In 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul says, …yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Is this statement by Paul a gift to unitarians (who hold that the one God is the Father, but not Jesus), or does he here… Read More »podcast 15 – Are Paul’s “one God” and “one Lord” one and the same?
Apologist explains what any theist can, declares victory for his own pet theory.
Greetings, campers. We’ll return to Swinburne in a bit… I’ve been drawing again: Now it’s all clear, right? RIGHT?! key: D = the divine essence P = paternity Fi = filiation Sp = spiration F = the Father S = the Son H = the Holy Spirit T = the Trinity In this chart are eight “things” – in the widest sense of “thing”, i.e.… Read More »The Latin Trinity Chart 1 – 8 things, 1 trinity
Do Christian claims clash with Philosophy?
<gossip>Once some years ago, I was hanging out with a group of Christian philosophers, and the subject of the Trinity came up. One person, a well known philosopher, firmly remarked that “It’s just gotta be modalism.” I recently shared this story with a Christian philosopher friend. In response, he told me that more recently, he was hanging with a group of Christian philosophers, and one (who… Read More »It’s just gotta be true…
“You’re another” – that’s what tu quoque means – it’s the name of an informal fallacy, often called a fallacy of relevance. For example, if I argue that your theory is self-contradictory, suppose you retort that my theory is too. Well, so…? It’s irrelevant to the point that the first theory mentioned is self-contradictory (so, self-refuting).
Cornell grad student Chad McIntosh argues that if the social trinitarian God – or rather: the three divine persons posited by clear “social” Trinity theories – would be deceivers, then so would the perfect self in whom I believe, being a unitarian Christian. So granting that an ST is implausible, for similar reasons unitarian Christian theology is implausible (because it has a perfect being doing what appears a wrongful deception).
Is this a defense of ST?
I’ve already argued in that paper than a Swinburne-type ST implies what looks like wrongful deception by at least one of the three divine persons. This hasn’t been disputed.
I don’t grant that if God is a single self, then Read More »You’re another!
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
Here’s a long but engaging interview by Sean Finnegan at his Christian Monotheism website. (Podcast RSS feeds here.) The subject, a young man named Christopher Amelung, underwent the change of theology noted above. He doesn’t recount all of the relevant arguments and exegesis; it’s rather a narrative of his own thoughts, emotions, and relationships. This is not a deconversion story, but a story of a… Read More »Reformed trinitarian to unitarian Christian
Does it make sense to say that God is a soul with three cognitive and volitional faculties – but is nonetheless not a self?
Dale Tuggy kindly set me up with an account here, so I will say a few words by way of introduction. As Dale notes here, I am a lazy fellow. Or as I say, just as a thing is more noble and perfect, so the longer it takes to reach perfection. I am still working on a book I began in 1984, and perhaps I can use… Read More »Hello from London
Does Christianity trump Philosophy?
In this episode: an interesting historical episode relating to the “Athanasian Creed.” It makes a grown man cry. This creed really “starts up” Christian philosophers; surely, a distinction here, a distinction there, and the appearance of contradiction can be chased away. But, our efforts are not always appreciated, as Abelard learns in the year 1121. This episode incorporates part of Abelard’s famous History of My… Read More »podcast 3 – making Abelard cry
Little known fact: overwork causes one’s neck to become invisible! After an embarrassing amount of time, I’ve finally finished my encyclopedia entry on the Trinity for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (as well as lengthy supplementary documents on the history of Trinity doctrines, Judaic and Islamic objections, and unitarianism). Since I can’t thank them in the entry, I’d like to thank editors Ed Zalta and… Read More »“Trinity” @ the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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?
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
Do Matthew, Mark, and Luke discreetly but clearly imply that Jesus is God?
Should we defend what we think are biblical, yet unintelligible or seemingly incoherent claims as “mysteries”?
Is the idea of essence the key to understanding Bauckham’s christology of divine identity?
