{"id":6770,"date":"2014-12-06T15:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T20:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=6770"},"modified":"2014-12-06T15:48:45","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T20:48:45","slug":"dr-james-n-anderson-on-paradoxes-in-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/dr-james-n-anderson-on-paradoxes-in-theology\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. James N. Anderson on Paradoxes in Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6771\" src=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/paradox.jpg\" alt=\"paradox\" width=\"466\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/paradox.jpg 466w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/paradox-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/paradox-420x221.jpg 420w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/paradox-460x242.jpg 460w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/paradox-90x47.jpg 90w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" \/>Theologian-apologist-philosopher <strong><a title=\"James Anderson home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rts.edu\/Seminary\/Faculty\/bio.aspx?id=485\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. James N. Anderson<\/a><\/strong> of Reformed Theological Seminary\u00a0has posted his <a title=\"James Anderson's blog\" href=\"http:\/\/www.proginosko.com\/2014\/12\/paradox-in-theology\/\" target=\"_blank\">new entry<\/a> for IVP\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0<em>New Dictionary of Theology<\/em>\u00a0on &#8220;<strong>Paradox<\/strong>&#8221; &#8211; that is, on apparent contradictions.<\/p>\n<p>Saith Dr. Anderson,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Various approaches<\/strong> to theological paradoxes have been proposed, including: (1) The paradoxes involve real contradictions, but God is not bound by \u2018human logic\u2019. (2) The paradoxes involve real contradictions, and therefore some traditional doctrines need to be revised or (more radically) abandoned. (3) Through creative philosophical reflection the relevant doctrines can be explicated in logically consistent ways without compromising orthodoxy, thus showing that the apparent contradictions are merely apparent. (4) The paradoxes do not ultimately involve real contradictions, but they resist resolution on account of divine incomprehensibility and the limitations of the human mind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In general,<strong> <a title=\"review of Anderson's Paradox in Christian Theology\" href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/archives\/397\" target=\"_blank\">he favors (4)<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0We&#8217;re both fairly <a title=\"posts on rational reinterpretation\" href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?s=rational+reinterpretation\" target=\"_blank\">pessimistic about (3)<\/a> &#8211; perhaps him more than me.\u00a0I tend to favor (2), because <a title=\"Dale Tuggy, &quot;On Positive Mysterianism&quot;\" href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/dale\/On%20Positive%20Mysterianism.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">I think (4) doesn&#8217;t actually work<\/a> We agree that (1) is wrongheaded.<\/p>\n<p>Check out his\u00a0<strong>whole entry\u00a0<a title=\"James Anderson on paradox in theology\" href=\"http:\/\/www.proginosko.com\/2014\/12\/paradox-in-theology\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theologian-apologist-philosopher Dr. James N. Anderson of Reformed Theological Seminary\u00a0has posted his new entry for IVP\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0New Dictionary of Theology\u00a0on &#8220;Paradox&#8221; &#8211; 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 \u2018human logic\u2019. (2) The paradoxes involve&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/dr-james-n-anderson-on-paradoxes-in-theology\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dr. James N. Anderson on Paradoxes in Theology<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,16,15,8,10,20,47,9,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","category-books","category-christology","category-linkage","category-logic","category-mystery","category-papers","category-philosophy","category-quotes","category-theologians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6779,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6770\/revisions\/6779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}