Category: Christian Doctrine
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Creation: Ex Nihilo or Ex Deo?
Classical theists hold that God created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing. This phrase carries a privative, not a positive, sense: it means not out of something as opposed to out of something called ‘nothing.’ This much is crystal clear. Less clear is how creation ex nihilo (CEN), comports, if it does comport, with…
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On Denying the Cat, or Is Sin a Fact? A Passage from Chesterton Examined
Yesterday, Victor Reppert quoted the following passage from G. K. Chesterton: Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin — a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether…
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The Swinburne Dust Up at the Society for Christian Philosophers
Political correctness strikes again! Apparently, Richard Swinburne, perhaps the most distinguished of contemporary philosophers of religion, had the chutzpah to defend a traditional Christian view of homosexuality at a meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers. This provoked the outrage of certain cultural Marxists. If only a 'trigger warning' had been issued prior to…
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Michael Gorman on Christological Coherence
On classical Christology, as defined at the Council of Chalcedon in anno domini 451, Christ is one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. But isn't this just logically impossible inasmuch as it entails a contradiction? If Christ is divine, then he is immaterial; but if he is human, then…
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The Debate That Won’t Go Away: Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?
Not again! Yes, again. On 5 September 2016 anno domini, in the pages of Crisis Magazine, Fr. Brandon O'Brien opined (emphasis added): While some similarities may exist between the Christian and Muslim conceptions of God, it is certain that the Christian who prays “Our Father, Who art in Heaven” each day is not praying to…
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Why Should a Jew Care Whether Christianity Lives or Dies?
David Gelernter is always worth reading.
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William Empson on Buddhism and Christianity
Karl White refers us to this quotation from a John Gray piece on William Empson in The New Statesman. Empson’s attitude to Buddhism, like the images of the Buddha that he so loved, was asymmetrical. He valued the Buddhist view as an alternative to the Western outlook, in which satisfying one’s desires by acting in the…
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Whether ‘Image and Likeness’ Supports God’s Having a Body
If man is made in God's image and likeness, does it follow that God is essentially embodied? Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram . . . (Gen 1, 26) Let us make man in our image and likeness. . . Et creavit Deus hominem ad imaginem suam. . . (Gen 1, 27) And God…
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Could a Jew Pray the Our Father?
A rather obvious point swam before my mind this morning: 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 below you will see that…
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Forthcoming in Faith and Philosophy: Review of W. E. Mann, God, Modality, and Morality
Review William F. Vallicella William E. Mann, God, Modality, and Morality (Oxford University Press, 2015), ix + 369 pp. This is a book philosophers of religion will want on their shelves. It collects sixteen of William E. Mann's previously published papers and includes “Omnipresence, Hiddenness, and Mysticism” written for this volume. These influential papers combine…
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Easter Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15:14: Christianity and Buddhism
Biblia Vulgata: Si autem Christus non resurrexit, inanis est ergo praedicatio nostra, inanis est et fides vestra. King James: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Orthodox* Christianity stands and falls with a contingent historical fact, the fact of the resurrection of Christ from the…
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Holy Saturday Night at the Oldies: Death and Resurrection
Herewith, some definite decouplings of rock and roll from sex and drugs. Norman Greenbaum, Spirit in the Sky Johnny Cash, Personal Jesus. This is one powerful song. Johnny Cash, Redemption Clapton and Winwood, Presence of the Lord. Why is Clapton such a great guitarist? Not because of his technical virtuosity, his 'chops,' but because he…
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Good Friday: At the Mercy of a Little Piece of Iron
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, tr. Craufurd, Routledge 1995, p. 75: The infinite which is in man is at the mercy of a little piece of iron; such is the human condition; space and time are the cause of it. It is impossible to handle this piece of iron without suddenly reducing the infinite which…
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Divine Creation and Haecceity Properties
Having somewhat churlishly accused Daniel M. of failing to understand my post Does Classical Theism Logically Require Haecceitism, he wrote back in detail demonstrating that he did understand me quite well. I will now post his e-mail with some responses in blue. I'm sorry. I've re-read your post, and it strikes me as quite clear,…
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Does Classical Theism Logically Require Haecceitism?
Haecceitism is the doctrine that there are haecceities. But what is an haecceity? Suppose we take on board for the space of this post the assumptions that (i) properties are abstract objects, that (ii) they can exist unexemplified, and that (iii) they are necessary beings. We may then define the subclass of haecceity properties as…