Category: Christian Doctrine
-
The Aporetics of Baptism
Peter Lupu wrote me yesterday about baptism, I responded online, and today he is back at me again: In your response you say: " As for the change in metaphysical status wrought by baptism, the main change is the forgiveness of all sins, whether original or individual (personal). The baptism of infants removes or…
-
Baptism
A reader asks: What ontic or metaphysical status does baptism bestow upon one who is baptized in Christianity? Clarification: What ontic or metaphysical status does a newborn have pre-baptism vs. post-baptism? I am not a theologian, nor do I play one in the blogosphere. But that never stopped me from pursuing my education in public…
-
Does the Divine Transcendence Require that God not be a Being among Beings?
Herewith, a second response to Aidan Kimel. He writes, The claim that God is a being among beings is immediately ruled out, so it seems to me, by the classical understanding of divine transcendence: if all beings have been created from nothing by the self-existent One, then this One cannot be classified as one of them, as…
-
Nietzsche and the New Atheists
The following quotation from a very interesting Guardian piece by John Gray entitled What Scares the New Atheists (HT: Karl White): [1] The new atheists rarely mention Friedrich Nietzsche, and when they do it is usually to dismiss him. [2] This can’t be because Nietzsche’s ideas are said to have inspired the Nazi cult of…
-
Kierkegaard: “To Hell With the Pope!” and Monkishness. The Highest Life
I plan to spend a few days next month at a Benedictine monastery in the desert outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The suggestion was made that I give some of the monks a little talk. I think "A Philosopher Defends Monasticism" would be an appropriate title. So I have been reading up on the…
-
More on “Daily Bread”
From a reader: Thank you for continuing to examine the important topic of "daily bread." I don't know of any other philosophy blog writer who combines depth, significance, and clarity like you do! I agree that spiritual needs are primary, that our world is a vale of soul-making, and that there need not be a disjunction between the spiritual…
-
Monokroussos on “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Dennis Monokroussos comments on my latest Pater Noster post (numbering added): [1] The word generally translated “daily” is indeed an unusual one – epiousios, which is apparently found nowhere else in scripture or anywhere in Greek literature. [2] Even so, the idea that this is spiritual and not physical bread is very much a minority…
-
The God of Christianity and the God of Islam: Same God? (2015)
For Dave Bagwill, who posed some questions in the near vicinity of the ones I will be addressing. This is a heavily revised version of a 2011 post. The MavPhil doctrine of abrogation is in effect. This is a hairy topic; expect a hard slog. If you prefer a 'leiter' read, a certain gossip site…
-
The Crusades Were Defensive Wars
Thomas F. Madden: For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands. Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be…
-
“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
I tend to look askance at petitionary prayer for material benefits. In such prayer one asks for mundane benefits whether for oneself, or, as in the case of intercessory prayer, for another. In many of its forms it borders on idolatry and superstition, and in its crassest forms it crosses over. A skier who prays…
-
The Crusades: Misconceptions Debunked
A review by Thomas F. Madden of Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam. Some excerpts (bolding added): It is generally thought that Christians attacked Muslims without provocation to seize their lands and forcibly convert them. The Crusaders were Europe’s lacklands and ne’er-do-wells, who marched against the infidels out of blind zealotry and a desire…
-
Bernard Lewis, “Jihad versus Crusade”
We Americans are forward-looking people, 'progressives' if you will. ("History is bunk," said Henry Ford.) Muslims, by contrast, live in the past where they nurture centuries-old grievances. This is part of the explanation of the inanition of their culture and the misery of their lands, which fact is part of the explanation of why they…
-
Incarnation Approached Subjectively: The Mystical Birth of God in the Soul
I have been, and will continue, discussing Trinity and Incarnation objectively, that is, in an objectifying manner. Now what do I mean by that? Well, with respect to the Trinity, the central conundrum, to put it in a very crude and quick way is this: How can three things be one thing? With respect to the…
-
Are There Possible Worlds in which the Human Nature of Christ Exists Unassumed?
This entry continues the conversation with Tim Pawl about Chalcedonian Christology. I set forth the following antilogism: 3. The individual human nature of the Logos is a substance.4. Every substance is metaphysically capable of independent existence.5. The individual human nature of the Logos is not metaphysically capable of independent existence. I expected Tim to question…
-
Is it Coherently Conceivable that One Person Have Two Natures?
For Shaun Deegan, who 'inspired' a sloppy prototype of the following argument hashed out over Sunday breakfast at a Mesa, Arizona hash house. ……………. The Question More precisely: is it coherently conceivable that one person, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word of God, the Logos, have both an individual divine nature and an…