THEOparadox - The Biblical Paradox Blog: Paradox Wars

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Paradox Wars - Anderson Vs. Crampton

Three years ago, Dr. James Anderson published an excellent book, Paradox in Christian Theology, which makes the following claims:

"First, that the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation are paradoxical (in the sense that they appear to be logically inconsistent); and secondly, that it can be rational for a Christian to believe those doctrines, their paradoxicality notwithstanding."

This gets the THEOparadox stamp of approval. In fact, this was THEOparadox before there was a THEOparadox. Just as I began to write this blog, I was thrilled (and, initially, a little disappointed) to discover that someone very scholarly had "beaten me to the punch." [See illustration below . . . had some fun with PhotoShop]

Dr. Gary Crampton has recently responded to the book with a review/refutation here. This review amalgamates the very best anti-paradox arguments of the amazingly anti-paradox followers of Gordon H. Clark. They basically feel that there is no such thing as theological paradox, and it's something along the lines of heresy to say there is.

Sean Gerety overstated the significance of the Crampton review here. Over 100 comments on this post!

Dr. Anderson has now replied to Crampton's criticisms with a short blog post here and a detailed, 16-page counter-refutation here. Included in both places is a very helpful evaluation of Gordon H. Clark's supposedly "orthodox yet non-paradoxical" approach to the Incarnation - revealing, ironically, that Clark's version is both illogical and incoherent.

SCOREBOARD

RATIONALITY, LOGIC & REASON
Crampton Anderson
5 10

HISTORICAL ACCURACY
Crampton Anderson
3 10

BIBLICAL FIDELITY & HERMENEUTICS
Crampton Anderson
2 10

CIVILITY & FAIRNESS

Crampton Anderson
6 10

2 comments:

Solid Rock or Sinking SandMarch 16, 2010 at 7:43 PM
Interesting how each one of us will try and explain the mysteries of the Bible. I guess the answer is FAITH. God bless, Lloyd
ReplyDelete
Replies
THEOparadoxMarch 16, 2010 at 8:43 PM
Lloyd,

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for commenting.

Grace & peace,
Derek
ReplyDelete
Replies

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Feel free to respond to anything written in the posts, or to the comments left by others. All comments are reviewed before they are published.

Please be charitable. If you disagree, do so with grace. Keep your words positive, focused, and on-topic. We don't expect everyone to agree, but we do expect everyone to treat everyone else with respect and grace, speaking the truth in love.

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THEOparadox MISSION Statement:

~To honor God by upholding the authority, inerrancy and sufficiency of His Word, the Bible.
~To help students of the Word to interpret Biblical paradoxes in a way that faithfully reflects God's heart.
~To ignite a devotional flame that will help believers to warm up their theology and burn up their pride.
~To encourage Christian faith by resolving or explaining apparent contradictions in the Scriptures.
~To explore the nature and extent of paradoxes in historically orthodox, Reformed, Biblical theology.

~To provide Biblical resources for those who desire to know God and His Word better.

~To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners and the Savior of the lost.

What is a PARADOX?

A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.

Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 Edition

"... it is synonymous with apparent contradiction. A 'paradox' thus amounts to a set of claims which taken in conjunction appear to be logically inconsistent. Note that according to this definition, paradoxicality does not entail logical inconsistency per se, but merely the appearance of logical inconsistency."

James Anderson, Paradox in Christian Theology

Wise Words . . .

"By advocating paradox I don't want to give the impression that I'm giving a carte blanche to not think philosophically, to not think deeply, about these doctrines. Quite the opposite. . . . My position is that with each of these doctrines we reflect on them as hard as we can, we penetrate them as best we can based on the Scriptural data that we do have, but we also recognize that there are going to be limits, and that those limits are actually a positive thing and not a reflection of some inherent problem in the doctrines or in the process of theological reflection. . . . I think we can make progress, we can make

considerable progress, in understanding these doctrines and resolving some of the . . . initial difficulties that we have with them, but at the same time recognizing that we're always only going to get so far and when we bump up against the limits of our capacity to formulate them in certain ways or to resolve certain difficulties in them, we

shouldn't be too concerned about that. We certainly shouldn't say, 'Okay, we need to admit that Christians are ultimately irrationalists.' No. We don't need to say that at all. . . . It's a Biblically constrained rationality. It's a middle way between rationalism, of which I think [Gordon H.] Clark was a representative, and irrationalism, of which, to take an example I think the Neo-Orthodox - Karl Barth - would be an example, where you're saying that there are actual contradictions in there. So I think it's navigating a Biblical middle way between these two extremes: having too high a view of the human intellect, and perhaps too low a view of the intellect, of our ability to know the things

of God."

~Dr. James Anderson

Theological Paradoxes

Below I have listed some of the classic theological paradoxes (and a few interesting ironies, too) . . .

~The Trinity - God is One being revealed in three distinct persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
~God is transcendent (separate from His creation) yet immanent (in His creation)
~Omnipresence - God is always present everywhere, yet He sometimes speaks of Himself as "present" in a special way
~The Incarnation - God became a man
~The Virgin Birth - A Jewish virgin gave birth to the Son of God
~The Two Natures of Christ - Jesus is fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man

~The Atonement is sufficient to save every person, but efficient only for those who believe
~God is completely sovereign (in control of everything, everywhere, all the time) yet He is not the author of sin and he uses human choice to accomplish His purposes
~Inspiration of Scripture - The Bible was written by sinful human beings yet it is the inerrant and flawless Word of God
~Divine Revelation - Sinful man cannot comprehend God, yet God reveals Himself to sinful man
~Sanctification - Christians are sinners by nature, but saints by grace
~Suffering - God brings His joy and comfort into our lives through our experiences of pain, disappointment and suffering

There are many others. Paradox is everywhere when we attempt to understand God's ways in a genuinely Biblical way.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Paradox Wars - Anderson Vs. Crampton

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