferring sin to acknowledging him?
In his 2010 book The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief, Dr. James Spiegel, professor of Philosophy and Religion at Taylor University, argues that unbelief results more from the will than from the mind. Drawing on the Bible, Plantingian epistemology, and contemporary psychology, in this book he builds a theory of the source of atheistic belief.
In this final part of our discussion Dr. Rauser and I continue to discuss his interesting new book: Is the Atheist My Neighbor? Rethinking Christian Attitudes toward Atheism.
At his blog our friend Kermit Zarley, aka the Moon Man, has an excellent post on Jesus and God in the gospel according to John. The One Who Sends Is Greater than the One Who Is Sent. In part, Most Christians think the primary message of the Gospel of John is that Jesus is God. I think that is a misunderstanding of this gospel and… Read More »The One Who Sends Is Greater than the One Who Is Sent
“Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”” (Psalm 14:1) This says that all atheists are fools, right? Pastor John Hagee says that “Atheism is bankrupt and empty. It’s brain dead!” Others have said that all atheists because they hate God and want to sin with impunity. Is this what the Bible teaches? Is this true?
Chad occasionally talks in ways that suggest that I’ll actually alleging divine deception.
If we accept that God is the greatest being there could possibly be, this will guide our theorizing about God. As Dr. Leftow explains, the method can be uncertain and hazardous. Still, it seems an indispensable tool in Christian thinking about God.
Since 2002, Dr. Brian Leftow has been the Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oriel College, Oxford University. He taught for many years at Fordham University in New York City before moving to Oxford. Dr. Leftow has written over 90 professional articles and book chapters on metaphysics, medieval philosophy, and philosophical theology.
Here, at the Stand to Reason blog. In response to a short video in which a preacher suggests that several shared titles imply “that Jesus is Jehovah” (and he means by this that they are the same self, so numerically one). To the contrary, I point out some ways in which Jesus differs from God, in the portrayals of the New Testament: …only Jesus has… Read More »a conversation about the differences between God and Jesus
Here’s one reason why some theologians love to appeal to “mystery.” Regarding the second half of the second Christian century, the great church history von Harnack observes, …an urgent impulse necessarily made itself felt to define the contents and value of the Redeemer’s life and work, not, primarily, from the point of view of the proclamation of the Gospel, and the hopes of a future state,… Read More »von Harnack on logos theories and mystery
Here is an epic post by our friend Dr. Dustin Smith, blogger at Dustin Martyr, comparing the opening of Genesis to earlier Near Eastern origin stories. …while the ancient cosmology described in Gen. 1:1-2:3 shares much in common with other creation accounts in the Ancient Near East, it is in the matter which they differ which sets it apart and brings it distinction within Israelite… Read More »Genesis 1 compared to previous origin stories
Finally, the last part of this long, five-part series. Our friend Annoyed Pinnoy continues, Now there are varieties of gifts, but the SAME Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the SAME Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the SAME God who empowers them all in everyone.- 1 Cor. 12:4-6 Notice how Paul uses the word “SAME” three times. Once… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 5
This reply of his, honestly, is too danged long, as is this series. Future critiquers – remember, brevity is the soul of wit. But here is part 4 of 5. I’m going to skip a few tangents. Picking up his critique, …irrespective of whether the doctrine of the Trinity is true, it’s not formally contradictory. Depends on the version, but my post doesn’t anywhere claim that… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 4
Continuing to work through this critique of my post (part 1, part 2) – our friend Annoyed Pinoy writes, Yet, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are repeatedly associated with Yahweh/Jehovah. See, for example, my blog: Identifying Jesus with Yahweh/Jehovah Associated, sure, and in various ways. This is a common equivocation, I find, with theologians. We say “identify with” to mean “associate (in some way) with”.… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 3
Continuing from last time, on the multiplicity of interpretations of the old catholic formulas – quoting David Waltz, our friend Annoyed Pinoy comments on the diversity of Trinity theories: [Waltz:] Now, when we look at “the” Evangelical doctrine of the Trinty, one is forced to conclude that it is “doctrines”, not “the doctrine”, for the following are but a few examples of the different forms… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 2