Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Christian Doctrine

  • Mind-Body Dualism in Aquinas and Descartes: How Do They Differ?

    Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, views the soul as the form of the body. Anima forma corporis. Roughly, soul is to body as form is to matter. So to understand the soul-body relation, we must first understand the form-matter relation.  Henry Veatch points out that "Matter and form are not beings so much as they are…

  • Who is the Enemy? More on Carl Schmitt

    Commenter Ben wrote: Neighbors are familiar, local. This is in direct contrast to the sort of pablum about being a "citizen of the world" and preferring the plight of the universal faceless stranger over what you owe to your own countrymen . . . That's right. I'll add that while we are enjoined to love…

  • “My Kingdom is not of this World”

    Thus Jesus to Pilate at John 18:36.  What does 'this world' refer to?  In the "Our Father"  we pray: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Reading these two texts side-by-side one might conclude that God's kingdom is to be realized on earth and not in a purely…

  • If Someone is Walking is He Necessarily Walking?

    This article defends the modal collapse objection to the doctrine of divine simplicity.  Brian Bosse asked me about this. Here is my answer. Put on your thinking caps, boys and girls. (Hey Joe, who was it who used to say that back at STS, Sr. Ann Miriam in the first grade?) Substack latest.

  • Notes on R. C. Sproul, Does God Exist? Part II

    Part I is here. Sproul thinks he can prove that the God of the Christian Bible exists from reason alone.  By 'prove' he means establish with objective certainty.  He begins by listing four possible explanations of reality as we encounter it.  I take him to mean by 'reality' the world as given to the senses.…

  • Back to Inerrancy: A Note on Vanhoozer

    I have been doing my level best as time permits to get up to speed on inerrancy as understood by evangelical Protestants. I have a long way to go. Today I preach on a text from Kevin J. Vanhoozer.  I will examine just one sentence of his in his contribution to Five Views of Biblical…

  • Biblical Inerrancy and Verbal Plenary Inspiration

    Recent discussions with Calvinist friends led to the topic of Biblical inerrancy.  I've always looked askance at it, but one of the friends, Brian, assures me that Scripture is inerrant in every particular, and nor merely with respect to faith and morals. How is that possible?  I tend to think about inerrancy and related topics…

  • How Christian is the Doctrine of Hell?

    The traditional doctrine of hell appears to be a consequence of two assumptions, the first  of which is arguably unbiblical. Geddes MacGregor: ". . . the doctrine of hell, with its attendant horrors, is intended as the logical development of the notion that, since man is intrinsically immortal, and some men turn out badly, they…

  • “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

    Physical bread or meta-physical bread?  Top o' the Stack.

  • Could a Jew Pray the “Our Father”?

    I return an affirmative answer at Substack. It dawned on me a while back that there is nothing specifically Christian about the content of the Pater Noster. Its origin of course is Christian. When his disciples asked him how they should pray, Jesus taught them the prayer. (Mt 6:9-13) If you carefully read the prayer…

  • Incarnation: A Mystical Approach

    A Substack meditation for Christmas Day drawing upon Thomas Aquinas, Juan de la Cruz, and Josef Pieper.

  • Was St. Paul an Anti-Natalist? (Updated 2024 Version)

    I wrote in Christian Anti-Natalism? (10 November 2017): Without denying that there are anti-natalist tendencies in Christianity that surface in some of its exponents, the late Kierkegaard for  example, it cannot be maintained that orthodox Christianity, on balance, is anti-natalist. Ask yourself: what is the central and characteristic Christian idea? It is the Incarnation, the idea…

  • Grace

    Between phenomenology and theology. Stack leader.

  • Philosophy and Christianity

    Substack latest Ruminations on Ratzinger 

  • Are There Any Arguments for an Afterlife in the New Testament?

    Philoponus writes, Is there anywhere in the NT where they argue for an afterlife, or is it an assumption shared by all the authors of the NT?  Passages? Before I answer this question, there are a couple of logically prior questions of considerable interest.  First, is there any argumentation at all in the NT? Second, does…