This post is meant to re-enforce (re-explain) and add-on to the arguments I began to develop in the post about using the Trinity as an argument against Judaism and Islam. Some of the following material is a re-hashing of those points with additional rigor. Some is meant to simplify that post. The truly new material comes near the bottom of the post where I go into the Incarnation as an argument against other monotheistic faiths based on a double-bind present in God's approach to evil.
Frequently, in discussing the faith with members of other monotheistic religions (Judaism and Islam, in particular) the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation are treated as embarassments for the Christian. These two teachings - the two most distinct teachings of Orthodox Christianity - are viewed as compromising both the singularity of God (God's one-ness) and God's transcendence (God's un-changing-ness).
This need not be the case, though. Far from being something on which Christians should play "defense," we should critique other theists for denying them. How? Take a look after the jump.
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Trinity as Argument Against Judaism and Islam
No, the above is not a typo. Typically, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is target number one for other monotheists seeking to refute Christianity. They accuse us of tri-theism or, at best, equivocation / ambiguous terms.
Simply put, tri-theism is a strawman (we don't teach that). Incidently, that creates an argument against Islam since the Koran makes this a cornerstone of its disagreement with Christianity. Since it seems logical to assume that God understands Christianity better than me, and I understand that Christians are monotheists, but the Koran does not grasp this fact, then the Koran is not from God (and Islam would be, correspondingly, false).
The accusation of equivocation or ambiguity is, from a philosophical point of view, stronger, but it is refutable through a strict rejection of pure philosophy in favor of the Orthodox apophatic approach (and indeed, the Cappadocian theologians who articulated the doctrine of the Trinity made a point to state it apophatically - that God is beyond number, beyond arithmatic, such that concepts like 3 and 1 can't fully apply).
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity can indeed form a core argument FOR Christianity. More after the jump:
Simply put, tri-theism is a strawman (we don't teach that). Incidently, that creates an argument against Islam since the Koran makes this a cornerstone of its disagreement with Christianity. Since it seems logical to assume that God understands Christianity better than me, and I understand that Christians are monotheists, but the Koran does not grasp this fact, then the Koran is not from God (and Islam would be, correspondingly, false).
The accusation of equivocation or ambiguity is, from a philosophical point of view, stronger, but it is refutable through a strict rejection of pure philosophy in favor of the Orthodox apophatic approach (and indeed, the Cappadocian theologians who articulated the doctrine of the Trinity made a point to state it apophatically - that God is beyond number, beyond arithmatic, such that concepts like 3 and 1 can't fully apply).
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity can indeed form a core argument FOR Christianity. More after the jump:
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