Ep. #171 – Prof. Tomaszewski Responds to WLC on Divine Simplicity
Summary
Professor Christopher Tomaszewski (Belmont Abbey College) responds to Dr. William Lane Craig and Dr. Ryan Mullins on the doctrine of divine simplicity. Recently, Craig and Mullins were hosted by Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity. Furthermore, they offered various critiques against the doctrine of divine simplicity including: (1) It’s unbiblical, (2) it’s anti-biblical, (3) it leads to modal collapse, and (4) it leads to unacceptable agnosticism regarding God. In this commentary episode, Tomaszewski responds to these objections. Lastly, Tomaszewski offers his own reflections on the current debate over DDS.
Guest Bio
Christopher Tomaszewski is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Belmont Abbey College. He works in metaphysics, medieval philosophy, and philosophy of religion, and especially on the application of the doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas to contemporary problems in philosophy. Additionally, he is the author of articles on topics such as Divine simplicity, the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and skeptical theism. These have appeared in a number of journals, including Analysis, Philosophia, and The Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. In addition to that, he has recently completed a doctoral dissertation.
Topics
- What are you teaching this semester and next semester?
- How would you respond to Dr. Mullins remarks about what divine simplicity is?
- Moreover, what do you think about how Dr. Craig defines divine simplicity?
- How would you respond to Dr. Craig and Mullins’ arguments that simplicity is unbiblical?
- What do you think about Dr. Craig’s modal collapse arguments?
- Also, can we use the response from W. Matthews Grant to rebut modal collapse arguments from knowledge?
- Do you agree with Dr. Craig’s characterization of the debate over DDS?
Resources
Prof. Christopher Tomaszewski’s college webpage
newadvent.org (You can find patristic quotes here)
Collapsing the Modal Collapse Argument by Christopher Tomaszewski (2019)
Free Will and God’s Universal Causality: The Dual Sources Account by W. Matthews Grant
Divine Simplicity Does Not Entail Modal Collapse by Steven Nemes (2020)
The Fruitful Death of Modal Collapse by Joseph C. Schmid (2021)
Important Quotes
“God, Who is Life, is not a Being built up of various and lifeless portions; He is Power, and not compact of feeble elements, Light, intermingled with no shades of darkness, Spirit, that can harmonise with no incongruities. All that is within Him is One; what is Spirit is Light and Power and Life, and what is Life is Light and Power and Spirit. He Who says, I am, and I change not (Malachi 3:6), can suffer neither change in detail nor transformation in kind. For these attributes, which I have named, are not attached to different portions of Him, but meet and unite, entirely and perfectly, in the whole being of the living God.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate VII.27
“But if [heretics] had known the Scriptures, and been taught by the truth, they would have known, beyond doubt, that God is not as men are; and that His thoughts are not like the thoughts of men. Isaiah 55:8 For the Father of all is at a vast distance from those affections and passions which operate among men. He is a simple, uncompounded Being, without diverse members, and altogether like, and equal to himself, since He is wholly understanding, and wholly spirit, and wholly thought, and wholly intelligence, and wholly reason, and wholly hearing, and wholly seeing, and wholly light, and the whole source of all that is good—even as the religious and pious are wont to speak concerning God. He is, however, above [all] these properties, and therefore indescribable. For He may well and properly be called an Understanding which comprehends all things, but He is not [on that account] like the understanding of men; and He may most properly be termed Light, but He is nothing like that light with which we are acquainted.”
St. Irenaeus, Against Heretics II.13.3-4
Related Episodes
COMMENTARY Bonus|Responding to Ryan Mullins on Modal Collapse w/ Christopher Tomaszewski
Ep. #144 – Classical Theism & God incarnate w/ Dr. James Dolezal
Ep. #143 – Immateriality of the Intellect w/ Tomaszewski (and some Modal Collapse)
Ep. #146 – A Thomistic Introduction to the Divine Attributes w/ Ryan Hurd
