Hostname: page-component-669899f699-b58lm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T08:41:10.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the virtues of neutrality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2024

James N. Anderson Open the ORCID record for James N. Anderson [Opens in a new window]
James N. Anderson*
Affiliation:
Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Jc Beall's Divine Contradiction proposes a bold response to the so-called ‘logical’ problems of the Trinity: we should admit without embarrassment that divine reality is flat-out contradictory. Beall defends his proposal against a wide range of objections and contends that it enjoys various philosophical and theological virtues, including the virtues of metaphysical and epistemological neutrality. While I agree that ceteris paribus these are desirable, I question whether the possession of these virtues really gives Beall's approach any advantage over its competitors when the chips are finally counted.

Keywords

paradoxcontradictionChristologyTrinityneutrality
Type
Book Symposium
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , December 2024 , pp. 684 - 690
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, JN (2007) Paradox in Christian Theology. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.Google Scholar
Anderson, JN (2018) On the rationality of positive mysterianism. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 83, 291–307.Google Scholar
Anderson, JN (2023) Seeming is believing? An exploration of doxastic responses to the Christological paradox. In Rutledge, JC (ed.), Paradox and Contradiction in Theology. New York: Routledge, pp. 79–100.Google Scholar
Beall, Jc (2021) The Contradictory Christ. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Beall, Jc (2023a) Divine Contradiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Beall, Jc (2023b) Ten objections to contradictory Christology. In Rutledge, JC (ed.), Paradox and Contradiction in Theology. New York: Routledge, pp. 52–65.Google Scholar
Pawl, T (2016) In Defense of Conciliar Christology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tahko, TE (2009) The law of non-contradiction as a metaphysical principle. Australasian Journal of Logic 7, 32–47.Google Scholar
Tuggy, D (2003) The unfinished business of trinitarian theorizing. Religious Studies 39, 165–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuggy, D (2011) On positive mysterianism. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 69, 205–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welty, G (2006) Theistic Conceptual Realism: The Case for Interpreting Abstract Objects as Divine Ideas. DPhil thesis, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Welty, G (2014) Theistic conceptual realism. In Gould, PM (ed.), Beyond the Control of God? New York: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 81–111.Google Scholar
Welty, G (2021) The conceptualist argument. In Ruloff, C and Horban, P (eds), Contemporary Arguments in Natural Theology. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 217–234.Google Scholar