Category: Catholic Christian Worldview

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. 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 and more.

Why do many Christians object that divine simplicity conflicts with the Trinity? What does divine simplicity teach? How can St. Thomas’ doctrine of divine simplicity be viewed as compatible with orthodox trinitarianism? Don’t the relations between the persons introduce accidents into God? Aren’t all such Thomistic answers an example of special pleading? Doesn’t saying the Father is identical to the divine nature introduce an irresolvable transitivity issue? Dr. James Dolezal joins us to discuss these questions and more.

What is classical theism? Can the simple, immutable God of classical theism do any actions? And even if so, can He act intentionally? How can we account for such intentional action without contradicting divine simplicity or immutability? What did Anscombe and Davidson argue regarding intentional action? How are these accounts relevant to the questions about God? Dr. Gaven Kerr joins us to share some of his recent research on intentional action.

What is classical theism? How does it comport with the Biblical text? Don’t the Scripture writers say God has emotions and passions like human beings do? What should we think when Scripture describes God changing his mind? How can we read 1 Samuel 15 in light of a classical doctrine of God? John joins Gary Michuta’s show Hands on Apologetics to tackle these topics.

h movements of doubt? How did Pope Benedict XVI conceive of faith? Is his view consistent with that of Aquinas? Dr. Matthew Ramage joins us to discuss these issues.