A trinitarian facepalm for this, from a Bob Jones University Press grade school textbook (HT: Digg.) Not having seen the book, I can’t be sure what is going on here. Here are some options: The writer is terribly uninformed. The writer is feigning ignorance in a misguided attempt to instill delight and wonder into science. The writers is feigning ignorance in an attempt to multiply “mysteries”.… Read More »The Mystery of Electricity
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?
Congratulations to Scott Williams, trinities contributor and newly minted Oxford University PhD in Theology, on his forthcoming paper: ‘Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case for Numerical Sameness Without Identity’, in: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 79.1 (2012), will be published. Here is his abstract: I argue that there is a hitherto unrecognized connection between Henry of Ghent’s general theory of real relations… Read More »Scott Williams’s new paper: Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity
Not possible. But why? (image credit)
Here are some rough-draft thoughts on another line of thinking associated with social trinitarian theories.
God is perfect. Arguably, an absolutely perfect being could not fail to be “well off” – in classical terminology, a perfect being must be happy, must be in a “blessed” condition. Part of perfection is independence. One kind of independence is the kind which comes up when discussing ontological or cosmological arguments for God’s existence – the idea of aseity, or existing but not because of anything else. But here’s another kind of independence or self-sufficiency: not requiring any thing (i.e. any fact not entailed by your existence) to be well off, to have a good life. Perhaps we could call it the divine property of security, or independent or self-sufficient happiness.
Is God as well off as he could possibly be? Arguably not,Read More »Reflections on the Impossibility of a truly lonely Christian God (Dale)
At his blog An Open Orthodoxy. In (of course) three parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I demur in some comments. Check out their posts and comment there. Tom Belt and Dwayne Polk are open theists. I take it that the title of the blog emphasizes that they are truly catholic – that on the things that really matter, they agree with mainstream Christians.… Read More »Tom Belt on the Trinity
Check out this series of posts at the It’s In the Text blog reviewing The Son of God. In part, Charles Lee Irons, Danny André Dixon and Dustin R. Smith have written excellent essays, drawing their readers in by probing the very heart of ancient documents and dialogue with questions and propositions regarding the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. They have challenged, congratulated and clashed with each… Read More »review of The Son of God @ It’s In the Text
No, the man Jesus is not the Genesis creator; his and our God is.
Is the theory that Jesus has “two natures” more trouble than it’s worth?
All Christians have always believed that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, right?
Last Christmas season I posted in a slightly Grinch-like way about catholic Incarnation theories, and about some Christians’ lack of critical thinking about them.
There’s an interesting human impulse observable here. The best analogy I can think of right now is posters like the one to the left. The ladies love them.
Why? There’s the sex appeal of the dude. And the cute baby. Everyone likes a cute baby.
But there’s something else, something affecting about a big, strong, tough manly man, stooping to gently cradle a teeny, vulnerable baby. He’s made himself so vulnerable. Of course, that adds to the “sexy” part. My point is, the affecting nature of the man’s condescension is a distinct element of the appeal.
Now imagine that God, big strong God, becomes an ignorant, weak, dependent little baby. There’s a similar, recognizable emotional tug there. What an amazing idea! Of course, it may be amazing in part because it’s contradictory. But I’ll not argue that here.
Instead, a bit of cross-cultural comparison. Christians aren’t the only ones who go in for the idea of a god who comes down from his mighty position, to be a cute, puny little baby.
The Ramayana is an epic poem, and a sort of scripture in Hinduism. Parts of it go back perhaps to the 400s BCE, though it comes in many versions, some of which are from the high middle ages. The clip below is from a wildly popular Indian television series from 1986 called Ramayan. If you’re interested in Hinduism, I recommend it, but it’s a real time commitment to watch the whole thing. I’ve edited some bits of it, to include the more theological parts, and to get it down to youtube length. It’s here, Ram or Rama, is supposed to be an avatar of the god Vishnu.
My point is notRead More »God the baby – Rama / Ram, avatar of Vishnu
We find miracle-reports in many religions. Does this undermine Christian appeals to miracle-reports?
Last time I offered a definition of the concept of a trinitarian.
This time, I will try to define the concept of a unitarian.
Many definitions of this concept are unacceptably polemical. It is unacceptable to define a unitarian as an anti-trinitarian. This violates requirements 3 and 5 – it doesn’t tell us what a unitarian is, but only what a unitarian is against. And this is part of a common slashing rhetorical strategy which I have recently mentioned. For the same reasons we must reject defining the concept unitarian as one who “denies the Trinity” or “has heretical beliefs about the Trinity,” etc. Equally, it is unacceptable to define a unitarian as one who holds the correct or biblical view about Jesus and God. Whether or not that’s so, it’s trying to sneak an argument for a thesis into a pseudo-definition of that thesis.
One common definition is,
Definition 1: someone who believes in exactly one unipersonal God.
I think this is on the right track, but the term “unipersonal” is obscure, and so this definition violates requirement 6 (and possibly also 3).
I have been working with this definition of the concept:
Definition 2: someone who believes that the one God just is (is numerically identical to) the Father.
I now think that this isn’t quite right.
First the definition is arguably too narrow. Read More »Defining the concept of a unitarian
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
In 344 a meeting of Eastern bishops sent a statement to the West explaining their theology.
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
I woke up this morning, and realized that there is a problem with how I’ve been defining the concept of a unitarian. In this post, I will attempt a definition of the concept of a trinitarian, after reviewing what is required of a good definition. Next time, I’ll try to define the concept of a unitarian.
According to the textbook I have used for years in my critical thinking class, a good definition should:
What is a trinitarian?
Definition 1: someone who believes in a triune god.
