Ep. #101 – Does the Trinity Entail Simplicity? w/ Tomaszewski

by John DeRosa · Published June 15, 2020 · Updated June 15, 2020

Summary

What is the logical problem of the Trinity? Does divine simplicity create an additional problem for Trinitarianism? Some have argued that far from creating an extra problem, divine simplicity is actually entailed by the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. Christopher Tomaszewski joins us to present an argument to that effect. We discuss his argument and several related issues.

Guest Bio

Christopher Tomaszewski is a graduate student working on a Phd in philosophy at Baylor University. He has made presentations at the 2017 Central Division Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers and the 2018 Southwest Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Also, he has published an article in the journal Analysis on the topic of Divine Simplicity and Modal Collapse.

Tomaszewski’s Argument

God is complex. (assumed for reductio)
If God is complex, then each of the Divine Persons are complex.
If each of the Divine Persons are complex, they share all the same proper parts.
If all of the Divine Persons share all the same proper parts, they are identical. (Mereological Extensionality)
The Divine Persons are not identical. (The Trinity)
Therefore, God is simple. (from 1 by negation introduction)

Show Outline

In the first segment, we discuss Christopher’s recent work in several areas. He lays out some of the alleged issues with the Trinity that he is aiming to resolve.

In the next segment, Christopher discusses the orthodox Trinitarian view. We distinguish the divine simplicity worry from the worry about the transitivity of identity. We go back and forth on the meaning of “identical to” and whether we should say each divine person is “identical to” the divine nature.

In the last segment, we discuss Christopher’s argument that the Trinity entails Simplicity. I give two objections that a non-classical theist might make and allow Christopher to respond. Check out the resources below to explore the articles and arguments we discussed in the episode.