[Vision2020] Michael Metzler and the Incarnation

[Nick Gier]

Hi Michael:

A week before the celebration of the Incarnation is a pretty good time to 
debate the logic of this central Christian doctrine.

For someone who appears to be committed to the practice of "analytic 
philosophy," where logical precision is the sine qua non, your extremely 
fuzzy attempt to resolve the issue is very disappointing indeed.  Of course 
you can resolve the paradox by redefining deity and humanity, but, if we 
are doing philosophical theology, that's just plain cheating.

Before you redefined "God," I would have agreed with you that Calvin was 
not God, but now we simply can't know anything at all. If, as you say, the 
"categories of God and man had in many ways been blown apart" by the 
Incarnation, then all categories are destroyed and any philosophical 
discussion is impossible.

One of the assumptions of the philosophy of religion is that if God exists, 
then God did not create human reason in vain.  Fooling around with logic 
then becomes a form of blasphemy.

By the way, it is good that you mentioned Calvin, because I'm sure he would 
not have agreed with your arbitrary redefinitions as a way to resolve 
divine mysteries.

Finally, this is not the first time I've detected the French postmodernist 
"all signifiers are arbitrary" business at Christ Church.  Doug Jones 
played this card in his debate with me on the Trinity.  Look at Jones' 
third paragraph in his Second Response at 
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/trinitydebate.htm.  Christ Church theologians 
and Jacques Derrida make very odd bedfellows!

Michael, this does not bode well for your solving the problem of evil.

Thanks for the dialogue,

Nick Gier
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