04/24/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AW

[Let me take a blog to reconsider this metaphor of a list with two columns: transcendence and immanence.

Under immanence, I write “the Father and the Son”. Why? Both appear to be actual. Secondness contains two elements. Both elements are actual. One element accounts for the other.

Under transcendence, I write “the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit goes with thirdness because it expresses the relation binding the Father to the Son.

This relation goes with the mystery of God. The Holy Spirit3 brings “the Father and Son2” into relation with “the Omnipotence of God1”.]

04/23/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AV

[Yes, it is even worse than anything Paul describes in his Letter to the Romans. It is more disgraceful than anything Mohammed describes in sura 5. Christians are just as susceptible to disorientation as anyone else in the Lebenswelt of unconstrained complexity. And they know it.

Why?

They are baptized into awareness.

This is one reason why Christians are so interested in understanding sin.

This is one reason why the modern world is so much more dangerous since Christians have lost interest in understanding sin.]

04/22/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AU

[For Christians, our awareness of the One True God as “God the Three” is no cause for self-congratulations.

God Recognizes Himself. The One who is Recognized is Jesus, the Christ. He is the Word that informs the Way, our thinkdivine.

But Jesus did not have an easy time with us. He was rejected by us. He was condemned by us. He was betrayed by us. He was scourged by us. He was mocked by us. He was crucified by us.

Ooops.]

04/21/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AT

[“The potential inherent in God’s Own Recognition1” is monadic, mysterious and contradictory.

All creation unfolds in this theodrama:

“Recognition3” brings “the One Who Recognizes2 and the One Who Is Recognized2” into relation with “the possibilities inherent in God’s Own Recognition1“.]

04/17/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AR

[I propose that, if there is One True God, this God must recognize Itself in order to encompass all the categories of existence.

“Recognizing3” brings “the One Who Recognizes2 and the One Who Is Recognized2” into relation with “the possibilities inherent in God’s Own Recognition1“.

The Spirit of God3 is triadic and relational.

Here, the Spirit of God is “Recognize!”.

What is another word that characterizes the Holy Spirit?

How about Love?

Love brings actuality into relation with possibility.]

04/16/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AQ

[The True God should encompass all three categories of existence: thirdness, secondness and firstness.

Why?

All three categories are Real. So is God.

Relations cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted. Neither can God. To me, the word “God” touches base with relationality.

The word “true” goes with actuality. It would be a contradiction, a “not true”, if God did not encompass the actuality of relations in addition to the actuality of actuality itself in addition to the actuality of the realm of possibility.

The word “one” goes with possibility. God is possible. God makes all things possible. God makes our relations with Himself possible. Even though these statements seem to contradict, they are included in the realm of possibilities. God encompasses all that was, is, and will be.]

04/15/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AP

[Consider a god that appears as a single entity but without personhood. This God is a monad. It belongs to the category of firstness. Monads belong realm of possibility. Even though this god may be labeled with a name, this god should not be designated as a person, because this god is the ground for recognition. The ground belongs to the realm of possibility.

This monadic god is pure mystery. This monadic god may be full of contradictions, because contradictions may coexist in the realm of possibility. There is no need for logical coherence. Classical reasoning cannot apply to this god, since classical reasoning concerns the realm of actuality. Classical reasoning rules out contradictions.

Consequently, the label of “One God” may be attached to the Realm of Possibility, because there is no way to establish that there is more than one god. The sea of possibility is monadic. However, “this One God” cannot be called “True” simply because, somewhere else within the monadic sea of possibility, there lurks “the One False God”.]

04/14/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AO

[Consider a god that belongs to the realm of actuality. This god belongs solely to the category of secondness. This god exhibits brute force powers, situating the realm of possibility.

Even though the realm of actuality is dyadic, this god cannot recognize itself, because “what is recognized” would also belong to actuality, and so would also have cause and effect powers. How confusing is that?

Polytheistic religions got around this dilemma by positing hierarchies of gods where lower (more cause and effect) gods were generated by higher (more field effect) gods. Also, these gods were frequently generated as dyads.

The Mazdean double godhead seems to fit the realm of actuality. Ormazd chose good. Ahriman chose evil. One did not cause the other, so the dyad is in contradiction. Conflict will remove that contradiction. One must win.

The deities of ancient Greece and Rome also have the character of actuality. They acted according to their passions. They loved. They hated. The felt pride. They felt shame. Yet, one facet was missing.

Did they ever look in the mirror except in confirmation of “who they were”?

These gods were always busy with their causes and effects. But they did not recognize themselves in the same way that the Father recognizes the Son. These gods could not add up to the One True God.]

04/13/15

Man and Sin by Piet Schoonenberg (1964) 1.7AN

[So let me go over some permutations.

Consider a god who is purely a mediator. This god belongs solely to the category of thirdness. This god mediates an actuality other than itself. Consequently, this single god must be co-eternal with a dyad of actualities, say form and matter. This God cannot be the One True God, because it is not the source of the actualities that it mediates.]