An interesting discussion, with some links, by philosopher Parableman Jeremy Pierce: Muslims Worshiping God But Not Worshiping God. His view, as against some recent pastors and other folks, is that yes, Muslims do refer to the being that Christians acknowledge as the one true God, when they use the word “Allah”. [Saith Jeremy]…it seems completely ludicrous to me to claim that this being that is… Read More »Allah = God?
He’s baaaaack. A smokier, bluesier, dirtier “Trinity Schminity”. Now in basement music video form! Apparently there’s been some big shakeup in the band. Their website says “we are now a Christian father and son band”. Mother and daughter, we hardly knew ye. 🙁 Thankfully, they’re still “100% monotheist”. And they still ROCK. Get it? Winter has made himself a phony Trinity. “Bobo” and “Hayseed” are… Read More »Trinity Schminity – the music video
You tell ’em, Joe. An interesting post & discussion: Alexander Pruss’s Blog: Liberal theology I think a lot of liberal theologians don’t have a “high view of reason” – many (not all) of them strike me as lazy drifters on miscellaneous intellectual currents. e.g. Has anyone’s reason really revealed to them, so to speak, that miracles don’t happen, or even that it’s irrational to believe… Read More »Linkage: Pruss on liberal theology (Dale)
The Trinity Challenge, from a Sufi Muslim blog. The comments there are wild and wooly. There’s a charge of polytheism, and some non-trinitarian Christians weigh in. The challenge, of course, cannot be met. But it seems to me he’s carelessly overlooking the options that the Trinity doctrine is: (1) implicitly taught in the Bible (i.e. it is deducible from what is there, though not explicitly… Read More »Linkage: a Muslim challenge (Dale)
…why not say that there is a single substance, God, but that the existence of this substance grounds other, non-fundamental entities [i.e. the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit] that perhaps can be considered parts of God. …the existence of the whole is prior to the existence of the parts. For someone drawn to a social trinitarian sort of view that takes the members… Read More »Linkage: Ian’s search for a new Social Trinitarian theory
Found at here at Ian’s Philosophical Orthodoxy. Thus saith Marilyn McCord Adams:
Renouncing society’s right to say who we are and what we mean, frees us for full communion with Our Creator, with that gay men’s chorus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. (emphasis added)
Uhh… hmm. [speechless]
Looking at the rest of this speech, a few other things stuck out. Read More »Quote: A new trinitarian analogy
Check it out. I think this is all excellent advice. His website provides this link to more Craig on youtube. To my fellow academic philosophers: grad school teaches you to be over-specialized, overly technical, and overly cautious. If you want to communicate with a popular audience live or in print, about theology or anything else, you’d do well to imitate Craig. Technorati Tags: William Lane… Read More »Linkage: William Lane Craig on doubts
Sometimes, all your main interests converge. Books? Check. Computers? Check. Philosophy and theology? Check. History? Check. The result: http://trinities.org/books.Read More »Books
According to the Arizona Daily Star, ‘Lord’ is fading at some churches, because they think it smacks of patriarchy.
When ideology has taken over to the point that you think it’s inappropriate to describe God almighty in terms that connote power (horrors!)… wow.
And then, what about Jesus?Read More »“Lord” allergies among “mainliners”
From a few months back, a very interesting post on Isaac Newton by Brandon, over at Siris. Newton’s is a part of a big, long, interesting and interlocking set of stories about subordinationists, “Arians”, and “Unitarians” in late 17th and early 18th century England. A good place to start is in chapter 29 & 30 of Wilbur’s 1925 book Our Unitarian Heritage, though his interests… Read More »Linkage: Isaac Newton on the Father and Son
Here’s a paper by Ralph Allen Smith, “Against Karl Rahner’s Rule,” which deals with Randal Rauser’s assassination of the much-bandied-about “Rahner’s Rule“. I’ve only skimmed it, but it seems he agrees with Randal. Me too. Technorati Tags: Randal Rauser, Rahner, Rahner’s Rule, Theology, Economic Trinity, Immanent Trinity
Here are some interesting thoughts on trinitarian doctrine by young philosopher Kenny Pearce. I like the way Kenny resists simply settling for mysteries; he has a good sense of how empty that stance is. I’d have to disagree with his claim that persons are causally connected series of mental events, for several philosophical reasons. The main one is this: as stated, it implies something contradictory… Read More »Kenny Pearce on the Trinity
Over at Faith and Theology a theologian lists what he views as the ten most important latter-day books on the Trinity. An interesting thing about this list is that it shows the radical divide between philosophers (philosophy of religion specialists, philosophical theologians) like me, and (theologically trained) theologians. None of these books has been big topic of discussion among the former, and I’ve read pretty… Read More »Linkage: 10 Important books?
Thanks to reader Peter Tyson, for sending me a copy of The Threefold Art of Experiencing God: The Liberating Power of a Trinitarian Faith. It’s a short book by church growth guru Christian Schwarz, who has made his fortune advising churches on how to become healthier and grow, offering principles like these. Here is his official site. His approach goes by the name Natural Church… Read More »Modalism: the solution to your all of your church’s problems
How many times have you seen one of these offered as an explanation or illustration of the doctrine of the Trinity? There’s a good article about these here, complete with some links to real medieval examples. Basically, this sort of Shield of Faith (Latin: scutum fidei) diagram seems to have originated in the high middle ages, with the intention of illustrating the doctrine. In general,… Read More »Ye Olde Trinity Diagram: The Shield of Faith
In this recent piece in Books & Culture, I think Prof. Jacobs makes a lot of excellent points. Can this blog be an exception? (As this blog is, as well as this one.) I hope so! Specifically, I hope that the following factors can minimize the problems Jacobs discusses: posting at a decent pace (no Instapundit-like continuous flow) leaving the comments open occasional weeding out… Read More »Linkage: blogs an “enemy of thought”
I have a hard time taking stuff like this seriously. No doubt they think they’re striking a blow for women’s rights or status or both. But I will say this: isn’t God related to us more like an ideal human father, than like an ideal human mother? For one thing, we have a physical, bodily bond with our mothers. And isn’t it odd to address… Read More »Linkage: Trinity updated by PCUSA: Mother, Child, & Womb