Here, from BBC4’s Beyond Belief podcast, is an interesting and wide-ranging discussion of avatars in Hinduism vs. catholic Incarnation claims, and also avatars in science fiction. (Alternate link, stitcher) How, you ask, does an avatar differ from an incarnation? (This is me talking now, though they say most of this in the episode.) An avatar is supposed to be God himself (Vishnu, thought of as… Read More »Beyond Belief on Avatars vs. Incarnation
“Before Abraham, I am.” What did Jesus, or the author of the fourth gospel, mean here? In this episode we hear how some ancient authors interpreted John 8:58, including the famous North African bishop Augustine of Hippo.
I’ve been thinking lately about theories about religious diversity lately, because I’m trying to finish up an article on that topic. One family of theories about religious diversity is what philosophers call religious pluralism – the idea that many religions are equally good in some way(s). This idea gets a lot of lip service in modern Hinduism. A number of modern-era Hindu thinkers, notably Gandhi,… Read More »religious diversity, pluralism, and tolerance
Like millions of others, you’ve discovered the true-crime podcast Serial. And now you realize that you’ve been missing out on a whole universe of high-quality media which is more convenient than radio, television, or web surfing. Welcome to the revolution! At the beginning, podcasts were all done by geeks with cheap microphones. The domain is now being dominated by big media players; Serial, for instance,… Read More »so you’ve discovered podcasts
John Duns Scotus (d. 1308), nicknamed by tradition “the Subtle Doctor,” was one of the most important medieval Christian philosophers, and was notorious for the difficulty of his thought. In this episode, we hear a specialist in medieval philosophy give a conference presentation on Scotus’s views on identity (sameness) and distinction (difference). Nowadays most philosophers and logicians recognize qualitative sameness (aka similarity), which comes in degrees,… Read More »podcast 65 – Dr. Joshua Blander on John Duns Scotus on Identity and Distinction
At the triablogue, I’ve been discussing with Steve Hays issues arising from this quote from Richard Dawkins: I have never found the problem of evil very persuasive as an argument against deities. There seems no obvious reason to presume that your God will be good. … Most of the Greek pantheon sported very human vices, and the ‘jealous God’ of the Old Testament is surely one… Read More »Discussing Dawkins, God, and evil @ triablogue
Theologian-apologist-philosopher Dr. James N. Anderson of Reformed Theological Seminary has posted his new entry for IVP’s New Dictionary of Theology on “Paradox” – that is, on apparent contradictions. Saith Dr. Anderson, Various approaches to theological paradoxes have been proposed, including: (1) The paradoxes involve real contradictions, but God is not bound by ‘human logic’. (2) The paradoxes involve real contradictions, and therefore some traditional doctrines need to be… Read More »Dr. James N. Anderson on Paradoxes in Theology
At the Research on Religion podcast, here is a new, wide-ranging, informative interview with analytic theologian Dr. Oliver Crisp of Fuller Seminary. He gives a sort of overview of the Magisterial (as opposed to the Radical) Reformation, and in the latter part of the interview he talks about his new book Deviant Calvinism (kindle). He also discusses the recent revival of Reformed Theology outside of traditional… Read More »Dr. Oliver Crisp on Reformed history and theology
St. Anselm was the Roman Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, and an important medieval Christian philosopher. He defined the concept of God as “that than which no greater can be thought.” Using this concept, he argues that there must actually be such a being; this is his famous “ontological” argument for God’s existence. And he also deduces that this being must be eternal, and omnipotent (etc.)… Read More »podcast 64 – Dr. Mark C. Murphy on Anselmianism about God
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?
“Before Abraham was, I was already, in God’s plan, the Messiah.”
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
Does the fourth gospel teach that Jesus existed long before his conception, even before the creation of the cosmos? Most readers think so. But in this episode Dr. Dustin Smith argues that rightly understood, this gospel neither assumes nor teaches that Jesus “preexisted,” that is, existed before he was a human. He argues that we should read the gospel according to John in light of… Read More »podcast 62 – Dr. Dustin Smith on the preexistence of Jesus in the gospel of John
You think that Jesus was good. But do you also think that Jesus was smart?
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!
If a native English speaker says “you have a frog in your throat,” this means that your voice doesn’t sound normal, but is low, broken, “croaky.” It is a mistake to think that he is saying that you literally have a frog in your throat! What about when the author of Revelation refers to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and the… Read More »podcast 61 – Dr. Dustin Smith on preexistence in ancient Jewish thought
Does the Bible ever speak of redeemed humans as “gods”? Many Jews and Christians have thought so. In this episode Dr. Carl Mosser takes us on a journey through this theme in the Bible, including Psalm 82, the New Testament epistles, and the book of Genesis. You’ll have listen to see why I chose a picture of Joseph in his career as the Pharaoh’s right… Read More »podcast 60 – Dr. Carl Mosser on deification in the Bible
When a Christian is saved, is she thereby deified? This is how Eastern Orthodox theologians describe Christian salvation, and it is a common saying that this is distinctive of Eastern Christian theology, but not of Western. In this episode, Dr. Carl Mosser (Associate Professor at Eastern University, on leave, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame) challenges this assumption,… Read More »podcast 59 – Dr. Carl Mosser on salvation as deification
To the contrary, it seems possible that there be just one perfect being, one self who is all-knowing, all-powerful, completely good, and so on.
Professor Swinburne: we can argue from reason alone that the one God is a Trinity.