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SeaKayaker
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2002
Total Posts : 21

Posted 4/8/2003 3:01 PM (GMT -6)

Greetings,

I have a favor to ask of anyone who would be willing to provide some input on a paper I am writing. As a senior in high school, I am writing a thesis on the Christian Trinity, using that basic tenet of the faith as a defense of Christian theism. I chose the topic since it was an unusual line of argument that I had never heard developed. Having now written a twenty-page paper on it, I am running into difficulty finding people who can provide advice on the logical weaknesses of the paper. I realize that it is dangerous to write a significant paper purely from one person’s perspective, but I have not found anyone who is willing and able to seriously discuss and challenge this content with me.

Several weaknesses of this paper come immediately to mind. It includes two refutations, one dealing with Kant and one with Aristotle, that I have not developed at all. I am still struggling to find concise references for these two thinkers (I have read the section on Kant from Jones, “A History of Western Philosophy,” but I have found especially little on Aristotle). In general, my teacher is most concerned with my lack of citations. However, I am having significant difficulty finding philosophers espousing particular views. At heart, this paper is wholly abstract, but I need to tie it into concrete principles and examples to make it easier for people to understand, and this just increases my need for citations.

In about a month, I will be presenting and orally defending this paper before a panel. I also plan to present it at the Family Research Council in Washington D.C. shortly thereafter. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate any advice.

The paper is available online at: http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/seakayaker/The_One_and_the_Many_Ver4.htm .
To preserve the formatting and footnotes, I can e-mail to you as a Microsoft Word document.

P.S.: My teacher knows that I am seeking the advice of everyone I can find on this paper and he encourages me to do so.

Thanks,

Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris

Iconoclast
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1227

Posted 4/8/2003 4:29 PM (GMT -6)

Have you read Charles Sanders Peirce? After a cursory read of your paper it seems to me that his categories of Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness are a philosophical foundation to what you arguing.

thanks,
Iconoclast

"The benefit overran the merit the first day, and has overrun the merit ever since. The merit itself, so-called, I reckon part of the receiving." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 4/8/2003 5:34 PM (GMT -6)

Iconoclast points you to Pierce. He also posted a short summary of the same on another thread recently. (Point him to it, Icon?) I agree with Iconoclast that your paper seems to mainly be philosphical. Yet you also begin to sketch the contours which recognize the limits of philosophy--good.

See Pierce.

Here's two sources, though. The first (an Orthodox treatment for a man in the pew--or standing in their case) is this: http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Orthodox-Faith/Doctrine/index.html#holy-trinity Its well worth the read. And for your paper it furnishes concrete instances (As YOU said, the Scriptures don't lay it all out in detail in any one place.) of how the Trinitarian God does everything in a Trinitarian manner. The second source has two very deep articles by Vladimir Lossky. Try them: "God in Trinity" http://www.jbburnett.com/lossky/lossky-trinity.html and "The Procession of the Holy Spirit in Orthodox Trinitarian Doctrine" http://www.jbburnett.com/lossky/lossky-filioque.html

I see on the site with the Lossky an article who's author I've read well. The title seems like it might prove interesting to you too -- putting some "flesh" on what you are talking about. Try "Communion and Otherness" http://www.jbburnett.com/mods/zizioulas_comm&otherness.html It begins with:

"Communion and otherness— how can these two be reconciled? Are they not mutually exclusive and incompatible with each other? Is it not true that by definition the other is my enemy and my "original sin," to recall the words of Jean-Paul Sartre? "

What do you think?

It continues (I haven't read this before.):

YOU GET THE GIST.

Hope that helps. See Pierce that Iconoclast recommended.

Matthew Timothy Short
Huh?

Date Joined Apr 2002
Total Posts : 635

Posted 4/9/2003 1:30 AM (GMT -6)

Greetings, and Hey SeaKayaker,

The One and the Many or The Many of One…

If unity means "the state of being one, consisting of parts" or "a thing undivided itself, but separate from every other thing", it seems more about the diversity, difference, or dissimilitude of unity, than a relationship between unity and diversity. That is to say, the entire universe works in unity (diversity without contrariety); although indeed, the contrariety of opposed identities do exist; virtue and vice; love and hatred; truth and falsehood, opposed in fact, though united by such opposition.

God is Love,

Tim

2Ti 2:19…Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity...

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