Steve Hays fails to rebut the charge of tritheism
A would-be teacher on trinitarian topics is merely an incoherent tritheist.
A would-be teacher on trinitarian topics is merely an incoherent tritheist.
Review of Thomas McCall’s Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism?
Do we find trinitarian theologies in early Christian authors?
What does “monarchical trinitarianism” include exactly?
Last time we looked at an exchange between Christian and Muslim apologists in the early 14th century, in which the Christian side, under pressure from longstanding Muslim accusations of polytheism, spells out the doctrine of the Trinity in a plainly modalistic way. This practice is ongoing, as we’ll see. Thomas F. Michel is a Jesuit priest and scholar who edited and translated the largest response… Read More »Islam-Inspired Modalism – Part 2
Check out this 2005 article by Randal Rauser, a theologian at Taylor Seminary in Edmonton, Canada. I have to say that I was really impressed with “Rahner’s Rule: An Emperor without Clothes?” Rauser obviously knows a lot of philosophy (the whole alphabet worth? 😉 ), and he writes clearly and concisely, and with even with a touch of Plantingian humor. And to my eyes, this looks… Read More »Randal Rauser Roundly Rips “Rahner’s Rule.” Result? R.I.P. Really.
“…earliest believers treated the risen/exalted Jesus as they did only because they felt required to do so by God.”
Was Arius the ultimate Judas? Was he an arrogant innovator, a devotee of Greek philosophy, a Judaizer, a hater of mysteries, a phony, a snake in the grass? In this episode, we look at Arius and his theology, in (as much as is now possible) in his own words. You can also listen to this episode on youtube. You can also listen to this episode… Read More »podcast 29 – Arius
I still mean to comment on Bowman’s 5th round, but my inner logic nerd was drawn in by some action from round 5 here, comment 19: [Burke:] “This week I hope Rob will show Biblical evidence for the essential relationship formulae of Trinitarianism: 1. Father = ‘God’, Son = ‘God’ and Holy Spirit = ‘God’ 2. ‘God’ = Father + Son + Holy Spirit .… Read More »SCORING THE BURKE – BOWMAN DEBATE – ROUND 5 – BOWMAN – PART 2
He tries his hand at a little ad hoc philosophizing about death.
This brings the total of R’s to 6. Wish I could say there weren’t more coming! We’ve looked so far at two ways Christians may respond to apparently contradictory doctrines: Redirection and Restraint. We now move on to a third strategy: Resolution. In brief, the Resolver holds that the apparent contradiction can be banished, made to disappear. She doesn’t change the subject (as the Redirector),… Read More »Dealing with Apparent Contradictions: Part 7 – Resolution by Rational Reinterpretation
If God made us to form true beliefs, why do we form false beliefs?
Jesus was “in the form of God,” but chose to empty himself, becoming like us. What do these famous statements by Paul mean? In episode 48, I examined a common evangelical interpretation of this text and found it lacking. In this episode, I compare scripture with scripture, to try to come up with a plausible, understandable, well-motivated interpretation. Can the authors of Genesis, Isaiah, Hebrews, and Revelation,… Read More »podcast 49 – 2 interpretations of Philippians 2 – part 2
A leading Christian philosopher explains his “Social” Trinity theory.
…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
The trinities blog will be unavailable in the middle of the night on this Wednesday-Thursday, USA time. To be more specific, from about 1-5am EST (New York time) on Thursday, January 7. It is hoped that the upgrade will help with the problems that some podcast listeners have been having with iTunes and iPhones, etc., where episodes only partially download. If you’ve had that problem… Read More »upgrading, hoping to resolve podcast problems
Board members explain their vision for the Unitarian Christian Alliance.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”… Read More »He is risen!
Burke’s fifth round opens some interesting cans of worms. First, he reiterates that the Bible doesn’t explicitly talk of any triple-personed god, but instead calls the God of the Jews the Father. His Son is Jesus, and they stand in a hierarchy as two persons – the Son “under” the Father – over the realm of angels. He says that “Scripture never includes the Holy Spirit… Read More »SCORING THE BURKE – BOWMAN DEBATE – ROUND 5 – BURKE – Part 1
At The Anxious Bench, eminent historian Dr. Philip Jenkins has a nice basic summary of Philo’s merging of Platonic theology with that of the Hebrew Bible. This summary fits nicely with the one I quoted towards the end of episode 76 of the trinities podcast. Dr. Jenkins says, in part: Having excluded God from the world, though, Philo used a Stoic concept to bring him… Read More »Philip Jenkins on Philo’s theology