More Thoughts on Philosophical Theology - The Trinity

I recently read an article in Philosophia Christi by Michael Rea about the Trinity and relative identity.  Now the Trinity is a very difficult and mysterious part of God to understand, in fact, this is what God is - The Trinity.  The traditional belief about the Trinity is that God is 3 persons and one being or 3 persons and one essence/substance.  Now you don't want to be a modalist, who claims that God is one being with 3 manifestations or appearances.  One doesn't want to be a tritheist either because one doesn't want to believe in three gods and be a poly-theist. 

A doctrine in metaphysics, began by Leibniz I believe, called the principle of indiscernable identicals claims that A = B if and only if for every property A has, B has also.  (I think it might be  a bit more technical than this, but this is more for my purposes than my politically minded readers anyway.)  We would say then that A is numerically identical to B.  The problem is that in the Godhead, the Son has a property that the Father doesn't have - that of being begotten, also the property of being incarnate.  The Holy Spirit has the property of procession.  So, unless we are modalists, the members of the Trinity cannot be numerically identical.  This is where the doctrine of relative identity is helpful.  Briefly (and non-technically) there may be a property that A has that B doesn't have, but there is only one, in every other way A & B are identical.  This is helpful for understanding the Trinity.  Now, what are the practical applications, I am not sure yet.  I do think that it is a helpful beginning to understand how the Trinity can be 3 yet 1.  Three different persons, 1 divine essence.

Hope this wasn't too confusing, I think it confuses me sometimes.

Back with more political talk later :)

Mental Content

Philosophy of mind is a popular area of study in contemporary philosophy.  Right now, most philosophers of mind are materialists, meaning that the brain is the same as the mind.  A materialist believes that everything is physical.  Plato and Rene Descartes are two famous dualists who believe that the brain is not the same as the mind.  For a dualist, the brain is completely physical whereas the mind is immaterial.  The primary differences between mind and body are the mind is private and the body is public, the mind is immaterial and the body is material, and mind is non-spatial and the body is extended.  So a materialist responds to the dualist with, 'how does a immaterial thought causally interact with a material object?'  The dualist cannot respond with anything other than, 'it just does.'  So materialism seems to be the way to go in philosophy of mind - the brain is the mind.  The only thing that materialists have yet to show is how the thoughts can be located in the brain, where does one experience another person's thoughts?  In theory, a materialist should be able to demonstrate through neurosensors what a person is thinking, because thoughts are purely physical.  Now, I am probably leaning more towards the materialist way of thinking.  But in a book review, J. B. Stump, a Christian philosopher claimed that the Christian materialist had three questions to answer.  First question, how does an incorporeal God causally interact with a physical universe (Peter Van Inwagen - a Christian materialist - argues that God is material).  Second, how will our physical fleshly bodies be the same as our spiritual bodies, or how can a Christian explain the eschatological resurrection when the parousia occurs (Trenton Merricks - another Christian materialist - anwers this question in The Reason for the Hope Within).   Third, how does one deal with free will.  For myself a compatibilist, also a theological determinist, there does not seem to be any problem with free will.  The only problem I might have is the first objection, an incorporeal God causally interacting with a physical universe.  Yet, due to the divine hiddeness of God this does not seem to be a problem to me.  I would not claim that God is material, but I would not completely reject it either - there could be a type of spirit matter.  In short, I think that it is possible to be a Christian and be a materialist.  For a biblical theology argument of this viewpoint read E. Earle Ellis.   

Trip to CO

My mom and I are leaving to go to CO for a week. We should be leaving tomorrow (July 9) and getting back July 18.

Here is a topic that I have been thinking about lately: I am a Republican but I am not one of thos Republican that believes the Republicans can do no wrong. What drives me crazy though is Republicans or Democrats that believes their party is perfect. Don't people realize that all politicians probably got into political office for benevolent reasons, but due to the way things work owe so many favors to people that the candidate has "sold out." It's inevitable to sell out in politics, yet there are so many people out there that think candidate X, whether democrat or republican is a great person. Look, politics is a job like anything else, it isn't ministry, a candidate does what he can do to get into office - whatever it takes. Just as there is a loony right, there is just as much as a loony left.

Journey Home

It's good to be back in TX. A week ago - actually, 8 days ago on Friday - I woke up at 4:45AM to fly to MI with my mother and sister. We flew to MI so that we could clean out my brother's apartment. My sister was to fly back on Sunday evening, my mom fly back on the following Thursday and I was going to drive the car back home. I returned yesterday (Friday) so I was the last one to get home. I left MI on Monday at 7PM and arrived in Danvers, IL at 11:30PM to visit a special person. I stayed at a neighbor's house by myself until one of my most brilliant friends arrived in Normal, IL via Amtrak from Chicago. My brilliant friend and I then drove from Danvers - leaving Thursday 11AM - to Neosho, MO arriving there 8PM Thursday evening. Staying with my cousin and wife along with their two boys - my two second cousins. Then on Friday morning we left Neosho at 11AM to arrive at Grapevine Mills Mall where my brilliant friend met his wife and I went home. It's good to finally be home. It seems like it's been three weeks in which my life has stopped, started, then stopped again. Hopefully now my life can continue to move and not stop.

Christian philosophy of mind

OK - after a long hiatus I'm back with more musings. It's good to think - right?? Still thinking about the problem of evil but I am taking a philosophy of mind course this fall, so I have been thinking about what would a Christian version of philosophy of mind look like. Obviously a Christian holds to a future hope of a physical resurrection - the Jesus seminar and other heretics hold to a "spiritual" resurrection, whatever that means. So a Christian could hold to materialism, because for Christians, salvation comes in the form of the eschatological resurrection at the Parousia. Yet Christians must not believe that all that exists is physical because we believe God to be non-physical, or incorporeal. Also how can a physical world interact with a incorporeal God and vice-versa. Most philosophers of mind hold to a materialist view point, but Christians need to allow for non-physical matter. There are some other thoughts that I wanted to post, but I have forgotten them. I will post more later when I get some sleep.