Announced on Steve Katsaras’s blog. Both Mr. Katsaras and Mr. Naga did well last time, which was a 3-way discussion: And here’s a later debate between Mr. Naga and evangelical apologist Samuel Green, called Jesus: Mighty Prophet or God with us?
Here, courtesy of youtube is the main text discussed in the trinities podcast episode 62: John 8:12-59, culminating in “Before Abraham was, I am.” This is from the excellent 2003 Gospel of John movie, which is in my view the best Jesus movie, despite its bold choice to use every word in the Gospel of John. It is well acted and well staged, though long.… Read More »John 8 brought to life
Dr. Bob Cargill of the University of Iowa reviews The Lost Gospel by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson. In his view, it’s a stink-bomb of a Christmas present. In part (emphases added) Just don’t bother. Were it a Dan Brown-esque novel, positing a speculative interpretation about the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene utilizing a fanciful allegorical interpretation of a document written six centuries after Jesus… Read More »The Lost Gospel – Not Lost, and Not a Gospel!
0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:29:30 podcast 56 – Richard Swinburne on his life and work Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify In September of 2014 I was privileged to attend a conference in honor of the greatest living natural theologian. For the uninitiated, this is what “natural theology” is (also here). The initiated hold Swinburne in… Read More »podcast 56 – Richard Swinburne on his life and work
In this interesting presentation called “Yet Another Music City Miracle” pastor J. Dan Gill points out that the way evangelicals evangelize is incompatible with the old catholic tradition, famously asserted in the “Athanasian” creed, Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish… Read More »J. Dan Gill: Must one believe in the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus to be saved?
In the comments to my last round, Mr. Robert M. Bowman, Jr. replied to my request for his reply to this argument: The Father and the Son are the same God. For any x and y, and for any kind F, if x and y are the same F, then x is an F, y is an F, and x = y. (x and y… Read More »answering Bowman’s questions about identity, being the same F
Thanks to Rob Bowman for his thoughtful reply to my previous post regarding the Shema and his argument with Sir Anthony Buzzard. While I sided with Mr. Bowman regarding the meaning of the Shema (as saying that YHWH is unique – who which only presupposes, but doesn’t assert that he is a god), I think Buzzard is correct that ancient Jews thought that YHWH was… Read More »a reply to Robert Bowman on biblical monotheism, the Trinity, and the Shema
0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:31:29 podcast 50 – Muslim apologist Dr. Laurence B. Brown on the Trinity Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify Dr. Laurence Brown is an opthamologist, author, and Muslim apologist. In this episode of The Deen Show (“Deen” is Arabic for “religion” or “religious practice.”), he gave his “Top 10 Reasons Why… Read More »podcast 50 – Muslim apologist Dr. Laurence B. Brown on the Trinity
0.75x 1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 0:0000:27:49 podcast 44 – The Spiritual Journey of Sir Anthony Buzzard Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsPlayer EmbedShare Leave a ReviewListen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe on AndroidSubscribe via RSSSpotify I first encountered Sir Anthony Buzzard (yes, he’s a real “Sir”, and his wife Barbara a “Lady”) in the endnotes of Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. Willard had referred to his short book The… Read More »podcast 44 – The Spiritual Journey of Sir Anthony Buzzard
I thank Fr. Aiden Kimel for reminding me of Richard Bauckham’s chapter on kinds of monotheism. I read it years ago, and thought there was something that was not quite right about it. Kimel says, summarizing Bauckham, Inclusive monotheism declares the God is the highest being within the class of deities to which he belongs. “He is unique,” Bauckham explains, “only in the sense of… Read More »Kimel and Bauckham on monotheism
At Dustin Martyr, theologian Dr. Dustin Smith gives a forceful critique of Bart Ehrman’s appeal to “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) to show that the Gospel of John presents Jesus either as God himself, or as “equal to God” (where this doesn’t imply that he’s God himself). …this is disappointing… because even the most conservative scholars of Johannine literature don’t interpret John 10:30 as… Read More »Ehrman’s misreading of John 10:30
The latest on internet discussion of Dr. Bart Ehrman’s new book and the evangelical response book. Update: part one of my interview with Dr. Ehrman is now out. Part two is out on April 14. Ehrman’s own summary. And short Q & A. Theology professor “Dustin Martyr” evaluates Dr. Ehrman’s arguments, chapter by chapter. Negative review by evangelical theologian Dr. Andreas Köstenberger. Positive review by the Revangelical… Read More »Bart Update
These two. Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta explains how this happened. (H/T James McGrath) And he makes an interesting point about it. Yes, I would be shocked too. (Read to the end of his post.) But, I think Christians and Christians publishers should promote debate. Anyone who is confident in their case is all for debate. Update: Justin Brierley’s show Unbelievable has put up part 1 of a… Read More »Pro and Con books published at once – How’d that happen?
by evangelical apologist Rob Bowman, at the Parchment and Pen blog. He has a nice and fair summary of Ehrman’s book, and he then focuses to a large extent on New Testament issues. He puts his finger on several of the key issues most Christians will have with Ehrman’s theory – places where Ehrman really goes out on a limb. For example, A second notable… Read More »First Review of the How ___ Became ___ books
The tradition of three-self trinitarian art continues, in the cartoons of “nakedpastor.” The way your portray a self, is generally by portraying the type of self we’re most familiar with – a human self, or something like one. At least the Holy Ghost isn’t a bird… but here he look like a kid in a bad Halloween costume. 🙂 If you’re going to cartoon about… Read More »As usual, the Holy Ghost gets the worst of it
An interview by Dustin of The DustinMartyr Blog – it’s McInteresting! …the early Christian apologists, such as Justin Martyr, were not arguing about monotheism with their Jewish contemporaries. They were arguing over whether Jesus was the Messiah, and whether certain things can be said about this man who was crucified, and things like that. But we don’t find monotheism as the topic. For me, the… Read More »James McGrath on the Gospel of John and Christology
Check out this excellent podcast by Bill Craig and Kevin Harris at Reasonable Faith. I really liked this discussion. I would only have suggested two additional topics: So, we should deny the “classical” doctrine of divine impassibility, right? And, if someone were perfectly disposed to feel and act in the ways described in this episode, in ways compatible with all other perfections, that one would… Read More »Craig and Harris: a mistaken view of love
Here’s a very interesting interview with probably the greatest living Christian philosopher. Like many of my peers, I’m a big fan. Read the whole thing to see why I picked a teapot. Here are some relevant bits (with my own bolding): I take atheism to be the belief that there is no such person as the God of the theistic religions. The first being of… Read More »Parsing Plantinga: is there such a person as God?
I love memes. You don’t often see one that’s about the Trinity! (H/T Tim Pawl on Facebook.) One could view this as a complaint, a mere lament at our cognitive ineptitude. Or, possibly, one could view it as superficially a joke, but actually an assertion of negative mysterianism. In practice, I think that stance is going to always include a policy of repeating the required words,… Read More »a new Trinity Meme
Our friend Fr. Aiden has responded to my post defending analytic theology (and analytic theologians). This bit, I think, advances the discussion: …my concern is not false teaching per se but the subjection of God’s self-revelation as Father, Son, and Spirit to the quest for philosophical precision. And this brings me to the heart of my concern. As far as I can tell, the theological… Read More »more on despising analytic theologians