Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Trinity and Incarnation

  • De Trinitate: The Statue/Lump Analogy and the ‘Is’ of Composition

    Thanks to Bill Clinton, it is now widely appreciated that much rides on what the meaning of ‘is’ is. Time was, when only philosophers were aware of this. The fact that Clinton made the point to save his hide rather than to advance philosophical logic is irrelevant.  Credit where credit is due.  But enough joking around.…

  • A Survey of Responses to the Three-In-One Paradox

    Philosophers love a paradox, but hate a contradiction. Paradoxes drive inquiry while contradictions stop it dead in its tracks. The doctrine of the Trinity is a paradox threatening to collapse into one  or more contradictions. Put starkly, and abstracting from the complexity of the creedal formulations, the doctrine says that God is one, and yet…

  • Is the Skeleton of a Cat Feline in the Same Sense as a Cat is Feline?

    I put the question to Manny K. Black, brother of Max Black, but all I got was a yawn for my trouble.  The title question surfaced in the context of a discussion of mereological models of the Trinity.  Each of the three Persons is God.  But we saw that the 'is' cannot be read as the 'is'…

  • Mereology and Trinity: Response to Wong

    Kevin Wong offers some astute criticisms: You wrote: "For one thing, wholes depend on their parts for their existence, and not vice versa.  (Unless you thought of parts as abstractions from the whole, which the Persons could not be.)  Parts are ontologically prior to the wholes of which they are the parts.This holds even in…

  • The Logical Problem of the Trinity

    Our question concerns the logical consistency of the following septad, each limb of which is a commitment of orthodoxy.  See here for details.  How can the following propositions all be true? 1. There is only one God.2. The Father is God.3. The Son is God.4. The Holy Spirit is God.5. The Father is not the…

  • Notes on Mortality and Christian Doctrine

    1. Let's start with the word 'mortal' and remind ourselves of some obvious points. 'Mortal' is from the Latin mors, mortis meaning death. That which is mortal is either subject to death, or conducive to death, or in some way expressive of death. Thus when we say of a human being that he is mortal…

  • ‘Frege’ on the Trinity

    Peter Lupu writes, The following are some recent thoughts about the Trinity. Let me know what you think. The three expressions of the Trinity: ‘The Father’, ‘The Son’, and ‘The Holy Spirit’ all refer to the same divine being namely God. Thus, with respect to reference, each pair of expressions forms a true identity. However,…

  • 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…

  • East Versus West on the Trinity: The Filioque Controversy

    Our meeting with the affable and stimulating  Dale Tuggy on June 20th at St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox monastery a little south of Florence, Arizona, got me thinking about the Trinity again.  So I pulled Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church off the shelf wherein I found a discussion of the differences between the Eastern Orthodox and…

  • Incarnation: A Mystical Approach?

    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…

  • MACRUES, Semantic Defeaters, and Epistemic Defeaters (Peter Lupu)

    (A guest post by Peter Lupu.  Editing and commentary by BV.)  As Bill notes, we are attempting to secure and study a copy of James Anderson’s book,  Paradox in Christian Theology.  (Publication details here, including links to reviews.)  Meanwhile, I will propose here some tentative observations that Anderson’s book may or may not have addressed.…

  • Another Example of a Necessary Being Depending for its Existence on a Necessary Being

    The Father and the Son are both necessary beings.  And yet the Father 'begets' the Son.  Part, though not the whole, of the notion of begetting here must be this: if x begets y, then y depends for its existence on x.  If that were not part of the meaning of 'begets'' in this context, I…

  • Can A Necessary Being Depend for its Existence on a Necessary Being?

    According to the Athansian Creed, the Persons of the Trinity, though each of them uncreated and eternal and necessary are related as follows. The Father is unbegotten.  The Son is begotten by the Father, but not made by the Father.  The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  Let us focus on the relation of the…

  • Dale Tuggy’s Weblog

    Thanks to Dale Tuggy for his linkage.  Dale is an expert on Trinitarian topics so get thee hence and feast at his table.

  • Substance and Suppositum: Notes on Fernand Van Steenberghen

    Here is another of the scholastic manuals I pulled off my shelf: Fernand van Steenberghen, Ontology (Nauwelaerts Publisher, Brussels, 1970, tr. Moonan).  A paragraph from p. 278 supports my thesis that the distinction between primary substance and suppositum is an ad hoc device invented for a theological purpose, a device for which there is no…